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VOL.33, NO.3
Tina Panetta, Mother on the Hill PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PANETTA FAMILY
By Margaret Foster Years ago, though it’s hard to imagine today, Republican and Democratic senators used to sit at the same table to share a meal in the Senate Dining Room. They would cross the aisle just to talk to beloved waitress Tina Panetta, an ebullient Italian mother and grandmother. “We talked like family, like brother and sister,” Panetta, now 95, recalls of her 23year career serving politicians and their guests — celebrities like Dick Clark, Joe DiMaggio, Don Rickles and Bob Newhart. “For me, those people didn’t look like senators; they looked like a brother and sister,” she said. “I remember everybody. They were so kind; I got so much joy” from the job. And she has been regarded as special by many politicians in turn. The late Vice President Hubert Humphrey once said, “If the Senate Dining Room is the heart of the Senate, Tina Panetta is what made it beat.” Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming called her the “Queen of the United States Dining Room.” Now her grandson, Gian Panetta, wants Panetta to be remembered as the “Mother on the Hill.” He launched a petition drive last fall to honor her and her coworkers with a plaque or portrait in the Senate dining room. The former congressional intern also wants President Biden to acknowledge his grandmother in a State of the Union address. Gian Panetta has been working on this project for several years, ever since a memorable visit to his grandmother’s apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland. “She was telling me her stories, and she started breaking down, crying, saying, ‘Please don’t forget about me when I’m gone.’ “I promised her. I said, ‘Nonna, I promise I won’t let the country forget about you.’” By all accounts, Panetta hasn’t been for-
MARCH 2021
I N S I D E …
L E I S U R E & T R AV E L
Relax on the beach in the Florida Keys, then explore the islands’ state parks, animal sanctuaries and nature preserves; plus, check out D.C.’s new and lesser-known memorials page 34
As a beloved waitress for more than 20 years in the U.S. Senate Dining Room, Italian immigrant Tina Panetta served and mothered senators and their celebrity guests. Her grandson, Gian, left, wants to honor Panetta, now 95, by hanging a portrait of her in the dining room where she worked.
gotten. In fact, at Gian’s suggestion, on Jan. 8, 2020, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin recognized her in a speech on the House floor. Thanking his constituent for her decades of public service, Raskin recounted her journey from Italian immigrant to American citizen. “At a time of polarization, Tina’s story reminds us of our common bonds, both in Congress and in the country,” Raskin said.
From poverty to politics Panetta’s life followed the arc of the classic American dream. As Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) said on the Senate floor in 1990, the year she retired, “Her life story is the story of America.” Panetta grew up in a poor village in central See SENATE WAITRESS, page 40
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