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テキサスでオルガン 〜 信州でオルガン 信州でタロー

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2007年 02月 10日

ようこそ、ミスタープレジデント!

ようこそ、ミスタープレジデント!_a0042932_7105074.jpg

クリントン前・大統領です。テキサス北部の田舎までわざわざ、いらっしゃいました。今日、学友 D さんのお葬式がきよの教会であったのですが、クリントン氏が25分間、D さんの思い出話を話されました。D さん、たっての遺言は自分のお葬式でクリントン氏にスピーチしてもらうことだったのでした。

写真は、礼拝の時の前・大統領、Chamber Singers、寒空の下で働いていた地元の警察の方、レセプション時のクリントン氏です。

D さんは去年のクリスマス前に亡くなられていたのですが、お葬式はもちろん Mr. プレジデントの日程に合わせて行われました。でもまさか、誰もこんなことが実現するとは、思ってませんでしたよ。

今回のことは、プライベートで極秘のことだったのですが、なぜか地元の新聞社に情報が漏れて記事になり、お葬式の前日、教会側はプログラムを増刷したり、てんやわんやでした。が、当日は至って、普通通りでしたよ。前・プレジデント見たさに1000人くらいは来るんじゃないかと予想されてましたが、参列者は250人くらいでした。

お葬式の礼拝もいつも通りでした。ただ前奏がいつもより長くて、きよ、45分くらいオルガンを弾いてました、お疲れさま!

お葬式の後の親族の昼食会にも行ってきました。信じられませんが、ここでも忙しいスケジュールのクリントン氏がいらっしゃいました。昼食会に招かれた地元のみんなと和やかに談笑されてて、「さすが!!」と思ったのでした。

今日のは、「お葬式」というより、「お祭り」でした。でもそれこそ、D さんが望んだことだったのかも。D さんのご冥福をお祈りします。

****

ところで、2月18日は私たち、オルガン・コンサートをするんです。なぜか、偶然にもクリントン氏がメンバーの教会より招かれました。アーカンソー州リトルロック市の Immanual Baptist Church 。夕方6時からです。もし、そちら方面にご在住の方がいらっしゃいましたら、是非、いらしてくださいね。




Man's life noted for close friends

Former President Bill Clinton to attend Wichitan's funeral services

By Deanna Watson and Lynn Walker/Times Record News
February 7, 2007

The family of David Edwards wants his funeral Friday to be a quiet and respectful moment of reflection, even if the Wichitan's famous friend pays his respects in person.

Former President Bill Clinton, a friend of Edwards since their days at Oxford University four decades ago, is expected to attend the funeral, scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church. Edwards died of cancer Dec. 21 at the age of 62.

He is survived by his mother, Katherine Edwards of Wichita Falls; two brothers, Robert of Los Angeles and Mark of Wichita Falls; and a sister, Katherine McGregor, also of Wichita Falls.

Edwards, born Edwin David Edwards on Aug. 23, 1944, in Wichita Falls, met Clinton while the future president was a student at the London School of Economics, said his brother Mark. The London campus was closed at the time, he added, so the students moved to Oxford.

The two remained close friends until the day Edwards died, Mark said.

But David's life should not be defined by the famous faces in the church's pews Friday, Mark said.

"His strongest suit, his greatest asset, were his friends - not just dignitaries," Mark said.

Edwards attended the University of Texas and Midwestern State University before studying at the London School of Economics, according to the New York Times News Service, where his path crossed with Clinton, who mentioned him numerous times in his 2004 book, "My Life."

"I would meet many (interesting people) at 9 Bolton Gardens in London," Clinton wrote, "a spacious apartment that became my home away from Oxford on many weekends. It's full-time occupant was David Edwards ... David's place in Bolton Gardens became an open house for a loose collection of young Americans, Britons, and others floating in and out of London. There were plenty of meals and parties, usually funded disproportionately by David, who had more money than the rest of us and was generous to a fault."

