DORSEY J. BARTLETT Joe

BARTLETT DORSEY JOSEPH BARTLETT "Joe" Retired Clerk to the Minority of the U.S. House of Representatives and Retired Brigadier General, United States Marine Corps Reserve, Joe Bartlett died Friday, March 1, 2013 of mesothelioma at his home in Richmond, Virginia. He was 86 years old. Born August 7, 1926, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, the sixth of ten children born to F. Dorsey and Blanche Bartlett, he began a 68-year career in Washington, D.C., as a page at the United State Capitol in 1941. He became the youngest Chief of Pages on record. For seventeen years, he served as Reading Clerk for the U.S. House of Representatives and in 1971, won a contested election for the position of senior Republican staff officer. He was five times re-elected unanimously Clerk to the Minority. An official to every Republican National Convention from 1948 to 1980, Bartlett served as Chief Reading Clerk to six consecutive quadrennial national conventions from 1960 to 1980. Bartlett enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1944 and was recalled to active duty during the Korean War with the Second Marine Division based at Camp LeJeune. At retirement ceremonies in 1978, Brigadier General Bartlett was awarded the Legion of Merit medal "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services" by Commandant General Louis Wilson. Honorary Doctor of Law degrees were bestowed upon Joe Bartlett by Salem College and the Atlanta Law School. He received the Distinguished Service Award of the U.S. Jaycees, the George Washington Honor Medal of the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, and the Non Sibi Sed Patriae citation of the Marine Corps Reserve Officers Association. A founding member and officer of the Capitol Hill Club, first president of the Tyson's Virginia Civitan Club, and former president of the United Methodist Men of the Arlington District, Bartlett's recollections of his years on Capitol Hill have become part of the permanent collection of the online Oral History of the U.S. House of Representatives preserved by the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Bartlett is survived by his wife Virginia, daughters Linda Bartlett Hobgood and husband Jim Hobgood, Laura Bartlett Perkins and husband Wade Perkins, grandchildren James Daniel Hobgood, Jenny Hobgood Connors and husband Matthew Connors, Sally Perkins Tate and husband Nathan Tate, Emily Elizabeth Perkins, and great-grandson Christopher James Connors. Three sisters, Betsy Bartlett Davis, Cleo Bartlett Rollins, Lois Bartlett Price, and his youngest brother, Boyd Bartlett, twenty-seven nieces and nephews, their spouses, children and grandchildren survive him as well. A memorial service will be held at Bliley's Central Chapel, 3801 Augusta Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, Saturday, March 9 at 11 a.m., followed by internment at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Salvation Army or the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, 3800 Fettler Park Drive Suite 104, Dumfries, VA 22025.