[Pages S7167-S7168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TRIBUTE TO DAVID HENRY, SR. AND DAVID HENRY, JR.

<bullet> Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I wish to recount a special
discovery made recently in south Georgia by a Birmingham constituent of
mine. The discovery was of a letter dated April 8, 1943, that was sent
from a 24-year-old Alabama soldier serving in North Africa to his
newborn son back home. A world war was raging and the letter's author,
David Henry, Sr., of Roanoke, AL, was concerned that he might never get
to see his newborn son. It is a special letter, indeed, sent from
another continent and reflecting the essential values and life's
lessons that Mr. Henry wanted to impart to his 3-month-old son, David
Henry, Jr. Among other things, the letter tells young David about the
value of choosing work you enjoy, developing a love of reading, finding
a hobby, and guarding against greed and selfishness.
Fortunately, Mr. Henry, Sr., survived the war and returned home to
his wife and young son. The letter and the penned wisdom, however, has
lain dormant for more than 60 years. Mr. Henry, Jr., discovered the
letter recently while cleaning out his parents' house in south Georgia.
Mr. Henry's dad died this past February. Mr. Henry sent me a copy of
his father's letter,

[[Page S7168]]

urging that it be used in some productive way. I found the lessons and
wisdom in the letter profound, and as relevant today as they were in
1943. I forwarded the letter to The Birmingham News, which ran a timely
and touching Page 1 story on May 29, 2004, over the Memorial Day
weekend.
Written far away from his home and loved ones, Mr. Henry, Sr.'s,
letter truly reflects the thoughts of a young man wise beyond his
years. I ask consent that the letter and the accompanying newspaper
article by Birmingham News reporter Carla Crowder be printed in the
Record, so that all can benefit from its timeless wisdom.
The material follows:

(North Africa, April 8, 1943)

``My Dear Son:
``This is the first letter your dad has ever written you,
and I expect it will be the last until I see you. Today you
are almost three months old. Tomorrow will be your birthday,
and I can only say `Happy birthday, son.'
``When you were born I was a long, long way from your
mother doing my little part toward preserving the freedom of
our country. Had there been no war, nothing could have kept
me from being with your mother on January the ninth. There
was a war, though, and I am glad that I can say that I had a
part toward making our country a safe place so that our
mothers can live in peace and comfort.
``There are lots of things I have learned in the past few
years, things that I would like for you to know and things
that I am sure you will find to be true as you grow older.
``If I were asked to make an eleventh commandment I think I
should say. `Thou shall not be selfish.' You will find as the
years roll by that it is very hard to keep from being
selfish. In this greedy world of ours we run over each other
trying to get, we know not what, but with the idea that we
must get it before the other fellow does. We do not know when
we have enough. We never want to turn anything loose, even if
we do not need it. We always want more if we have no place to
put it. I think that the first lesson toward happiness is to
learn to share what you have with some one else.
``I should like for my son to know how to work and to enjoy
it. I think that the secret toward learning to like to work
is to believe that you can do your job just a little better
than anyone else. I think that every successful man enjoys
hard, strenuous outside work as much or maybe more than the
office. Start early, learn to cut wood, learn the art of
rolling a wheelbarrow or how to handle a hoe. Take long
walks. Like through wooded country and by all means never
miss a rabbit hunt.
``Begin early to read. Always have something in your pocket
to read while waiting on a bus or while trying to go to
sleep. Reading is knowledge and knowledge is success.
``Until you are one hundred years old, never be without a
hobby. If you are interested in woodwork, then you shall have
a shop before you are 10 years of age. If you are interested
in radio, then you shall have any type of equipment to tinker
with that you wish. Gather information from every source
possible. Gather reading material from every place where you
might find it. What you learn from your hobbies goes a long
way toward your success in life.
``Learn early to make friends. Always remember that you
cannot buy real friendship. Remember that a real friend is
one of the most valuable possessions a person may have. Learn
new names, new faces, facts about people. Learn to really
know people.
``There is quite a bit of difference between saving and
being selfish. If a person should throw something away, and
you come along and save it until you need it, than that would
be saving. If you have something you do not need and you
throw it away, even though you know someone else might be
able to use it, then you are being selfish. Learn to appraise
an article, and if it has a value, then save it. Remember
what it is and where it is, so that when you or someone else
needs it you will be able to find it. Learn to save money.
Put it where it can be used. Do not hide it so that no one
else can use it.
``One of the most important things that I want my boy to
know is that it always pays to be honest. No matter how small
or how insignificant, it always pays to tell the truth. Be
honest, do not take that which does not belong to you. Do not
bother with other people's things. However deep you get in
trouble, go to someone, tell them the truth and you will find
the easiest way out.
``Very soon you will make a trip from Birmingham to
Roanoke, a distance of about one hundred and twenty miles.
That is farther away from home than I was until I was about
19 years old. You will learn as you grow older that a city is
a city whether it is in Alabama, Georgia, New York, England
or Africa. I want you to travel early, to find out what it
took me years to find out, that every country has its hills
and dells, its rivers and branches, its oceans and seas. That
you can find all sorts of people in any country, city or
village. Never-the-less I want you to travel a lot, see the
world. See for yourself that all people want a chance for
freedom, a chance to worship as they choose, a chance to talk
as they choose and a chance to earn their own living.
``Your loving Dad''
David P. Henry.
____

