2005 January 9 Sacramento Bee Deb Kollars
Main News P: A1

ROBERT T. MATSUI * 1941 – 2005

With hearts awash in memories and respect, friends, family and admirers of Robert Matsui said farewell Saturday to the popular Democratic congressman from Sacramento.
About 800 people attended a 10 a.m. memorial for Matsui at Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento. Nearly 700 attended a subsequent service at Westminster Presbyterian Church near the Capitol.

Some were members of Congress dashing in from the East Coast. Others were faithful friends and neighbors from Matsui's hometown. They cried and embraced. They laughed at old stories. They watched in silence as his casket was carried.

"His leaving us leaves a very deep, deep hole in our hearts, and in the soul of our community, our state and our nation," said the Rev. James Richardson of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and chaplain of the California Senate.

Saturday's events capped a somber week of tributes to Matsui, whose death stunned family, friends and colleagues from California to the nation's capital.

Matsui was 63 when he died New Year's night in a Maryland hospital of pneumonia complicated by a rare blood disorder.

He had represented the Sacramento area in Congress since 1978, and in November was re-elected.

Before joining the House, he served seven years on the Sacramento City Council.

After a memorial service Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol, Matsui's body was flown to Sacramento on Thursday and lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda, where streams of mourners paid their respects.

The poignant remembrances continued Saturday.

Walking to Memorial Auditorium before Saturday's ceremony, Lorraine Ivey gave her granddaughter a history lesson about the indignities suffered by those interned during World War II.
Matsui had spent his earliest years behind the barbed wire of an internment camp with his family and other Japanese Americans. Forty years later, he led a successful congressional battle to provide financial reparations and a formal apology to the internees.

"They lost their property, they lost their money," Ivey, 56, told granddaughter Alexandria, 11.

Ivey, of Sacramento, never met Matsui, but voted for him faithfully. "I always hoped one day to wear a button that said 'Matsui for President,' " she said.

Inside the auditorium, a hushed crowd that included numerous local politicians past and present gathered amid dimmed lights and gentle harp music. All had been touched in some way by the broad sweep of Matsui's life.

Ichiye Wakabayashi, 81, said her husband worked with Matsui's father for General Produce.

Hector Reinaldo, 69, said a young Matsui once used his real estate office as a temporary campaign headquarters.

Former television reporter Dwayne Jackson recalled running across Matsui in an alley one day as both hurried to an event. Matsui was on foot, and surprised Jackson by cramming into his already full car and sitting on an armrest. "He's a real person," Jackson said. "Most politicians aren't."

Carl Betlan, 41, came because he didn't know Matsui at all. He had never voted for him, and was surprised to learn of his Sacramento roots. Chagrined, Betlan came to pay newfound respect.

"It's one of the things you always regret - to get to know someone after the fact," he said.

Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo opened the ceremony, which featured eight heartfelt speeches and the Sacramento Children's Chorus.

"We will miss his guidance, we will miss his advocacy, we will miss his friendship," Fargo said.

Teacher Betty Riley Perry, who knew Matsui when he was a teenager at McClatchy High School, struggled through tears as she remembered his courteous ways.

Phil Isenberg, a former Sacramento mayor and assemblyman, used humor to recall a Matsui faux pas with the press, and mastery of his role as public servant.

Others praised him for his work on local and national issues - light rail, a convalescent home for Asian Americans, flood control, Social Security and civil rights.

"Adversity made him stronger, and along the way he helped countless others to find strength as well," said Sacramento Superior Court Judge Emily E. Vasquez.

After the first memorial, a motorcade traveled through the rain to Westminster Presbyterian Church.

As the Camellia String Quartet played, several reserved pews in the front of the church were filled by a stream of Congress members from across the country and Washington leaders, including Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta, and numerous staff members.

Matsui's widow, Doris, his son, Brian, daughter-in-law Amy and sleeping granddaughter Anna sat together in the front row.

The ecumenical service included Buddhist, Christian and Jewish religious leaders, who offered words of comfort. Other speakers included David Levi, chief judge of the U.S. District Court's Eastern District; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York; and longtime friend and Sacramentan David Murphy.

All spoke of Matsui's enduring graciousness, devotion to his family and passion for human rights and making his country a better place.

"Bob was a man of quiet dignity, respected by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle," Murphy said.

The final speaker was Matsui's son.

Brian Matsui remembered the simple joys of his childhood - lunches at Vic's ice cream parlor, feeding the ducks in Land Park - and noted with sorrow that his toddler daughter would not experience these with her grandfather.

"How much I love him. How much I will miss him," the son said.

It was a sentiment felt widely and deeply as the casket was carried away and people filed quietly out of the church.

Matsui was born in 1941 in Sacramento. He earned a law degree from University of California Hastings College of the Law. A committed liberal in Congress, he rose over the years to the top ranks of the Democratic Party.

He was to have been sworn in for his 14th term in the House last week.

Matsui was known for his knowledge of business and international trade and his commitment to strengthening flood control for Sacramento. He often bucked his party with pro-trade positions, pushing to maintain free trade with China and to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He also was known for his fund-raising skills. As chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Matsui oversaw a record-setting fund-raising pace that brought in $91.5 million over the past two years.

Always a gentleman, Matsui could become emotional over issues close to his heart.

His fight to win redress for the World War II internees was fueled by his sense of outrage over the violation of people's rights. And he once became highly incensed when accused of arranging an event at a Buddhist temple as a political fund-raiser and using his Japanese American heritage to exploit the monks.

His last battle, however, was a quiet one.

After he was diagnosed several months ago with a blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome, Matsui and his family chose to keep the information private. He was admitted to the hospital Dec. 24 with pneumonia. He expected to recuperate but did not.

Saturday afternoon, his family and closest friends gathered after the services to bury him in a family plot at East Lawn Memorial Park.