Post by neferetus on Apr 9, 2008 16:07:41 GMT -5
A BILL TO AUTHORIZE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO PRESENT
ON BEHALF OF THE CONGRESS A SPECIALLY STRUCK GOLD MEDAL TO JOHN WAYNE
May 21, 1979
SERIAL 96-10
Monday, May 21, 1979
Statement of Maureen O'Hara Blair
Chairman Annunzio: "...It is a great honor to have you appear before this subcommittee today. If you have a prepared statement, I will ask unanimous consent that it be made part of the record. And now you can proceed in your own manner.
Mrs. Blair: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee.
I don't have a prepared statement.
I came yesterday from the Virgin Islands to be here today, and it is my great honor to be here. I had a difficult time getting here because the flight was canceled into Washington and I had to come through New York.
Yesterday in the Virgin Islands we had a golf tournament in honor of my late husband, Gen. Charles F. Blair. So I could not start until very late.
I am happy, thrilled and delighted, and very proud to be here. In my lifetime I have been very privileged to have known and to have met, perhaps with my connections with the motion picture industry, many great and famous men all over the world, starting with my beloved father and then my husband, Charlie Blair, and John Wayne. I think they are perhaps the three greatest men I have ever been privileged to know.
I have known John Wayne for 39 years, and in those 39 years I have called him my dearest friend, my best friend. I cannot tell you the kind of man he is.
You have listened this morning to many eloquent speeches about Duke. But it is the man that you really don't know about. I can speak to you here as an immigrant to the United States, because I am. I can speak for the people of the world outside of the United States. And, since I am now an American citizen, I can speak for the people of the United States. I hope they will grant me permission to do that. I think they will.
To the people of the world, John Wayne is not just an actor and a very fine actor, John Wayne is the United States of America. He is what they believe it to be. He is what they hope it will be. And he is what they hope it will always be.
It is every person's dream that the United States will be like John Wayne and always like him.
To the immigrant, the person who is going to migrate to the United States, to this wonderful land where we all believe that the streets are paved with gold, every immigrant believes and hopes that perhaps life will be as John Wayne says it will be in the United States. Perhaps for them, and if not for them for one of their children, their sons or maybe one of their daughters will marry a man like John Wayne. And so, that is their dream of America.
And then for people like me, who are fortunate enough to have become an American citizen and to have met and know this man, he is, believe me, the United States of America. He is a man that has a code of beliefs that he sticks with. He believes in individual responsibility and honor. He is cursed with one failing, his loyalty to friends. And it has cost him many sad moments and many happy moments. But he will never cease to be a loyal ever.
Patriotism and love for his country is something - he doesn't demand that everybody love the United States. He only demands of a man that he love his own country. And I think Duke lives by a phrase or a poem that we learned in school in Ireland and we applied it to my country that I was born in, too. We always said, "Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself has said that, this is my own my native land." And Duke lives by that, believe me.
He believes also in the adherence to the American dream. The American dream to people like me who are immigrants is enterprise, hard work, and then reward. And I think that dream still exists in the United States, where there is enterprise, hard work and reward. And he believes in that, too.
I am afraid I could talk to you about Duke all day, all through the night and on into tomorrow without stopping.
You have heard so much about what a wonderful man he is, but I wonder if you wonder, what kind of man is he, what is he like, what is he like at home, what is he liked when he's not in front of the public, what is he like when he's not on the screen, what is he like when he's with his family and his children and the people he loves.
He is just the same. He doesn't change. That is the wonderful thing about Duke - you can depend on him.
I have never been in trouble or needed help at any time in my life that I didn't first pick up the phone and call Duke, and within 5 minutes I had what I wanted or what I requested, or what I needed. And he never asked for a thank you. He wouldn't think of that.
He lives his own life by strict rules and strict regulations, and he adheres to those things, those rules. He expects you, his friends and you, his countrymen, to live by the same rules and obey those rules. But then he has a very soft heart and if you do make a mistake he will bend those rules, not for himself, but to forgive you. And that is friendship and love.
He has a marvelous family. He has wonderful children. He has 7 children and I think he has 21 grandchildren as of the last count. Of course, any minute it could change, but I believe it is 21. And he loves every one of them and they adore him. They hang out on him. There's one on his arm, one on his shoulder, one hanging around his leg and he loves them all and he loves his children.
And each one of them reflect in their families the love that they have learned from sitting on his knee.
There are many stories I could tell you about Duke, about right after the inauguration of President Carter in 1977, he sent me a postcard, and I have it, and the postcard said: "In the twilight of our lives, when the hell are you going to invite me to the Virgin Islands."
And so, he came directly from the inauguration down to the Virgin Islands with Ms. Pat Stacy, a wonderful, wonderful lady, and stayed with Charlie Blair and me in the Virgin Islands. And every night - he loves to play chess, and he would play chess with Charlie Blair, and then they would go flying, and then you would get to talk to him. And I would say, what do you want for dinner? Steak. You say, what do you want for lunch? Steak. The next day, what would you like for dinner? Steak.
