President Obama Honors Medal of Freedom Winners at White House

The actress and singer, who received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday evening, said the thought of receiving the nation’s highest civilian honor from Trump was “terrifyingly scary”.

Hollywood legendary Jewish director Steven Spielberg was the next recipient of the prestigious award, recognized for his contributions to American cinema.

“What an incredible tapestry this nation is”, he said. He made his major-league debut with the then-New York Giants on May 25, 1951 – 19 days after he turned 20 and a little more than four years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Mays, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, is a former San Francisco Giant famous for making of of the greatest catches in World Series history in 1954. The Say Hey Kid had an especially memorable visit on Tuesday. Mays served in the U.S. Army. She is now the longest-serving female senator and the longest-serving woman in Congress. Both also played for the Mets. So did Spielberg for films of “boundless imagination” that range from E.T. and Schindler’s List to Saving Private Ryan.

Obama said that William Ruckelshaus, appointed the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, “became known as Mr. Clean – and lived up to that nickname when he resigned from the Nixon administration rather than derail the Watergate investigation”.

Among the EPA’s key early achievements under his leadership was a nationwide ban on the pesticide DDT and an agreement with the automobile industry to require catalytic converters, which significantly reduced automobile pollution. He reminds us how noble public service can be. (Laughter.) Off the stage, she has been a passionate advocate for issues like heart disease and women’s equality.

Obama noted Spielberg’s work in founding the Shoah Foundation, which records testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.

Born in Hood River, Mr. Yasui earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Oregon.

Medal recipients also included social activists like the late Billy Frank Jr., an advocate for tribal fishing rights.