Final Days
On June 10, 1964, during the roll call for the historic, successful effort to break the filibuster on what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when the clerk reached "Mr. Engle," there was no reply. The tumor had robbed Engle of his ability to speak. Slowly lifting an arm, he pointed to his eye, thereby signaling his affirmative vote ("aye"). The cloture vote was 71-29, four votes more than the two-thirds required to cut off the filibuster. Nine days later the Senate approved the Act itself.
Engle died in Washington, D.C. a month and a half later, aged 52.
Trinity Lake, in California's Trinity County, was renamed for Clair Engle, although the name Trinity Lake continued to be commonly used, and eventually the lake's original name was restored.
Read more about this topic: Clair Engle
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or days:
“What the vast majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.”
—Ann Landers (b. 1918)
“He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)