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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of former
4State Representative Ann Simonsen Hughes, a resident of
5Woodstock since 1967, who passed away on March 3, 2021; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Ann Hughes's life made her a symbol of what
7McHenry County was and what it would become; in her first years
8in our state, she worked with the people of Illinois who grow
9things by serving as secretary and treasurer of the Hughes
10family's hybrid seed company; and
 
11    WHEREAS, As a taxpayer, Ann Hughes become interested in
12the work and challenges of the taxing bodies of Woodstock; she
13ran for and won election to the Woodstock District 200 School
14Board and the McHenry County Board; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Ann Hughes was a woman educated in science; she
16graduated from Wells College with a degree in biology in 1965;
17as time passed, she became more and more aware of what a highly
18educated and increasingly attractive place to live that
19McHenry County was becoming; and
 
20    WHEREAS, As McHenry County grew as a friendly place for
21professionals to live, Ann Hughes, with executive business

 

 

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1experience, won election to be chairperson on the McHenry
2County Board; and
 
3    WHEREAS, McHenry County grew fast in the 1970s and 1980s;
4the county almost doubled in population and earned an
5additional seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in
6the redistricting after the 1990 census; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Continuing her life as a community leader, Ann
8Hughes was nominated on March 17, 1992 to represent the
9newly-redrawn Sixty-Third Representative District in the
10Illinois House as a member of the Republican Party; on
11November 3, 1992, she was elected to serve her first term by a
12landslide margin of almost 12,000 votes; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Ann Hughes established herself as an authority on
14McHenry County interests and issues; in her first year in the
15Illinois House, aware of the importance of safe boating to
16Eastern McHenry County, she was the chief House sponsor of SB
17734; signed into law as Public Act 88-175, the law added
18cannabis and other drugs to the Boating Under the Influence
19Law; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Aware of the vanishing green and open spaces of
21McHenry County, Ann Hughes, in her second year of office, was
22the chief House sponsor of SB 1191; signed into law as Public

 

 

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1Act 88-657, the law granted substantial property tax benefits
2to properties dedicated as natural areas and open space; this
3law helped generate what has become a network of conservation
4easements throughout Illinois, especially, but not limited to,
5the suburbs of Chicago; and
 
6    WHEREAS, After the election of November 8, 1994, Ann
7Hughes joined her fellow House Republicans as the majority
8party in the Illinois House of Representatives within the
9Eighty-Ninth General Assembly; she quickly established her
10determination to use her majority status to seek agreement and
11consensus, including in some cases bipartisan consensus, on a
12wide variety of issues; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Aware of the issue within McHenry County
14involving townships and the government of the county,
15Representative Ann Hughes sought a consensus outcome and
16successfully sponsored HB 438 (Public Act 89-365) to allow
17dissolution of all of the townships in a county if a concurrent
18supermajority of a majority of the population in the county,
19comprising of majorities of the votes in at least
20three-fourths of the townships, seek the dissolution of the
21township form of government in that county; and
 
22    WHEREAS, On the east side of the Fox River in Fox River
23Grove, Algonquin Road approaches, and crosses, the main line

 

 

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1of the former Chicago and North Western Railroad; on the
2morning of October 25, 1995, a southbound passenger train
3running on what is now the Metra Northwest line collided at
4this crossing with a school bus; seven high school students
5were killed in the tragic accident, and a memorial stands at
6the site to this day; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Representative Ann Hughes and the rest of the
8Illinois General Assembly responded to the disaster; she
9chaired and co-chaired a series of hearings to gather
10information on the technical facts of the complex intersection
11where the accident occurred and on interactions between
12vehicles and rail crossings in general; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Public Act 89-658, initiated by Representative
14Ann Hughes as HB 3436, was among her chief achievements as a
15legislator; this measure enacted a series of rail crossing
16safety enforcement measures that remain in place as of 2021,
17including the requirement that buses and their drivers always
18stop, look, and listen before crossing a railroad line; and
 
19    WHEREAS, The now-familiar signs on railroad crossings,
20warning vehicles and pedestrians of a fine if they trespass on
21a crossing when the crossing signal flashes a warning, can be
22traced back to Representative Ann Hughes's Public Act 89-658,
23which was signed into law on August 14, 1996; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, After winning election to a third term on
2November 5, 1996, with her now-customary landslide majority of
3more than 17,000 votes, Ann Hughes retired from office in June
41997 to resume life with her family; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Ann Hughes and her husband, Earl Hughes, Jr., had
6three sons, David, Donald, and James Hughes; as an active
7family and community leader, by the time of her death, she had
8eight grandchildren, Andrew, Megan, Samuel, Grant, Jack,
9Madelyn, Molly, and Jeffrey; she was also close to her nephew,
10Richard Freytag; therefore, be it
 
11    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
12HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
13we mourn the loss of former State Representative Ann Simonsen
14Hughes of the 88th, 89th, and 90th General Assemblies; and be
15it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That we observe the legacy of Ann Hughes's
17commitment to transportation safety, environmental protection,
18and frugal local governments; and be it further
 
19    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
20presented to the family of Ann Hughes as an expression of our
21deepest sympathy.