GILLETT -- Bill Clinton said he always knew what was on Robert Marion Berry's mind because -- while he was an aide to the former president and also while a U.S. congressman -- Berry had a way of expressing himself without leaving any room for doubt.
"He would look you straight in the eye and tell you exactly what he thought," Clinton said. "He was completely on the level."
Clinton was among the speakers during a memorial for Berry at Gillett Methodist Church that drew hundreds of people, including former Gov. Mike Beebe.
Berry, 80, who served seven terms in Congress before retiring in January 2011, died May 19 after years of declining health.
Berry's grandson, James Coggin, said his grandfather had an endless stream of wisdom to share, and he was always willing to share it with his children and grandchildren.
Ironically, he didn't like to share much information about himself, Coggin added, especially when he was asked to talk about his accomplishments, which were vast.
"Instead, he told stories of those people who inspired him," Coggin told the congregation.
Berry grew up in the Bayou Meto community near DeWitt and was the son of a farmer. His family urged him to go to college and land a career outside the world of agriculture. He wound up graduating in 1965 from the Arkansas College of Pharmacy in Little Rock and ran a pharmacy in neighboring North Little Rock for two years.
In 1968, he returned to Arkansas County and worked on his family farm, eventually taking it over and raising rice and soybeans. While a farmer in southeast Arkansas, Berry also served as an alderman in Gillett and on the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission.
Berry supported a political upstart in Clinton when the latter first ran for statewide public office in 1976 -- for Arkansas attorney general. After continuing his political ascension all the way to the White House, Clinton in 1993 selected Berry to serve as a special assistant for agricultural trade and food assistance.
While speaking to the congregation Saturday, Clinton recounted a story of a trusted aide of his urging him to cut spending in the agricultural sector because she thought too many large corporate farms were receiving too much government money. Clinton said he knew that every farm in Arkansas, even the big ones, were family owned. Cuts would have to come somewhere else.
Berry was called upon to educate everyone in the White House about what life was like for the average American farmer. Berry educated them well, Clinton said.
Years earlier, Berry educated Clinton about the impact of the annual Gillett Coon Supper, a fundraiser for scholarships that evolved into a rite of passage for Arkansas political candidates.
When he ran for governor, Clinton made it a point to go, even though he wasn't crazy about the prospect of eating raccoon meat.
He recalls asking Berry, "Do I have to eat the coon meat?"
Clinton said Berry told him, "No, not if you don't ever want to carry this place again. You don't have to eat it."
Clinton smiled and chuckled as he told the story. Berry told him to drench it in barbecue sauce and to not eat it too close to the bone because that's where most of the gristle was.
While governor, a plane carrying Clinton and then-U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers hit a snow embankment while landing at the DeWitt Airport and slid off the runway. After his brush with death, Clinton was approached by Berry, who told him, "Look at this as a positive: Now you can win here without eating any coon."
Clinton said Berry always maintained a sense of humor. Even when he was saying something serious, he'd find a way to smile or add a layer of humor on it. But there was always an undercurrent of seriousness with everything he said, especially when it came to his job.
As a point of emphasis, Clinton accused modern Republicans and Democrats alike of "treating politics as if it's performance art."
Berry always treated it as an important job that had impact on people's everyday lives, Clinton said, pounding the lectern for emphasis.
"He loved this job," he said.
Clinton won re-election as president in 1996 and Berry thought that was the appropriate time to leave the White House and embark on a political path of his own, representing the corner of the world he grew up in. He resigned from the White House to run for U.S. Congress.
Berry won every election he ran in, representing the 1st District in Arkansas from January 1997 until his retirement.
Berry's daughter, Ann Coggin, also spoke during Saturday's memorial. She spoke about her father's devotion to God.
As a young girl, Coggin saw her father -- a large-sized man -- drop to his knees every night before bed and say a prayer. She talked about the impression that made on her and how his faith never wavered.
"God sustained my dad," she said, calling him a "steward of God's great generosity."
The health battles he suffered during the last three years of his life "pushed his faith and ours to the limit," Coggin said.
Not long after he suffered a stroke and was admitted to a facility that could properly take care of him, Coggin said her father cried out, "I just want to go home." He wanted to be back on his farm and with his family, she said.
Fighting back tears, Coggin said, "Hallelujah, dad went home on May 19," adding that "God's embrace was waiting for him."
Berry was encouraged to leave home to pursue bigger things, but he always came back. He moved to Washington D.C. to work for the president and, again, he came home. While a congressman, he traveled to all parts of the world -- but he never wanted to be far from home for long.
On Saturday, he was remembered as a family man who believed being an Arkansas farmer was a blessing from God.
"He bloomed where he was planted," Clinton said.