[cheers and applause] on the night of patricia mcbride's farewell performance at the new york city ballet, the crowd showered her with 13,000 roses. thankfully they cut the thorns off first. and that is fitting, because when you hear about patricia you hear about somebody who is all rose and no thorn. legendary for her good cheer, her sweetness, her unabashed joyfulness that person al translated to the stage where her humor and grace was matched only by her power and stamina and incredible athleticism. she's one of the most versatile dancers we've ever seen. patricia became the principal dancer at the new york city ballet when she was just 18 years old, the youngest to ever hold that role and she kept at it for 28 years, longer than anybody else in history. by the time she was finished some of our greatest choreographers had written dozens of pieces just for her, which is not bad for a shy young girl who grew up in the shadow of world war ii putting glue on the toes of her dance shoes to make them last longer. he's the daughter of a single mom who worked as a bank secretary in a day when

[applause] so, reverend al green, patricia mcbride, lily tomlin, sting, tom hanks.rm, soul, spirit, spoke -- they have helped us better understand ourselves and each other and as president kennedy expressed, they have helped us center our purpose as a nation and together reflect the quality of our society. for that, we cannot thank them enough. we are so glad to be able to celebrate these extraordinary people. thank you for everything you've given us over the years and for what you are going to give us in the future. congratulations. god bless you all. pleased with me in saluting one last time our extraordinary kennedy center honorees for this year. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up on c-span, the 2014 nobel peace prize ceremony. then stories told by heroes of war world for -- world war ii. later, william kristol talks about the incoming republican-led congress. then the role of democrats