Honoring “the Great Lady From Maine”

I had the honor recently to participate in a special Senate ceremony honoring former Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith – one of my role models and an inspiration in my public service. She was also an outstanding Senator who will forever be remembered as a strong, independent voice for Maine. The purpose of the ceremony was to unveil an official portrait of Senator Smith, "the Great Lady from Maine," in the U.S. Capitol. The elegant portrait, painted by Maine artist Ronald Frontin, now graces a wall in the U.S. Capitol.

The portrait unveiling was particularly special, because we were joined by members of Senator Smith's family, her good friend and close adviser Mert Henry, and members of the board of the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, and, of course, my colleague Senator Olympia Snowe, as well as Maine's two Congressmen, former Governor John Reed, and former Senator Bill Hathaway.

Ronald Frontin, a Camden native, was selected by the Senate Commission on Art to paint this powerful depiction of the Senator at the height of her career. In order to best capture the Senator's personality, Ronald interviewed her friends, family, and colleagues. It is appropriate that the portrait shows Senator Smith in the Senate chamber, a place where she spent 24 years representing the people of Maine. A smaller detail representative of Senator Smith is the red rose that she is wearing.

What follows are the remarks I made on this proud day for all Mainers:

"There is nothing that brings me greater pleasure, or that comes so easily, as talking about Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith. This great day, so long awaited, gives us all the opportunity to recall her courage, her character, and her commitment to our nation's highest ideals. For every woman serving in the Senate, Margaret Chase Smith blazed the path, but she was a special inspiration to me.

"I had the good fortune to meet Senator Smith at that time of life when young people are just figuring out who they are and what they want to become. I was a senior at Caribou High School, and was participating in the Senate Youth Program in Washington. She was in her 30th year in Congress – the first woman elected to both the House and Senate, the first woman to serve on the Armed Services Committee, the first woman to have her name put into nomination for president by a major party. She was the woman who gave other women the right to careers in the military. Due to her early and energetic support for the space program, she was the woman who, according to long-time NASA Administrator James Webb, put a man on the moon. So many firsts. So many achievements.

"She was a legend, and I was so excited about meeting her. I certainly did not expect our meeting to be much more than a quick handshake and a photograph, but we talked for nearly two hours.

"We discussed many important issues, she answered my many questions, but what I remember most was her telling me always to stand tall for what I believed, citing her Declaration of Conscience delivered at the height of McCarthyism as an example. Common-sense advice means so much more when it comes from an uncommon person.

"So much of what she said and wrote stays with us today because it was so eloquent and so right. Her "Declaration of Conscience" is a template for standing tall. Her "Creed of Public Service" belongs on the wall of everyone who serves the public – it's on mine.

"And now this wonderful portrait of this amazing American is where it belongs. I congratulate the great Maine artist, Ronald Frontin, for an outstanding work that truly reveals the spirit of the Great Lady from Maine, Senator Margaret Chase Smith. I know that all who look upon this portrait in the years, decades, even centuries to come will admire the artist's craft, and that they will be inspired by the subject's character." ###