Stennis Lecture Series
MidSouth Community College Fellowship Program
Mississippi State University - July 25, 2000

By: Mary Libby Payne

INTRODUCTION

I was a teenager is Gulfport when I first met Senator Stennis, and from then until his death, he was always a great man in my eyes. Therefore, I consider it a real honor to be the first woman to present the John C. Stennis annual lecture. I thought that I would speak first of some leadership qualities I observed in him. Then I would tell you a few things about leadership that I "learned on the way to work." The remainder of our time we will involve ourselves with some Q & A about things of your choosing.

LEADERSHIP a la STENNIS STYLE

1. LOYALTY

John Stennis ran for the U.S. Senate along with several others to fill an unexpired term of a Senator who died. Among the candidates in that race was my father's good friend, Bill Colmer from the Gulf Coast. Let me put things into perspective. My father had bee in the Mississippi legislature 12 years and Bill Colmer had been in Congress for some time as well. When the U.S. Senate seat became open, it was only logical that Mr. Colmer would run, and that Daddy would support him in his statewide race. Needless to say, John Stennis beat Bill Colmer. Some of my mother's kinfolk from Lowndes County had supported John Stennis in his race, but there was no denying that we were not among them. Of course, I was a long way from being old enough to vote, but still I had "my" candidate.

The summer of 1948 my parents gave my sister a trip to New York, via Washington, D.C. for a graduation present. When my family went to Congressman Colmer's office to get tickets to the White House, Bureau of Engraving, FBI Building, etc., he was out of town and we felt we were out of luck. It so happened that the only Mississippian in Congress who was there that hot summer week was Senator Stennis. The receptionist directed us to his office. As Daddy went in, he quickly said "I don't want to meet you under false colors. You need to know that I'm from the Coast and we didn't vote for you so we know we have no right to ask favors of you."

To which Senator Stennis replied, "Well, come right on in. You need to know that I wouldn't have thought much of you if you had failed to support Bill Colmer, your longtime Congressman and friend."

The lesson that experience taught me about leadership was LOYALTY. Senator Stennis knew how to be loyal and he celebrated loyalty in others no matter who the recipient of the loyalty was. He knew, I suppose, that after he had become our Senator, we would love him and show that same type of loyalty to him. And he was right. I have never thought much of a voter who would pander to a politician, nor vice versa.

Senator Stennis was loyal not to a mere party platform, a single university, a few powerful cronies, but to America and its people who made it great. I never saw him put on airs or force himself to the forefront. He was a gentle yet strong public servant. Yes, he was loyal.

2. INTEREST IN OTHERS

Another thing that impressed me as a young person about Senator Stennis was his ability to remember not only who people were but what their connection to him was. When I was in high school, I won an essay contest about America and communism. My title was, "Christianity, Our Best Defense Against Communism." My Daddy who always thought his daughters were outstanding, sent a copy to Senator Stennis. Before we knew it here came a package for Daddy that contained a dozen copies of The Congressional Record, in which my essay was published. Now, as a law professor I have taught Legislation, and I know that anything a member of Congress asks to have printed in the day's proceedings will find its way into the Record, but I was the only person in Gulfport High School who had an original piece in there. It was such a little thing, and yet, Senator Stennis used every means at his disposal to highlight Mississippi and encourage its citizens.

The only ship christening to which I was ever invited was when my family were guests of Senator Stennis. Whenever Daddy was in Washington, Senator Stennis would ask about us. As I looked through old scrapbooks several years ago I found a copy of a letter from Senator Stennis expressing regret over not being able to come to my wedding because Congress seemed determined to stay in session until Christmas Eve! He really had intended to come, even though it was more than a six hour drive from his home to Gulfport.

Every time I got a letter from Senator Stennis it always contained in it some reference to what was happening the last time I wrote. I thought that he must have a tremendous card reference file to tickle his memory and make him sound personally informed on a regular basis. That was before the days of computers where by just clicking a few buttons you can find a list of every letter written to that person. However, as I talked with Rex Buffington a few weeks back-Rex worked for the Senator for the last decade he was in office-Rex said, there was no card index, it was present in Senator Stennis' memory.

