Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize one of my constituents, Minnie Belle McIntosh, who celebrates her 100th birthday on March 30, 2007.
Minnie Belle McIntosh has led an extraordinary life. When she was only four years old, her mother died of tuberculosis, leaving her and her sister Anne as orphans to be shuttled between relatives in Mississippi and Texas. Despite this early hardship, the bright and lively Minnie Belle graduated from the Blue Mountain College boarding school and attended college at the Mississippi State College for Women, where she majored in math and physics. Her senior thesis on "The Talking Machines" included correspondence with Thomas Edison.
After college, Minnie Belle took up the only occupation available to an educated woman in that region and became a schoolteacher. The drop in crop prices following World War I hit Mississippi particularly hard, but Roosevelt's New Deal legislation opened up new opportunities for its residents. Minnie Belle became an extension officer; her job was to inform rural families of the best ways to provide their children with good nutrition. Because of her gender, her employment was never stable, and she traveled from Minneapolis to California to Texas to Mississippi to perform her job, but her "people skills" made her an excellent social worker.
During World War II Minnie Belle, like many other women, went to work in Washington, D.C. She was employed by the Department of Agriculture, from which she retired in 1972.
Her volunteer work in Maryland in recent years has been exemplary. The Shepherd’s Table and The Clothes Closet were founded to feed and clothe the homeless, and Minnie Belle marshaled the efforts of some fifty volunteers. Confronted with a mountain of donated clothes, she used the size measurements from a Sears catalogue to mark trousers and dresses, and she guided the clients with good humor and common sense. The success of The Shepherd’s Table in Maryland and Montgomery County owes much to Minnie Belle McIntosh’s involvement.
At 85, Minnie Belle moved into a retirement community, Bedford Court in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she turned her attention to recycling. She quickly whipped the residents into shape, creating an army of recyclers, who dutifully washed out bottles and cans, separated paper trash from garbage, and happily signed up to be floor recycling monitors. She and Bedford Court are recipients of more than a half dozen awards recognizing their efforts.
Her greatest asset, however, besides her persistence, is her interest in people and kindness to all. Even now, as she reaches 100 years, she knows everyone’s name and story.
On this special occasion, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring Minnie Belle McIntosh on her 100th birthday and in recognizing her as a woman of great perseverance, kindness, and accomplishment. I am delighted to wish her a year of good health and happiness and to thank her for her wonderful contributions to our community.