[From the Birmingham News, May 29, 2004]

After 61 Years, Son Gets Lessons To Live By

(By Carla Crowder)

He was only 24 years old, a small-town Alabama man serving
in North Africa in World War II. But David Henry Sr. had a
lot to say back then as he penned a letter to his newborn
son.
``This is the first letter your dad has ever written to
you, and I expect it will be the last until I see you. Today
you are almost three months old,'' the letter begins.
It is dated April 8, 1943, Sixth-one years later, David
Henry Jr. read his father's words.
For the first time.
His mother apparently forgot to pass the letter along, and
he had no idea it existed. ``With seven children, and us
moving around a lot, a lot of things just got packed up,
pictures and letters,'' he said.
What he uncovered while going through his parents'
belongings last fall revealed a young father wise beyond his
years.
``It meant so much to me to be able to hear what he thought
was important, and the things he mentioned in there contained
such wisdom for a young person,'' said Henry Jr., 61, who
works as director of information services for American Cast
Iron Pipe Co. ``It was so important, I just want to share it
with the world.''
Henry Jr. was a toddler when his father returned from the
war. His parents had grown up in Roanoke in Randolph County,
but lived throughout the Southeast while his father was in
the military.
The 1943 letter extols the value of honesty, friendship and
hard work, as might be expected. But it goes much further.
``You will find as the years roll by that is it very hard
to keep from being selfish. In this greedy world of ours, we
run over each other trying to get, we know not what, but with
the idea that we must get it before the other fellow does . .
. I think the first lesson toward happiness is to learn to
share what you have with someone else,'' his father wrote.
This advice was no surprise, Henry Jr. said.
His father once dropped the price of some property he was
selling, right at closing time, much to the surprise of the
buyer and the lawyers in the room. ``I feel like I'm
overcharging you,'' he told the buyer.
After his father retired from the Air Force and the U.S.
Postal Service, he began cutting limbs and trees, ``big old
water oak trees,'' down in southwest Georgia where he lived.
He charged next to nothing. ``He probably cut trees for half
the widows in Bainbridge,'' his son said.
There's a bit of that in the letter as well.
``Learn to cut wood, learn the art of rolling a wheelbarrow
or how to handle a hoe. Take long walks. Hike through rough
wooded country,'' it reads.
He encouraged his boy to never be without a hobby. Henry
Jr. loves photography.
He encouraged travel.
``You will learn as you grow older that a city is a city
whether it is in Alabama, Georgia, New York, England or
Africa,'' it says. ``See for yourself that all people want a
chance for freedom, a chance to worship as they choose, a
chance to talk as they choose and a chance to earn their own
living.''
Henry Jr. took that advice as well. He recently returned
from a trip to Morocco, where he tried to seek out places his
father might have been during the war.
By the time the letter was discovered, the hopeful young
airman was dying from dementia in an assisted living center.
Though the son could not determine how much his father
understood, he had to tell him what he'd found.
``But he didn't understand, he couldn't communicate with me
about it,'' Henry Jr. said. ``I did talk to him about it, and
I thanked him for it.''
He read the letter at his father's funeral in February, and
everyone in the church told him ``that's exactly how dad
was.''<bullet>

____________________