Memory experts tell us that the reason we forget people's names is that we are not really interested in making them a priority. Senator Stennis, all of his life made people a top priority. So, this second lesson he taught me about leadership is that a true public servant cares about people.

3. DETERMINATION

When I was a child my Daddy encouraged me to memorize poetry, and one of his favorite poems was not such great literature, but it contained an enduring life lesson. It was entitled, "Keep a Goin'" and Senator Stennis' life was a vivid illustration of that theme. While up in years, Senator Stennis was mugged and shot on the streets of Washington, but he never let that calamity get him down. His body healed and he was back in his place of service in a very short time. When later he had to have his leg amputated to save his life, he did not miss a day of work. He arranged his surgery for the beginning of the winter break and was back for the next session of Congress. He was a man of indomitable courage and drive, but also of intimate friendship. If any word adequately described John Stennis, it was not just "survivor." No, it was more. The word was "overcomer."

He was held in high regard on both sides of the aisle, and always made his decisions upon what was right and best for the country. He never sacrificed integrity for power, and because of that he wielded enormous power. He never fell pray to the corrupting influence of power. It was a tool to be used, not an end to be sought. Power comes not to the seeker, but to the servant. I hope that I have been a good steward of that lesson which Senator Stennis exemplified.

This morning in my devotional time I came upon a Bible verse that I thought was appropriate for today. It was Proverbs 28:2 [The Living Translation]:

When there is moral rot within a nation,

Its government topples easily

But with wise and knowledgeable leaders,

There is stability.

Senator Stennis furnished that stability to our nation.

THREE PAYNE-FUL LESSONS

1. FAILURE IS NOT TERMINAL

When I was in school, I was what might now be referred to as a "compulsive achiever." My parents taught me never to be satisfied to be or do less than my best. If my best were a C, then don't be satisfied with a C-. By the same token, never be satisfied just to make a B if my best would have rendered an A. I didn't publicize my grades because I didn't like to have people say [as they often did] "I'd rather be well rounded than a straight A student." Since I was an A student, I figured that must make me an egghead. I worked hard to prove that I was just as domestic as the next student. I rented a portable sewing machine and made my lavender organdy Easter dress. I even taught 3 home ec majors how to darn socks [an absolutely useless skill now in the days of stretch socks]!

If the truth were known, academically I was on top of any list made, but I was not prepared for prejudice. I had always thought that if a person were willing to work hard and do right, she could achieve anything she attempted. And it was true until I graduated from law school and began to look for employment. All anyone asked was "how many words a minute I could type." Well, I had never studied secretarial science, so I would tell them the truth: 26 words a minute with 13 errors. When no law firm would take a chance on hiring me (although the men in my class who barely scraped by got jobs), I took the World Book salesman course. I was a flop at that. When people told me they couldn't afford it, I believed them, packed up my stuff and left.

Finally, Mississippi College needed a Business Law teacher for summer school and I made my first real pay check-$100 a semester. With my first $100 I bought a 7 piece dinette set that lasted 15 years. I can't remember what we did with the second semester's paycheck, but I feel that we did not blow it. Then, I was back looking for work again, but in the meantime my Daddy had died and I was back and forth to Gulfport, closing out his law practice. The next summer I got a job with a title insurance company-as a secretary. Real property was one of my favorite subjects so I enjoyed the type of law practiced by the firm who were agents of the title company. Sometimes, I even got to check titles and go to court, but mainly I was a sorry secretary.

I need to back up. You see while I was on the staff at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly between my freshman and sophomore years at the W, I felt God's call to what Dr. Chester Swor termed the "Ministry of Jurisprudence." As I sat at my typewriter at the title insurance company, I prayed, not a model prayer, I assure you. It went something like this: "God, if I had known what was going to happen when I got out of law school, I wouldn't have been such a loud mouth about your calling me to be a lawyer. People are going to think this is the best you can do for those you call. Father, "I whined, "Do you have any idea what my career or lack thereof is going to do to your reputation?" Yes, I am embarrassed to admit such faithlessness, but somehow that weekend God helped me to see that His reputation was in tact and my job was to do my work "as unto the Lord, and not as unto men."

