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H.R. No. 2024
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, Texas is home to numerous authors and poets who have
earned international acclaim for their work, but one of our state's
most unique and prolific authors, Missy Jones Thistlewood, remains
unknown to all but a few devotees of her unusual literary milieu;
and
WHEREAS, Melissa Elizabeth Jones was born in Lubbock in 1912,
and while growing up on her family's cotton farm, she could hardly
have guessed the unusual turns her life would take; she began dating
Arthur Thistlewood while the two were still in high school, and
despite admonitions from friends about the nature of her future
name, she married him soon after graduation; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Melissa Elizabeth Thistlewood then endured
much good-natured teasing from family and friends about her
difficult name, and this initiated her lifelong fascination with
tongue twisters; when the economic pressures of the Great
Depression made it difficult for her and Arthur to support their two
young children, Mrs. Missy Thistlewood put her hobby to good use,
and with money borrowed from her parents, she published her first
book of tongue twisters; and
WHEREAS, From such seemingly simple sentences as "Plain bun,
plum bun, bun without plum" to the more difficult "There was a
little witch which switched from Chichester to Ipswich" to the
fiendishly difficult "Miss Smith's fish-sauce shop seldom sells
shellfish," Mrs. Thistlewood's book included a vast collection of
alliterative literary twists and onomatopoeic monstrosities, and
it quickly became a tremendous success; and
WHEREAS, To this day, her favorite creation is the one that
was inspired by a variation of her own name; for the past 60 years,
generations of American children have struggled to recite:
"Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, the successful thistle-sifter,
while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, thrust three
thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb; Now, if
Theophilus Thadeus Thistledown, the successful thistle-sifter,
thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb, See
that thou, while sifting a sieve-full of unsifted thistles, thrust
not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb"; and
WHEREAS, Mrs. Melissa Elizabeth Thistlewood, if she were in
fact a real person, would undoubtedly join the Texas House of
Representatives in lauding the elocutionary expertise and
pronouncedly proficient pronunciation with which our reading
clerks have read this resolution and thousands of other legislative
documents in the course of the 78th Legislative Session, and it is
to be hoped they will accept this good-natured tribute as an
expression of deepest appreciation and esteem from the members of
this chamber; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 78th Texas
Legislature hereby honor T. C. Turner and Shannon Steward for their
dedicated service as reading clerks and extend to them warmest best
wishes for continued success and happiness in all their future
endeavors; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for this dynamic duo as an expression of highest regard by
the Texas House of Representatives.
Edwards
Craddick Geren Mercer
Allen Giddings Merritt
Alonzo Goodman Miller
Bailey Goolsby Moreno of Harris
Baxter Griggs Moreno of El Paso
Berman Grusendorf Morrison
Bohac Guillen Mowery
Bonnen Gutierrez Naishtat
Branch Haggerty Nixon
Brown of Kaufman Hamilton Noriega
Brown of Brazos Hamric Oliveira
Burnam Hardcastle Olivo
Callegari Harper-Brown Paxton
Campbell Hartnett Pena
Canales Heflin Phillips
Capelo Hegar Pickett
Casteel Hilderbran Pitts
Castro Hill Puente
Chavez Hochberg Quintanilla
Chisum Hodge Raymond
Christian Homer Reyna
Coleman Hope Riddle
Cook of Navarro Hopson Ritter
Cook of Colorado Howard Rodriguez
Corte Hughes Rose
Crabb Hunter Seaman
Crownover Hupp Smith of Tarrant
Davis of Harris Isett Smith of Harris
Davis of Dallas Jones of Lubbock Smithee
Dawson Jones of Bexar Solis
Delisi Jones of Dallas Solomons
Denny Keel Stick
Deshotel Keffer of Dallas Swinford
Driver Keffer of Eastland Talton
Dukes King Taylor
Dunnam Kolkhorst Telford
Dutton Krusee Thompson
Edwards Kuempel Truitt
Eiland Laney Turner
Eissler Laubenberg Uresti
Elkins Lewis Van Arsdale
Ellis Luna Villarreal
Escobar Mabry West
Farabee Madden Wilson
Farrar Marchant Wise
Flores Martinez Fischer Wohlgemuth
Flynn McCall Wolens
Gallego McClendon Wong
Garza McReynolds Woolley
Gattis Menendez Zedler
______________________________
Speaker of the House
I certify that H.R. No. 2024 was adopted by the House on June
2, 2003, by a non-record vote.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House