Luke Letlow Post Office Building
Floor Speech
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Ms. LETLOW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my support for this bill and also to express to the House the heartfelt gratitude of Luke's family, his friends, and all who loved him.
My husband was someone I knew to be a truly exceptional and gifted individual. Luke's purpose was always driven by people, and his passion was public service. Luke was the kind of person who would meet a stranger and just a few minutes later could walk away, having established an enduring friendship with them.
Mr. Speaker, I can't even begin to count the number of people who called, texted, emailed, or wrote me letters in the days after we lost Luke telling me how he had touched their lives.
Throughout his career, I saw so many times when he would spend hours on the phone talking to local mayors and police jurors about the problems in their communities, showing them the same care and attention that he would give if it had been the Governor of Louisiana or the Speaker of the House on the other end of the line.
As I travel the Fifth District to this day, I still meet many of those same people who fondly remember those times that he helped them.
What was different about Luke and one of the incredible things that set him apart was the fact that his mind was like an atlas, encyclopedia, and historical narrative of our little corner of northeast Louisiana. He not only knew the people and their concerns, but he knew their stories.
He could drive through those little, small towns all over our region and show you where Ulysses Grant and his troops had prepared for the attack on Vicksburg, where Theodore Roosevelt had gone hunting for the famous black bear, and where Huey and Earl Long played as young brothers and later campaigned for votes as Governors.
There is no place that Luke loved more than his own Richland Parish, the home of the Letlow family for eight generations. His story was deeply rooted in the fertile soil of the delta, which gave name to his pet project, Richland Roots, a website he created to tell the stories of Richland Parish and its rich history.
He would spend countless hours researching the past of the towns and villages of the parish, the landmarks, the churches and, yes, even the post offices. You see, Luke understood that all over Richland Parish there were these little pieces of the past that were left with us, containing both the stories and the lessons from those who came before us. Now he will receive his very own landmark, a little piece of Richland Parish to help tell his story.
It is my hope, Mr. Speaker, that one day another history-loving kid from Richland Parish will see that post office and learn about Luke's story.
I hope they will learn about how his journey took him from the back roads and small towns of northeast Louisiana to the corridors of the United States Capitol in Washington.
I hope they will learn about how he dedicated himself to the people of our region, working every single day to make their lives better.
I hope they will learn about the fact that even though he was never able to serve as a Member of this House, the men and women who served here thought so highly of him that they bestowed this high honor.
Mr. Speaker, when Luke's light would shine on you, it was impossible to feel anything other than his warmth and love. He had a way of making you feel exceptional, and I know that to be true for every person in his life. It is what I miss the most.
Luke may be gone, but his light will never leave us. I see it every day in the faces of our children: our son, Jeremiah, and our daughter, Jacqueline. I see it every time I go home and drive those back roads in Richland Parish and see the places that he loved so much.
By bestowing this honor on him, you are ensuring that his name and his legacy will live on long after all of us are gone. I ask my colleagues to join our majority leader and our Louisiana delegation in supporting this bill on behalf of Luke's family and his friends and all who loved him.
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