My attitude and aptitude for the secretarial work began to improve, and then a few months later a wonderful thing happened: I got fired for incompetence. That was no mistake. I was and still am an incompetent secretary. Then a law firm hired me as an associate in the oil and gas division, examining land records which I loved, and I never had to be a secretary again. You need to know that I got fired from that job because in those days there was no such thing as maternity leave, so I was back padding the pavement again. In fact, I guess I have been fired from more good jobs than most people ever have. (I had a second child so I was fired from that job too.)

Let me be sure you get the intended lesson here. I am not saying that following God's will for your life will turn you into a sour-mouthed whiner who can't hold a job. The intended lesson is this: failure is not terminal. So what if you are not a success everyday of your life? So what if your abilities are not appreciated? Do your best whatever your circumstances and even your failures will become useful resources for the future.

When I became a law professor and had students with good grades who were coming up to graduation and had not found employment, I was able to empathize with them and assure them that they were not worthless. When I graduated from law school, first in my class, and then got turned down more times than a bedspread, I thought that there must be something so unspeakably wrong with me that even my credentials and my Daddy's contacts could not overcome. I changed toothpaste three times and deodorants twice. But I was not the problem. I had the problem, but its solution was not in my hands.

When my law students heard that but saw that my life had turned out to be rewarding, they renewed their faith in themselves, laid aside their defeatist's attitude and not too long thereafter landed jobs that they liked better than the ones that had passed them by. Had I only had successes in my life, I might have the stupid notion that other people who had hard times, just were lazy or hard to get along with. But I know better.

My Daddy used to encourage young people to go to college by telling them about how he finished law school on the 3 quart jars of silver dollars his Uncle Lonnie lent him. My Daddy was a "possibility" thinker and I learned success from the failures in my life. Let me repeat: failure is not terminal!

2. BEST CHOICE, NOT FIRST CHOICE

When I was a solo practitioner in Brandon but working during the sessions for the Mississippi House of Representatives as a legislative draftsman, the legislature created the Miss. Judiciary Commission, an interim study group to last 18 months and to conduct the first statewide review of the judicial system in the state. Because the 1968 session had lasted so long-almost to September, my law practice in Brandon had been put on hold for so long, I really had to work to make it profitable again. In the meantime, I realized that I would enjoy being the "hired hand" for that commission. If I were ever to close down my practice to work full-time for the State, this lean time would be the best time to do so. Therefore, with the encouragement of a few folds, I applied for the job as executive director.

I was on the "short list" under consideration, but I knew that Mr. Joel Bass, Associate Dean of the Ole Miss Law School, was the obvious choice. He would do the job part-time while continuing his work at Ole Miss and therefore could work for next to nothing because the law school was paying his salary. Ole Miss would lend him to the state on a part-time basis. Then there came a hitch in that plan. There were some out of state lawyers who had been hired on the Ole Miss faculty who were also holding down full-time salaries at the North Miss. Legal Services Office. The legislators had been so angry at that practice by those men, the legislature had passed a bill prohibiting law school personnel from holding down outside jobs. Therefore, Mr. Blass, who would have been an excellent choice, was eliminated from consideration. With that obstacle out of the way, they hired me.

Because of time and funding restraints, it was a very hard job, but a most enjoyable one. The men on the commission were wonderful public servants, four of them legislators whom I had known for several years. It got me into the state system of employment so that I had a regular salary (unlike solo practice in Brandon) and supposedly the same holidays as my husband who worked for the Miss. Employment Security Commission. We worked on weekends and holidays so my schedule still did not coincide with Bob's, but it was an invigorating challenge. After that job ended, I was able to work full-time for the legislature and ultimately become an Assistant Attorney General.

