LOMA LINDA>> Shirley N. Pettis became a member of the Wive’s Congressional Prayer Group every Wednesday morning. Every year the Pettis’ hosted a table of people from all over the world at the combined Congressional Prayer Breakfast. They attended the Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in nearby Tacoma Park, Maryland, and enrolled their two children in Seventh-day Adventist schools. Jerry Pettis avoided participating in governmental work on Friday nights and Sabbaths until sunset. And he never drank liquor at governmental parties. Alternative drinks were always available. Jerry became a member of a Congressional Prayer Group and became known in congress as a deeply religious man.
Jerry Pettis was responsive to the needs of his vast, renamed 37th Congressional District constituents, reliable, and imaginative in his solutions to their problems. He was highly respected by his congressional colleagues. They found that his word was his bond, and when he said he would do something, he would do it. In 1970, he was elected to the powerful Ways and Means committee, and eventually became minority Sub-Committee Chair of the Health Sub-Committee of Ways and Means; a very prestigious “plum” of a position because of his previous involvement with medicine.
When Jerry’s health started to deteriorate, Shirley covered his vast, 27,000 square mile district, speaking for him at Town Hall meetings.
Jerry L. Pettis was tragically killed in a plane crash on Feb. 14, 1975.
Almost immediately, friends Shirley had made in Washington, DC, including John Rhodes, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, encouraged her to run for Jerry’s seat. Shirley went to the commercial Pettis avocado and citrus ranch in Pauma Valley, on the southern slope of Mount Palomar, and really prayed about it a lot. She asked God to show her what she was supposed to do, because she was very conflicted. She had two children to raise, would have to go through a complicated probate, and was given two weeks to make a decision.
She decided to run for office against 12 men who also declared for the seat. Shirley won the election in a landslide victory with 63 percent of the vote. The margin was so great, no run-off election was necessary. She became the 19th woman in Congress. Her success in the 94th Congress was paved by the respect members of congress had for Jerry. It was a great advantage.
At her swearing in, all of a sudden, there was a standing ovation. Shirley realized that it was for her, but really for Jerry. “It was a beautiful, beautiful tribute to Jerry,” She later reminisced. Shirley admitted that years in congress really solidified her faith and that her personal relationship with God greatly benefited.
Shirley was able to get legislation through that Jerry had started, including the building of a veteran’s hospital in Loma Linda. The United States Veterans Administration opened its 548-bed, $79,000,000 Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center in Loma Linda, on Sunday, September 25, 1977. With great appreciation, the VA named its newest hospital after the Congressman.
As a congressman from California, Jerry Pettis worked devotedly for his district and his country. Veterans regarded him as the primary influence in motivating the Veterans Administration to build the new hospital in Inland Southern California. During construction, the congresswoman’s wish list for the VA hospital became one of her major almost-daily priorities.
Located on a 34-acre site, approximately one-half mile east of Loma Linda University, the hospital replaced the San Fernando Veterans Hospital, destroyed in February 1971 by an earthquake. The new facility serves almost 300,000 veterans living in five surrounding counties. It is a dream come true for veterans who had tried unsuccessfully for 50 years to have a hospital built in the area. World War I veterans, suffering from the effects of poison gas and the wounds of war had settled in the area by the hundreds. The nearest VA hospitals were in Long Beach and West Los Angeles. A VA policy of building its hospitals near medical schools had delayed the building by several years.