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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 10, 2000

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Hillary and I were saddened to learn of the untimely death of Marsha Pyle Martin, the Chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration.

Marsha Martin was a lifelong advocate for farmers, ranchers and rural America. She worked for more than 30 years in agriculture and agricultural finance. As Vice President of the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, she was the first woman senior executive in the Farm Credit System. She was also the first woman to serve as a director of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation. And I was proud to appoint her as the first woman head of the Farm Credit Administration in 1994.

We will remember Marsha as a pathbreaker; as someone who truly cared about America's rural communities and who sought not to hide from change, but to make change work for ordinary American. We pay tribute to her achievements at the Farm Credit Administration. We send our thoughts and prayers to her family, for whom she cared so much.

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