By Staff
SAYING THANKS – Former U.S. Rep. G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery talks to a crowd of more than 100 people inside a new auditorium at the Department of Veterans Affairs Headquarters in Washington on Wednesday during a ceremony in his honor as Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi, left, listens. Submitted Photo
By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
October 28, 2004
A wall-to-wall crowd inside a new auditorium at the Department of Veterans Affairs Headquarters in Washington, D.C., honored former U.S. Rep. G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery on Wednesday by naming the new room after him.
VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi dedicated the auditorium the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Room in honor of the 15-term congressman.
Jessica Jacobsen, deputy director of the VA's Dallas Regional Office of Public Affairs, said the auditorium will be used for VA meetings and employee events. Jacobsen said more than 100 people were in attendance at the dedication.
Montgomery, a Meridian native, served 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Mississippi's 3rd Congressional District until he retired in 1997.
While in Congress, Montgomery served on the U.S. House Veterans Affairs and Armed Services committees. He also served on the Select Committee on U.S. Involvement in Southeast Asia, the Select Committee on Missing Persons in Southeast Asia and the Special House Committee on Southeast Asia.
Montgomery worked to strengthen Reserve and National Guard forces and provide veterans with better health care, low-income home loans and educational opportunities. He also fought to keep military bases open in Mississippi.