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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 Beatrice
4Taylor of Rockford, who passed away on May 6, 2013; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Beatrice Taylor was born on April 19, 1905, in the
6Gypsum Hills of Blain County, Oklahoma; her parents were Lottie
7and Clem Smith; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Beatrice Taylor graduated from high school in
9Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and then moved to Wichita, Kansas; in
101923, she married Ira Anderson and had 3 daughters, Loretta,
11Yvonne, and Lavonne; shortly after the passing of her husband
12Ira, when her children were teenagers, she moved to Rockford in
13the 1940s to be closer to her mother; in Rockford, she married
14Thomas Jarvis Taylor and worked as their personal cook for the
15Todd family, who owned the Rockford Register Star, as well as
16the personal cook for Maurice McDonald, one of the founding
17brothers of McDonald's; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Beatrice Taylor was a member of the Pilgrim
19Baptist Church; she was also the founder of "The Afternoon Art
20Club", a women's group that met weekly to make quilts, knit,
21and crochet, which they sold or donated to help the less
22fortunate in the Rockford area; she was an active member of the

 

 

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1club for more than 25 years; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Beatrice Taylor was interested in politics for
3many years; her most memorable experience was voting for Barack
4Obama for President; as an honored guest at Illinois State
5Representative Chuck Jefferson's annual Mothers' Day Luncheon,
6she met then-Senator Barack Obama and was later invited to the
7White House once he took office; she also met Oprah Winfrey at
8age 106 and was invited to speak to the audience during the
9pre-show; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Beatrice Taylor was designated as the
11African-American Woman of the Year by Rockford's Ethnic
12Heritage Museum; therefore, be it
 
13    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
14NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
15we mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of
16Beatrice Taylor; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
18presented to the family of Beatrice Taylor as an expression of
19our sympathy.