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[Pages S5660-S5661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO ESTHER CODY SPLITT
Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, today I wish to recognize and honor
Esther Cody Splitt, on the occasion of her 100th birthday.
Her incredible life of ``firsts'' and extraordinary service to her
community and country began with her birth in the historic year of
1919, the year women earned the right to vote. With encouragement from
her smart and strong-willed Irish mother, Cody grew up in Wausau during
the Great Depression, when money for entertainment was nonexistent.
Instead of sending Cody to the movies, she told her to go to the county
courthouse and watch the lawyers for free. ``Enchanted'' by what she
saw, Cody returned home and told her mother she had decided to become a
lawyer. Her mother supported
[[Page S5661]]
her dreams and told her there was ``no reason she could not be a wife,
mother and a lawyer, just as a man is a husband, father and lawyer.''
That prescient inspiration became reality when Cody graduated from the
University of Wisconsin Law School, one of only five women in the class
of 1949.
Before attending law school, Cody already had a successful career as
one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Navy. She said the day she
was admitted to the WAVES--Women Accepted for Volunteer Services--was
the turning point of her life. Fascinated by politics, Cody was
disappointed to learn she was assigned to Wright Patterson Air Force
Base in Ohio. She said to the assigning officer, ``That's lovely, but I
really would like to go to Washington, D.C. What do you suppose?'' She
was granted assignment to a naval intelligence unit in Washington, DC,
where she worked on cracking the Japanese code during World War II. She
was quickly promoted to lead her fellow WAVES in Washington, a post
where she oversaw the careers and well-being of 200 women. At the end
of the war, Cody heard the GI bill would pay for her tuition to law
school, a fact she confirmed by going to the Library of Congress and
reading the entire bill.
Cody married her husband, Harley, also a UW law student, and moved to
Appleton after graduation to open the second woman-owned law firm in
Outagamie County. It was not easy for even a highly skilled female
attorney to attract clients in the 1940s. In fact, her first client
walked out of her office upon learning ``Cody Splitt'' was a woman. The
scarcity of a client base forced her to close her practice after a
year. Undaunted, Cody dedicated herself to her community, serving as a
supervisor on the Outagamie County Board, president of the Outagamie
County Bar Association, and a member of the American Association of
University Women, the Fox Valley Human Rights Council, and the Alliance
for the Mentally Ill. She also held various leadership roles in the
Republican Party. She built a thriving law practice from which she
retired at the age of 75.
Cody has received many well-deserved accolades for her work,
including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Law Journal
and a Woman of the Year Award from the National Organization for Women.
Her legacy will live on for decades to come through her scholarship and
other charitable funds with the Appleton Community Foundation.
I am privileged to acknowledge the life and work of Cody Splitt, and
on the occasion of her 100th birthday, I wish her good health and
happiness for many years to come.
____________________
