FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 370

93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES MUNZLINGER (Sponsor), HUNTER, QUINN,

 SANDER AND DARROUGH (Co-sponsors).

         Read 1^st time January 27, 2005 and copies ordered printed.

STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk

1110L.01I

AN ACT

To amend chapter 10, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to the designation of a state poem.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

            Section A. Chapter 10, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 10.055, to read as follows:

            10.055. The poem entitled "Missouri - Just Waitin' For Me", written by Russ Heindselman, the "Missouri Hillbilly Poet", is the official state poem of Missouri:

Missouri - Just Waitin' For Me

            As I travel the highways and byways, and as I tramp the hills and wade the streams in Missouri, I sometimes stop and look around me and I think, "All of this, just waitin' for me."

            As I hunt and fish in Missouri, I remember all of the ambitious people who have restored, cultivated, and preserved all the wildlife, and it is just waitin' for me.

            Each change of season brings something anew in the fall, as in October when the forest leaves change to a blaze of a thousand colors, I say, "All of this, just waitin' for me."

            I should hope when we, the older generation, turn the reins of Missouri over to a younger generation, that they too will work, educate, cultivate and preserve Missouri so their children can also, with pride and deep admiration, say, "All of this, just waitin' for me."

            When I have come to my journey's end and have climbed the golden stairs and am standing face to face with the Master, may I be heard to proudly say, "Master, in this vast place called heaven, don't You have just a little place like Missouri, just waitin' for me?"