But the lesson this experience with the Judiciary Commission taught me was: you don't have to be the first choice to be the BEST choice. Don't pass up an opportunity just because it was offered first to someone else.

3. INVEST WHAT HAS BEEN INVESTED IN YOU

My third lesson came much later, in fact it was in 1994. In 1993 the legislature created the Miss. Court of Appeals to be made up of five judges. They were to be elected in the following year after primary nominations in June. Well, in April, 1994, during the time that the primary races were ongoing, the legislature passed a new bill to double the size of the Court of Appeals, enlarge the number of trial court districts to increase minority involvement in the state judiciary, and make all judicial races non-partisan. If the U.S. Justice Department had pre-cleared the bill in April, when the legislators believed it would, the party primary elections would have been unnecessary. I, and all the others would just run in the November elections.

However, the Justice Department took its sweet time, and those June elections were off-again; on-again; and in the June primary, I came in 3rd out of 3. You can't lose any better than that. If you've got to lose it is better before the second primary for which you might have to borrow money. Well, the reason I had run was because God had uniquely positioned me to serve but now I had the best of all possible worlds. I did not have to give up my comfort zone as a faculty member of Miss. College School of Law; but I didn't have to rebel against God's leadership in order to stay. You can't beat that with a stick. I had planned my fall semester and much of my spring semester's work and forgot about being a judge.

The justice department, at the end of their 60 day period allowed for a decision, got a 60 day extension and the deadline for determining whether the 1994 law could take effect was the day after Labor Day. I had about decided that if those primaries were invalidated, I still might run again in the new race with 4 different opponents to the 2 I had had in the primary. I had been there, as the saying goes and besides all that I still owed $1200 on my primary campaign that I was paying off by the month. I worked up my fall's semester assignments and started law school with joy and readiness.

Then the 10 o'clock news on Tuesday, September 6, 1994, said that the Justice Department approved the bill that had been passed in April and all judicial races would not be non-partisan with 10 places on the Court of Appeals. I had little inclination to get back in the race, but I knew that the decision was the Lord's and not mine. Bob and I prayed that God would give us a definite sign by Friday, noon, if I were to get back in the race. I still had brochures, yard signs and bumper stickers, but I knew that it would take as much money to run this race as it had in the primary. We really thought that God would provide at least $25,000 by Friday and that would be the sign to run. That didn't happen.

However, I had to have a word from God because the next day was the Muscadine Festival in Pelahatchie. If I were going to run, I would have to be there with bells on and let the voters know my intention. If I were not to run, I could sleep late and forget it. Well, I woke up early Saturday morning and began reading my Bible in Matthew. "I really need to know your direction, Lord, this morning. I've quit telling you how to lead me and will just wait on you." As I read on, I came upon the verse in Matthew 25:25 where the Lord chided the servant who had received one talent and had hid it in the ground. The reason the servant had failed his master was that he was afraid. He did not want to leave his comfort zone and risk inventing what had been invested in him. The Master called his a "wicked and slothful" servant. He took away from him what had been invested in him and did not let him stay in his comfort zone. No, he cast him into outer darkness. I certainly at this late stage in my life did not want to be wicked and slothful. I realized that MC would not be a comfort zone if I were there outside the will of God. So, I marched over to Pelahatchie, paid my $25 to speak, spoke over the train noises and was on my way on the campaign trail again. The rest is history. On November 8, I came in second out of 5. Two weeks later, just 2 days before Thanksgiving, in the runoff, I came in first. Then in 1998 when my term was up, I was re-elected without opposition.

What lesson did I learn from this experience? First, one is never too old to learn and accept God's leadership. But most of all the lesson was: don't be afraid to invest what has been invested in you. Did I have to win in order for that lesson to be a good one? No. Taking risks; doing what you at first believe is impossible for you to do; dreaming beyond your ordinary routine all are possible unless we are afraid to try. General George Patton, that great General from World War II once said, "I never take counsel with my fears."