THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501190359
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The Old Order in the nation's capital has changed, but at least one congressional name will be echoed as well as perpetuated in the new 104th Congress.
In Washington on Wednesday, Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., joined in a Capitol ceremony that dedicated a congressional committee hearing room in memory of his father, the late Congressman Walter B. Jones Sr.
The elder Jones served 26 years as a Democratic congressman from Northeastern North Carolina. For much of the time he was chairman of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.
In the current Republican-controlled Congress, the fisheries committee has been absorbed by a new Natural Resources and Public Lands committee, under Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska.
When Congress convened this month, Young asked Speaker Newt Gingrich to rename the old fisheries committee hearing room in the Longworth Office Building ``The Walter B. Jones Committee Room'' in memory of the North Carolina congressman who died in 1992.
``The late Chairman Jones was a southern Democrat of the old school,'' Young said in a letter to Gingrich. ``He was always a gentleman, both as a chairman and as a person. It is ironic that his son, Walter B. Jones Jr., is serving in the 104th Congress as a Republican. In a sense, the past has merged with the future.''
At the 5 p.m. ceremony Wednesday, the younger Jones joined other congressional officials in unveiling the new sign over the Walter B. Jones Committee Room.
``This memorial will serve as a constant reminder of my father's dedicated service to both the United States and to the people of Eastern North Carolina,'' Jones said.
Jones defeated U.S. 3rd District Rep. Martin Lancaster, D-Goldsboro, in the last election. Jones switched to the GOP two years ago, after Democratic leaders in the old 1st Congressional District refused to nominate him to complete his father's U.S. House term.
Both Lancaster's 3rd District and the elder Jones' old 1st District were remapped in 1992 by the General Assembly under U.S. Voting Rights guidelines.
In 1992, Rep. Eva M. Clayton, D-Warren, became the first female and the first African American U.S. representative to be elected from N.C. since the turn of the century when she went to Washington from the new 1st District,
Clayton, for many years a friend of the late Congressman Jones, was among those attending the ceremony. by CNB