Since former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s passing was announced I really struggled with that to write. I wrote version after version but was so disappointed that I trashed each one. This went on day after day. I’ve written my share of remembrances, but no words seemed enough or appropriate.
Watching the Jan. 6th service celebrating Johnny’s life made writing this suddenly very easy.
Nothing I could write would ever compare to the testimony to his character, warmth, devotion, and his ultimate legacy provided by his three adult children who spoke to those gathered. Kevin, John, and Julie gave everyone a perfect idea of what their father was really like.
Current and future elected officials and folks yearning for “the limelight” could learn more from their eulogies than any political science class or briefing book could ever hope to provide.
Johnny Isakson
First, consider the sources.
All three are the embodiment of what any parent could hope for their offspring to become. Successful, bright, articulate, polite and loving. Anyone who knows this family knows that every word they collectively spoke was not only from the deepest recesses of their heart, but also precisely described the real Johnny.
So, for all those politicians out there– the bigtime, the lesser-known and the wannabes– let’s consider what we learned from what they said and what a truly great elected official and man should be.
Son Kevin Isakson reflected on the simple notecard Johnny often used for talks. In each corner a single word would remind him of his thoughts. In Kevin’s own version for the service the words were “Thanks”, “Time,” and “Love.” He reflected on the time Johnny gave to his kids over the years and later to their children the love he openly expressed to all of them. And he expressed the thanks Kevin had for his dad, and that his father always let his family know how proud he was of them.
If you think those words describe most elected officials and candidates today, then you don’t know many politicians.
Son John said that in preparation to speak he had reviewed the works of great past thinkers like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Carlyle (for a select group of readers the reference to Carlyle has additional and very special meaning… and Go Dawgs!).
Like his brother Kevin, John said he amassed pages and pages of anecdotes, stories and notes. But remembering lessons from his father about speaking from the heart and reflecting on Abraham Lincoln’s exquisite but brief Gettysburg Address, he chose to turn one of its phrases. “The world will little note nor long remember what I say here, but it will never forget what dad did here.”
The lessons to the political world: Actions that are well intended, thoughtful and truly meaningful speak much louder than endless hollow and insincere speeches.
His daughter Julie summed Johnny up by noting that his greatest success never received enough publicity. It was that of being a father. She recalled that Johnny was always there for soccer games, family vacations, cookouts and the like. Julie said he stayed up late waiting for her to get home when she was out as a teenager. He even bought the keg for the party celebrating her graduation from college. That one got a true chuckle because it was so Johnny!
She said that he was many things to many people, but to her he was “my dad and he was the best.”
There are two lessons here to those seeking “the glory” of public service.
One is that other things matter more than politics. It’s a lesson many of us don’t learn until time has been squandered.
The other is the Old Testament commandment about honoring thy mother and father doesn’t end when you are on your own and on your way. It should last to the very end.
Kevin, John, and Julie lived up to that to the fullest.
Throughout the funeral service a huge and colorful Steve Penley painting of Johnny Isakson, truly capturing the “twinkle in his eyes,” served as a centerpiece in the church. In its presence other great speakers eulogized him. Particularly touching was that by former Sen. Saxby Chambliss whose friendship with Johnny went back to their days at the University of Georgia.
Yet nothing in my mind was more significant at the service than the one person who did not speak, Johnny’s wife Dianne. A genuinely beautiful person, Dianne was always supportive of her husband in everything he did. But unlike so many “political wives” she never ever sought the limelight, always had her own career and kept everyone in the family grounded including Johnny (Johnny would agree!). They were the perfect team and couple.
Like others, I thought I would remember Johnny Isakson with funny anecdotes and stories. Maybe describe the many accomplishments he had as a state legislator, chair of the State School Board, a Congressman and Senator. But all of that went into the trash after watching the service. It was his own family that filled the void.
I’ll close with one personal note. A lot of people, and I mean a lot, had close relationships with Johnny Isakson because he took the time, as Kevin noted, to create those friendships. I was lucky enough to be one of them. He always called me Matthew when we were together or when we talked on the phone in the later years. Only my mother ever used that name, and usually when I was in trouble! When Johnny said it, it always made me feel special. He had that way with folks– making them feel special. Hence my byline to this piece.
In May of 2015, when I was still writing a syndicated column, I described Johnny as “the hardest working man in the U.S. Senate.” I meant it. Several months later that line became a small part of Isakson re-election campaign ads. Truth in advertising personified.
So, the final lesson to the political world is that you need to want the job, not the perks.
Johnny always plunged himself into whatever position he held. When I was in the state legislature, we used to marvel at how many conference committees Johnny would be appointed to on the final day of the session. We would see him flying by from the Senate side to the House side and back again. To him it was why he was there, to bring order out of chaos and get things done.
He took every role he had seriously– as a realtor, as leader of Cobb’s Chamber of Commerce, as a Sunday school teacher of many years and as friend. You name it, Johnny did it. And he put everything he had into it.
If anyone I’ve ever known earned their wings to be an angel in heaven it is Johnny Isakson. And now heaven has its hardest working angel. Of that I am sure.
The author is the co-founder and chairman of InsiderAdvantage and James Magazine.
