EMERSON CALLED CARING PUBLIC SERVANT; 500 ATTEND CONGRESSMAN'S FUNERAL

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson was remembered Thursday as a caring public servant who liked to have the last word.

"Even in passing, Bill had the last word," said Lloyd Smith, Emerson's chief of staff.

Smith delivered the eulogy at the Thursday morning funeral service in Cape Girardeau for his friend and boss.

Emerson died Saturday of lung cancer at the age of 58.

Smith said Emerson planned the funeral service.

"I am doing this today because Bill dictated it in a memo a few years ago," he said.

Emerson loved Christian hymns and even preselected the songs for his funeral at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Cape Girardeau, where he was a member.

The funeral, which lasted more than an hour, included five hymns. Among them: "Amazing Grace" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Smith recalled that he and Emerson often sang hymns as they traveled by car around the district.

About 500 people filled the brick church, with half sitting in the basement fellowship hall to watch the service on a big-screen television. A handful of people stood on the lawn outside the church, listening to the service on loudspeakers.

People began arriving at the church more than hour before the service to say goodbye to the Cape Girardeau congressman who represented the sprawling 8th District for 16 years.

Emerson's flag-draped casket sat at the front of the sanctuary, flanked by red, white and blue floral wreaths.

Family members, including Emerson's wife, Jo Ann; daughters Victoria, Katherine, Elizabeth and Abigail; and mother, Marie Hahn of Cape Girardeau, were the last to be seated.

They sat in pews on one side of the church. Across the aisle were members of Congress, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Sens. Christopher Bond and John Ashcroft, and President Clinton's chief of staff, Leon Panetta.

State officials were there too: Lt. Gov. Roger Wilson, Secretary of State Bekki Cook, and Treasurer Bob Holden.

Several family members and members of Congress reached to touch Emerson's casket as it was removed from the church following the service.

Smith said Emerson's journey in politics began long before he traveled alone by train to Washington, D.C., and secured a job as a House page in 1953 at the age of 15.

Smith said it was Emerson's grandfather, who fostered his love of politics.

His grandfather, Bill Reinemer, was a county judge in Jefferson County. Emerson grew up in Hillsboro.

Emerson's grandfather advised him to listen to the people. Emerson never forgot that advice, Smith said.

"Bill danced with those that brung him," he said.

Emerson was elected to Congress in 1980, defeating an incumbent Democrat to become the first GOP congressman in Southeast Missouri in 52 years.

Smith said Emerson garnered support from both Republicans and Democrats over the years. Democrats who supported Emerson were soon nicknamed "Emocrats."

Smith said Emerson's family shared him with a half million people in the 8th District.

Emerson loved to quote President Theodore Roosevelt.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better," Smith recited.

"The credit," he continued, "belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood."

The Rev. Charles Dreyer, interim minister at First Presbyterian Church, went to school with Emerson at Westminster College in Fulton.

Dreyer said Emerson was a deeply religious man, who sought to serve his neighbors.

"Bill Emerson was a compassionate man," said Dreyer. He noted that Emerson worked hard for programs to feed the hungry.

"Hungry people are not people of power," said Dreyer. But Emerson wasn't looking for a power base. He simply wanted to help those in need, Dreyer said.

Alan Wheat, a Democrat and a former congressman from Missouri, said after the funeral that Emerson was a friend to both Republicans and Democrats.

"He was a good and decent man," said Wheat.

"I think Congressman Emerson definitely went beyond party lines," said Ed Dowd, a Democrat and U.S. attorney from St. Louis.

State officials also had kind words for Emerson.

"He was a good man," said Cook. "He was a strong advocate for our congressional district."

"He was just a fine human being," said Holden.

He said it won't be easy to replace the 16 years of talent, energy and ability that Emerson brought to the district.

State Rep. Mark Richardson of Poplar Bluff, who heads the GOP in the Missouri House, said Emerson lived to serve his constituents.

"His first love and his first focus was on his constituents," said Richardson.

That was evident by the fact that Emerson's chief of staff was based in Cape Girardeau instead of Washington, Richardson said.

Following the service, a police-escorted funeral procession of family, friends and Emerson staffers made the two-hour trip to Hillsboro, where Emerson was buried.