HONORING MARY JANE FLORES

On 2026-06-08, Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-9) delivered a floor speech titled "HONORING MARY JANE FLORES" in the House.

HONORING MARY JANE FLORES

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 96 (Monday, June 8, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 96 (Monday, June 8, 2026)] [House] [Pages H3988-H3989] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING MARY JANE FLORES (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Ms. Kaptur of Ohio was recognized for 30 minutes.) Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to honor the beautiful, generous, faithful, and patriotic life of Mary Jane Flores. A graduate of Newton-Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing, she commissioned in 1959 and served proudly as a nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital here in Washington before her honorable discharge in 1961. While there, she met and cared for her future husband, beloved Judge Joseph Flores, a veteran who rose to serve as lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He was elected the first Hispanic judge in Ohio--I might say Toledo, Ohio--and first Hispanic elected to both municipal and juvenile courts. Their first date was over Mexican food on the evening of John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Dedicated to advancing her education and career, Mary Jane attended Toledo's St. Vincent's Hospital School of Nurse Anesthesia, becoming certified in 1970. Her passion for helping others extended far beyond her profession. She traveled annually to the Dominican Republic with Midwest Medical Mission. She was instrumental in establishing the first mobile migrant health clinic in northwestern Ohio and volunteered with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee's Summer Health Clinic. Lovingly known as Memere, a name that began with her first grandchild, Memere quickly became what everyone called her. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Judge Joseph Flores, and is survived by her son, Andre; daughters Maria and Judith; three grandchildren; her sisters, Nancy and Barbara; and many loving nieces, nephews, and dear, forever friends. I saw her most recently quietly attending to many senior citizens in nursing homes across our region. She did it quietly with no public attention, but she was always there. Mary Jane was a lifelong Catholic who not only practiced her faith, but she lived it. Her legacy lives on in all the thousands of lives she so nobly touched, certainly in her own family but far beyond that. Kennedy Center Decision Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a World War II hero, the only U.S. President ever to be awarded the Purple Heart. In 1943, his PT-109 patrol boat was sunk in the Pacific, struck by a Japanese destroyer. Though wounded in action, Kennedy's athletic prowess allowed him to swim miles in dangerous open seas to safety. The physical damage he sustained caused him to be hospitalized and endure severe back pain throughout the rest of his life. A gifted orator with a precious sense of humor, he was elected U.S. President in 1960. His sheer eloquence during his inaugural address called the people of our Nation to highest purpose. He inspired and challenged the American people and especially our youth to ``ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.'' Globally, he successfully proposed the establishment of the United States Peace Corps and called upon Americans to voluntarily aspire to higher purpose and meet the real world beyond our shores. A valorous war veteran, he envisioned a higher purpose for our Nation as liberty's champion, to serve humanity across the world by building peaceful global relationships and to carry out practical joint projects for community betterment. Early on, President Kennedy was faced with a chilling nuclear confrontation with Soviet Russia. Russian naval vessels with nuclear warheads were dispatched by Russian dictator Nikita Khrushchev and entered the Gulf of Mexico, headed toward Cuba, which was ruled by a pro-Russian Communist dictator, Fidel Castro. Within 2 weeks, Kennedy was able to diffuse that real threat to U.S. security. That was the first standoff in the nuclear era. He and his gifted wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, brought intelligence, artistry, beauty, history, poetry, music, and literary excellence to the White House for special occasions. Their partnership inspired a nation that sought excellence from our leaders at the dawn of a new American age. His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, planted a living, beautiful rose garden on the south side of the White House. Recently, that was destroyed by President Trump, who paved it over in concrete in favor of a country club-style patio. JFK, a highly educated man of arts and letters, inspired and challenged our Nation to aspirational new horizons to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, but Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by a formerly discharged U.S. marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, who defected to the Soviet Union and returned to the United States shortly before this horrible, horrible incident. President Kennedy did not live to see that feat on the Moon achieved as the Apollo 11 mission succeeded in July 1969. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ``Profiles in Courage,'' records the stories of several U.S. Senators who lost their elections and their political careers for standing up for their principles. All of those he reported on lost their next elections because they actually stood for something worthy. He proposed path-breaking civil rights legislation, founded the Peace Corps to embrace a struggling world, and inspired a new generation of public servants who were to follow. A man who understood history, JFK was determined not to repeat it. His soaring rhetoric, coupled with that of his elegant, educated wife, Jacqueline, worked to restore the White House as a center for arts, culture, the environment, and history. {time} 2110 This past December 2025, it truly came as a shock that the current President of our country forced a handpicked board at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to approve adding the Trump name to precede the Kennedy name at this cherished living memorial to our valorous, fallen, former President. Understandably, the people of our Nation immediately called out this outrage and backlashed, as did the Kennedy family themselves. Former Congressman Joe Kennedy, III, said: ``The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen President and named for President Kennedy by Federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial.'' Kerry Kennedy, niece to President Kennedy and the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy who, too, was tragically assassinated in 1968 as a Presidential candidate said: ``President Trump and his administration have spent the past year repressing free expression, targeting artists, journalists, and comedians, and erasing the history of Americans whose contributions made our Nation better and more just.'' Maria Shriver, daughter of President Kennedy's sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver said: ``Some things leave you speechless and enraged and in a state of disbelief.'' Then, the Federal court properly ordered President Trump's name be removed. The rule of law really means something. That stopped closure and demolition of this living memorial to a great veteran and sacrificial, revered President. This removal must be done by court order by close of business this Friday, June 12. Erasing this stain on the sacrificial legacy that inspired this noble cultural [[Page H3989]] institution means it will endure as a living center of culture for the American people, not only an edifice for a very brave, intelligent, historic President. Restoring its proper name, historical worth, and its heritage of fine, artistic expression across all mediums shall proceed as the Kennedy family would wish and as history requires. Thank you to those who wrote our Constitution and placed meaning in the rule of law. No President, no Member of Congress, can avoid the rule of law. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________