Judge (ret.) Jim Burns

The two men most important to statehood-- aside from my father-- were Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson.  Without the two of them Hawaii would not have been a state. Sam Rayburn, when he found out that my father was not invited was not going to go to the signing ceremony, and then when my father heard about it, he persuaded Speaker Rayburn to go, and said, you know, it's okay, I don't have to go but you should go because you're one of the people that was really responsible for statehood having occured.  So when the signing occurred, the President offered the pen, the signing pen to speaker Rayburn and he initially refused it, but ultimately he accepted it, and then he communicated with my father and gave him the pen.

This is just my father at his desk doing his business.  I really don't think he was disappointed at not being invited.  I think he was disappointed at the pettiness of President Eisenhower not to invite him.  But as far as him being there, he was so happy that Hawaii got statehood. I don't think he cared whether he was there or not, that was  not important to him. I think this picture is just everybody else was at the statehood signing and he was in his office.  So you can look at it and say he looked sad, but i really think it was just-- okay I'm not there, I'm here--so I'm going to do my business here, and that's how he looked when he was doing his business.

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