Clinton not only chronicled their friendship throughout the 957-page autobiography, he credits Edwards for giving Bill and Hillary a wedding trip to Haiti, funded with frequent-flier miles accrued by working at Citibank, a pivotal company in David Edwards' life.

While working for Citibank as a junior executive in the mid-1970s, Edwards brought forward allegations that a senior trader in Paris was taking kickbacks and the "shifting of profits from foreign exchange transactions to tax havens such as the Bahamas to minimize Citibank's worldwide taxes," according to a Jan. 9, 1983, story in the Times Record News. Edwards later claimed in a $14 million lawsuit that he was fired for bringing the allegations to light.

"It was six-year ordeal," said Mark Edwards. "In essence, (David) was a young trader in Paris on the foreign exchange desk. He noticed some suspicious activity by one trader every night after closing. He thought someone was stealing from the bank. He told his supervisor, who said he would take care of it. Nothing happened so David went up the chain until he was fired. He was just being a loyal employee of the bank."

In 1983, a U.S. House subcommittee held hearings centered on Edwards' testimony before the Security and Exchange Commission. Citibank paid fines and back taxes totaling $10.5 million to several countries, including France and Germany, for undeclared foreign exchange profits, wrote Phil Ringman in 1983 in the Times Record News.

Edwards never got his job back and lost the case against Citibank - based on a New York employment law that said someone can be fired for any reason when there is no written contract - and he was ostracized by the banking industry, Mark Edwards said.

After the Citibank deal, Edwards went off on his own in business for awhile. David and Mark eventually partnered in an investment banking business in Arkansas.

David, his brother said, was a voracious reader and loved the outdoors, mainly hunting and fishing.

Mark Edwards moved back to Wichita Falls in 1998, and Edwards moved back in January 2006 to be close to family as he battled cancer.

Wichita Falls Police Chief Dennis Bachman would not talk specifically about law enforcement plans surrounding the former president's visit, but did say "when we have someone of that magnitude come to Wichita Falls, we do prepare for the event."

"I can't comment on what they will have" in the form of Secret Service and additional security, "and would leave it up to his people to release an itinerary," the chief said.

Attempts to reach Clinton's press secretary at the Clinton Foundation were unsuccessful.

The level of security and local police support depends on the "level of security (the dignitaries) already have," Bachman added, recalling visits by then-Vice President George Bush, campaigning for Ronald Reagan, and Hillary Clinton during her husband's campaign.

"First and foremost, this will be a worship service," said Paul Goodrich, senior pastor at First United Methodist. "The service is a celebration and remembrance of David Edwards' life. We want it to be very respectful."

***********************************


'And fly he did'
Ex-president, friends honor David Edwards
By Deanna Watson/Times Record News
February 10, 2007

David Edwards and Bill Clinton met "a long way from here," but the two nurtured a 30-year friendship that lasted from "the first day we met to the last day he spent on earth."

Under tight security, former President Clinton spoke with reverence and levity during the eulogy Friday for Edwards, whom he met when the two were studying in London in the late 1960s. A 250-plus crowd gathered in the ornate, stained-glass filled First United Methodist Church, a respectful few considering the celebrity inside.

More than 50 friends filled into pews reserved for those who traveled to Wichita Falls from all over the globe: Washington, D.C.; Little Rock, Ark.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Zurich, Switzerland; Frankfort, Germany; and points in between.

Several women dressed in purple scrubs, representing Hospice of Wichita Falls, filled a pew behind Edwards' friends.

Edwards died of cancer Dec. 21, 2006, at age 62. He is survived by his mother, Katherine Edwards of Wichita Falls; two brothers, Robert of Los Angeles and Mark of Wichita Falls; and a sister, Katherine McGregor, also of Wichita Falls.

Listed on the program as President William Jefferson Clinton, he spoke for about half of the hourlong service, a promise made to his friend when the time came. A date was picked weeks after Edwards' death, but Clinton's marching orders were given long before, as an ailing Edwards talked about the funeral service that would inevitably come.

Clinton arrived in the sanctuary holding the arm of Edwards' mother, a task one suspects Edwards himself scripted.

"After I was elected president," said Clinton, "a story appeared in the Wall Street Journal that asked the question, 'Who is David Edwards?' David said, 'I want you to answer that question.' "

With the help of Jim Hoggard - author, Midwestern State University professor and also a longtime friend of Edwards - Clinton answered that very question: Who is David Edwards?

"He was bold, brass, insatiably curious," said Clinton, who sat in the front pew beside Edwards' mother, siblings and other family members. "David wanted to taste, feel, smell, do everything. An unforgettable character.

"Women would knock me over just to get to David," he said, "humbling to my ego at the time. He was better looking, had a job, an income and a car."

Edwards, born Aug. 23, 1944, showed Clinton the world, the 42nd president said, taking Hillary and him to Haiti as a wedding president and introducing them to a voodoo doctor; traveling as a trio to a 700-year-old farm in France where Napoleon had ventured; watching someone open a champagne bottle with a sword.

"I know this," he said with each entry, "because of David Edwards."

The three crossed into the Great Pyrenees, sampling popular fare of that land, cold fish and cold goat.

"I ate that because of David Edwards," he said, producing a round of gentle laughter.

Edwards, who never married, attended the University of Texas and Midwestern State University before studying at the London School of Economics, where his path crossed with Clinton. The former president was forced to move from Oxford University, where he was studying, because of riots and Edwards' apartment became a favorite spot.

Edwards later worked for Citibank, where he relentlessly questioned banking methods and was fired when he continued to alert his bosses. He later testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"He suffered because he told the truth," Clinton said, emphatically pointing his finger into the air.

Their friendship didn't suffer during a six-year imposed silence, when Clinton was under the Kenneth Starr investigation. The two were not allowed to speak during this time, he said, when investigators tried to get Edwards to give them any dirt on the president.

"Even in the only period in our lives when we couldn't talk, we remained friends."

Friends meant everything to Edwards, Hoggard said, and his greatest thrill was having the friends he loved also love his other friends. And a loyal and supportive family gave him wings.

"'I really was lucky,' " Hoggard recalled Edwards saying. ' "I had two parents who never tried holding me back. They were glad to let me try to fly.'

"And fly he did."

by organistnikki | 2007-02-10 08:04 | 教会 | Trackback | Comments(5)
Commented by sakurako at 2007-02-10 13:33 x
す すごいです。クリントン氏が目の前にいたのですね。私だったら
1週間前くらいから興奮していたかもしれません(笑)
Dさんの願いがかなってよかったです。ご冥福をお祈りいたします。

何年か前に実家近くの道路を皇室の方が車で通る事が
あったんですが、自動販売機のゴミ箱を何ヶ月も前から
撤去されたことを思い出しました。(笑)

18日コンサート 頑張ってくださいね。
Commented by darari at 2007-02-12 02:10
クリントン、健康そうですね〜。ほぉぉ〜。
きよサマ、VIPの前で長時間演奏お疲れさまでした。
生クリントン、どうでしたか?
リトルロックの演奏会、来週なのですね!頑張ってくださいね〜。
Commented by organistnikki at 2007-02-14 08:22
★sakurako さま
握手して、ちょっと喋って、一緒に写真も撮っちゃいました。
私はただのミーハーです(笑)。
でもミーハーは私だけじゃなくて、周りにもたくさんいましたので、助かりました(笑)。
Commented by organistnikki at 2007-02-14 08:32
★darari さま
あれ、生クリントンって、何か美味しそうな響き(笑)。
スリムで、ソフトな感じでしたよ。お葬式では、亡くなった D さんのお母さんの手を引いて、登場されました。
リトルロック、寒いそうです。今回はホテルに滞在なんで、気楽です。
Commented by oldsholl at 2008-03-15 18:13 x
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