Cemetery in Charlottesville, Virginia. Personal life Humor A popular Internet joke claims that William B. Spong of Virginia and Hiram Fong of Hawaii sponsored a bill recommending the mass ringing of church bells to welcome the arrival in Hong Kong of the U.S. Table Tennis Team after its tour of Communist China. The bill failed to pass, cheating the Senate out of passing the Spong-Fong Hong Kong Ping Pong Ding Dong Bell Bill. In fact, Senator Spong never sponsored such a bill, but he did have some fun with the press soon after arriving in Washington, D.C. As described in an article by his cousin, the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, Senator Spong: was invited with the other freshman senators to address the National Press Club. Fearful that someone on radio or television would call him Senator Sponge, he used his brief five-minute introductory speech to that body to secure proper name identification. His first act as a senator, he announced in his southern drawl, would be to introduce a bill to protect the rights of songwriters in Hong Kong. He would be joined in this effort by the senior senator of Louisiana, Russell Long, and the senior senator from Hawaii, Hiram Fong, and together they would present the Long Fong Spong Hong Kong Song Bill. His name was never mispronounced by members of the media. Other sources crediting Spong with the humorous bill name suggest different contexts. Family Spong married the former Virginia Wise Galliford. They had two children, Martha and Tom. References Spong, John Shelby (May/June, 1998). "My Cousin Bill". Human Quest, p. 3. page External links 1920 births 1997 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II United States Army Air Forces soldiers American legal scholars Alumni of the University of Edinburgh College of William & Mary faculty Hampden–Sydney College alumni Virginia lawyers Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates Democratic Party Virginia state senators University of Virginia alumni Politicians from Portsmouth, Virginia Military personnel from Virginia Democratic Party United States senators from Virginia 20th-century American politicians Burials at the University of Virginia Cemetery