You get fed up cooking steak, but that is what he loves.
And one day he went down into the supermarket in town of Christiansted, because he decided he should go shopping and buy some food for the house. And he started. He saw meat It looked absolutely gorgeous and so he started filling his market basket with all the steaks he could find.
And a wonderful old lady came up to him and she tapped him on the shoulder and she said, "Mr. Wayne if you are buying that meat for Mrs. Blair, you had better put it back and let me show you the meat you are to buy."
So, she took him over and he bought all the correct meat. And she absolutely loved it. He just loved the fact that people are so good and so kind.
And then one day he was driving a big red truck which we borrowed for him because he won't fit in an automobile you know - he has to drive a truck. And he was driving down to Christiansted, and he was going slowly because he was looking on both sides of the street and ogling everything he could see. And suddenly there's a big truck behind him and they blow the horn beep, beep, beep, beep and told him, get out of the way.
And they pull up beside him and they say, "Hey," and he says "Yah" and that was the end of it .They didn't challenge Duke any more.
But maybe I had better stop, because to talk about Duke, I talk from my heart. I could go on forever and ever.
I don't know if there are any things you would like to know about Duke. If there are things you would like to know, I would be very happy to answer any questions you have.
I beg you to strike a medal for Duke, to order the President to strike it. And I feel that the medal should say just one thing: "John Wayne, American."
John Wayne
born Marion Michael Morrison
b. Winterset, Madison, Iowa, 26 May 1907
d. Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 11 June 1979
Saturday, 26 May 1979
An Act
To authorize the President of the United States to present on behalf of the Congress a specially struck gold medal to John Wayne.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress, to John Wayne, a gold medal of appropriate design in recognition of his distinguished career as an actor and his service to the Nation. For such purpose, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, including "John Wayne, American", to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. There are authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $15,000 to carry out the provisions of this subsection.
(b) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of such medal to be coined and sold under such regulations as he may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the gold medal medal, and the appropriation used for carrying out the provisions of this subsection shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sale.
(c) The medals provided for in this Act are national medals for the purpose of section 3551 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 368).
93 Stat. 32
John Wayne was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
"We must always look to the future. Tomorrow--the time that gives a man just one more chance--is one of the many things that I feel are wonderful in life. So's a good horse under you. Or the only campfire for miles around. Or a quiet night and a nice soft hunk of ground to sleep on. A mother meeting her first-born. The sound of a kid calling you dad for the first time. There's a lot of things great about life. But I think tomorrow is the most important thing. Comes in to us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
John Wayne
ON BEHALF OF THE CONGRESS A SPECIALLY STRUCK GOLD MEDAL TO JOHN WAYNE
May 21, 1979
SERIAL 96-10
Monday, May 21, 1979
Statement of Maureen O'Hara Blair
Chairman Annunzio: "...It is a great honor to have you appear before this subcommittee today. If you have a prepared statement, I will ask unanimous consent that it be made part of the record. And now you can proceed in your own manner.
Mrs. Blair: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee.
I don't have a prepared statement.
I came yesterday from the Virgin Islands to be here today, and it is my great honor to be here. I had a difficult time getting here because the flight was canceled into Washington and I had to come through New York.
Yesterday in the Virgin Islands we had a golf tournament in honor of my late husband, Gen. Charles F. Blair. So I could not start until very late.
I am happy, thrilled and delighted, and very proud to be here. In my lifetime I have been very privileged to have known and to have met, perhaps with my connections with the motion picture industry, many great and famous men all over the world, starting with my beloved father and then my husband, Charlie Blair, and John Wayne. I think they are perhaps the three greatest men I have ever been privileged to know.
I have known John Wayne for 39 years, and in those 39 years I have called him my dearest friend, my best friend. I cannot tell you the kind of man he is.
You have listened this morning to many eloquent speeches about Duke. But it is the man that you really don't know about. I can speak to you here as an immigrant to the United States, because I am. I can speak for the people of the world outside of the United States. And, since I am now an American citizen, I can speak for the people of the United States. I hope they will grant me permission to do that. I think they will.
To the people of the world, John Wayne is not just an actor and a very fine actor, John Wayne is the United States of America. He is what they believe it to be. He is what they hope it will be. And he is what they hope it will always be.
It is every person's dream that the United States will be like John Wayne and always like him.
To the immigrant, the person who is going to migrate to the United States, to this wonderful land where we all believe that the streets are paved with gold, every immigrant believes and hopes that perhaps life will be as John Wayne says it will be in the United States. Perhaps for them, and if not for them for one of their children, their sons or maybe one of their daughters will marry a man like John Wayne. And so, that is their dream of America.
And then for people like me, who are fortunate enough to have become an American citizen and to have met and know this man, he is, believe me, the United States of America. He is a man that has a code of beliefs that he sticks with. He believes in individual responsibility and honor. He is cursed with one failing, his loyalty to friends. And it has cost him many sad moments and many happy moments. But he will never cease to be a loyal ever.
Patriotism and love for his country is something - he doesn't demand that everybody love the United States. He only demands of a man that he love his own country. And I think Duke lives by a phrase or a poem that we learned in school in Ireland and we applied it to my country that I was born in, too. We always said, "Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself has said that, this is my own my native land." And Duke lives by that, believe me.
He believes also in the adherence to the American dream. The American dream to people like me who are immigrants is enterprise, hard work, and then reward. And I think that dream still exists in the United States, where there is enterprise, hard work and reward. And he believes in that, too.
I am afraid I could talk to you about Duke all day, all through the night and on into tomorrow without stopping.
You have heard so much about what a wonderful man he is, but I wonder if you wonder, what kind of man is he, what is he like, what is he like at home, what is he liked when he's not in front of the public, what is he like when he's not on the screen, what is he like when he's with his family and his children and the people he loves.
He is just the same. He doesn't change. That is the wonderful thing about Duke - you can depend on him.
I have never been in trouble or needed help at any time in my life that I didn't first pick up the phone and call Duke, and within 5 minutes I had what I wanted or what I requested, or what I needed. And he never asked for a thank you. He wouldn't think of that.
He lives his own life by strict rules and strict regulations, and he adheres to those things, those rules. He expects you, his friends and you, his countrymen, to live by the same rules and obey those rules. But then he has a very soft heart and if you do make a mistake he will bend those rules, not for himself, but to forgive you. And that is friendship and love.
He has a marvelous family. He has wonderful children. He has 7 children and I think he has 21 grandchildren as of the last count. Of course, any minute it could change, but I believe it is 21. And he loves every one of them and they adore him. They hang out on him. There's one on his arm, one on his shoulder, one hanging around his leg and he loves them all and he loves his children.
And each one of them reflect in their families the love that they have learned from sitting on his knee.
There are many stories I could tell you about Duke, about right after the inauguration of President Carter in 1977, he sent me a postcard, and I have it, and the postcard said: "In the twilight of our lives, when the hell are you going to invite me to the Virgin Islands."
And so, he came directly from the inauguration down to the Virgin Islands with Ms. Pat Stacy, a wonderful, wonderful lady, and stayed with Charlie Blair and me in the Virgin Islands. And every night - he loves to play chess, and he would play chess with Charlie Blair, and then they would go flying, and then you would get to talk to him. And I would say, what do you want for dinner? Steak. You say, what do you want for lunch? Steak. The next day, what would you like for dinner? Steak.
You get fed up cooking steak, but that is what he loves.
And one day he went down into the supermarket in town of Christiansted, because he decided he should go shopping and buy some food for the house. And he started. He saw meat It looked absolutely gorgeous and so he started filling his market basket with all the steaks he could find.
And a wonderful old lady came up to him and she tapped him on the shoulder and she said, "Mr. Wayne if you are buying that meat for Mrs. Blair, you had better put it back and let me show you the meat you are to buy."
So, she took him over and he bought all the correct meat. And she absolutely loved it. He just loved the fact that people are so good and so kind.
And then one day he was driving a big red truck which we borrowed for him because he won't fit in an automobile you know - he has to drive a truck. And he was driving down to Christiansted, and he was going slowly because he was looking on both sides of the street and ogling everything he could see. And suddenly there's a big truck behind him and they blow the horn beep, beep, beep, beep and told him, get out of the way.
And they pull up beside him and they say, "Hey," and he says "Yah" and that was the end of it .They didn't challenge Duke any more.
But maybe I had better stop, because to talk about Duke, I talk from my heart. I could go on forever and ever.
I don't know if there are any things you would like to know about Duke. If there are things you would like to know, I would be very happy to answer any questions you have.
I beg you to strike a medal for Duke, to order the President to strike it. And I feel that the medal should say just one thing: "John Wayne, American."
John Wayne
born Marion Michael Morrison
b. Winterset, Madison, Iowa, 26 May 1907
d. Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 11 June 1979
Saturday, 26 May 1979
An Act
To authorize the President of the United States to present on behalf of the Congress a specially struck gold medal to John Wayne.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress, to John Wayne, a gold medal of appropriate design in recognition of his distinguished career as an actor and his service to the Nation. For such purpose, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, including "John Wayne, American", to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. There are authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $15,000 to carry out the provisions of this subsection.
(b) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of such medal to be coined and sold under such regulations as he may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the gold medal medal, and the appropriation used for carrying out the provisions of this subsection shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sale.
(c) The medals provided for in this Act are national medals for the purpose of section 3551 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 368).
93 Stat. 32
John Wayne was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
"We must always look to the future. Tomorrow--the time that gives a man just one more chance--is one of the many things that I feel are wonderful in life. So's a good horse under you. Or the only campfire for miles around. Or a quiet night and a nice soft hunk of ground to sleep on. A mother meeting her first-born. The sound of a kid calling you dad for the first time. There's a lot of things great about life. But I think tomorrow is the most important thing. Comes in to us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."
John Wayne
