Full Text of HR0732 103rd General Assembly
HR0732 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY | | | HR0732 | | LRB103 37443 MST 67565 r |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION | 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 | | Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of former | 4 | | Illinois State Representative Susan Catania, who passed away | 5 | | on November 27, 2023; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania was born in Chicago to John and | 7 | | Helen (Giffrow) Kmetty on December 10, 1941; she attended | 8 | | Mother McAuley High School and graduated from St. Xavier | 9 | | College in 1962, where she earned a liberal arts degree with a | 10 | | chemistry focus; she married Anthony Edward Catania in 1963, | 11 | | and they had seven daughters; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania spent a year as a teaching assistant | 13 | | at Northwestern University; she then went to work as an | 14 | | information director at a chemical research company on | 15 | | Chicago's Near South Side; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania's path to feminism and public | 17 | | service began after learning that a younger and less | 18 | | experienced male colleague was being paid twice her salary; | 19 | | after several trips to Springfield to testify on relevant | 20 | | legislation, she decided to seek elective office; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania's legislative service ran from 1973 |
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| 1 | | to 1983; she represented a nearly all-Black district on | 2 | | Chicago's Near South Side; she was a Republican in a city of | 3 | | Democrats and a young mother at a time when very few women, and | 4 | | even fewer who had children, ran for public office; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania championed the Equal Rights | 6 | | Amendment, her signature issue; she also supported gay rights, | 7 | | gun control, and access to abortion and was the first Illinois | 8 | | legislator to sponsor the Freedom of Information Act; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania sponsored legislation that led | 10 | | Illinois to a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.; | 11 | | she helped revise the State's public aid code and provided | 12 | | emergency state aid for Cook County and Provident hospitals; | 13 | | in the case of Provident, the first Black-owned and operated | 14 | | hospital in America, she joined with then-legislator and later | 15 | | Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in co-sponsoring a bill that | 16 | | saved it from shutting its doors permanently; in all, more | 17 | | than 50 of her bills became law; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania served as a fellow at the Institute | 19 | | of Politics at the Kennedy School at Harvard University upon | 20 | | leaving office; in subsequent decades, she survived breast | 21 | | cancer and bone cancer and went on to a second career, earning | 22 | | a master's degree in social work from the University of | 23 | | Chicago and working for the Illinois Department of Human |
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| 1 | | Services until her retirement; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania will be remembered as a feminist, | 3 | | public servant, and matriarch who challenged political, | 4 | | social, and gender norms and advocated for communities and | 5 | | issues long ignored or shunned; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania was preceded in death by her parents | 7 | | and her husband of 58 years, Anthony; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, Rep. Catania is survived by her daughters, Susan | 9 | | Wigsmoen and husband Dave Wigsmoen, Rachel Catania and husband | 10 | | