John Murtha remembered at funeral as veterans' advocate

His daughter, Donna Murtha, addressing an audience of 400 including former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and most of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation, said that while they knew him as a politician, she knew another side.

"I know him as Dad and my buddy and my pal," she said, fighting back tears. They didn't talk politics or economics; instead, he asked about the children she taught.

Her father was the powerful head of the House appropriations defense subcommittee who died Feb. 8 at age 77 after complications from gallbladder surgery. He also loved Sherlock Holmes and mysteries, loved to watch deer and goldfinches in his yard and tried to outwit the squirrels who eyed the bird feeders, she said.

"He lived by the motto 'One man makes a difference.' We love you, Dad," said his daughter, who spoke on behalf of her mother, Joyce, and two brothers.

Pelosi; Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant; and the Rev. William George, president of Georgetown Preparatory School, all spoke of Murtha's power.

George read from the Book of Ecclesiastes, about times to laugh and mourn. He later said that were the book to be written now, "The writer of Ecclesiastes could also have written 'a time to make law and a time to change laws. And, yes, a time to earmark.'"

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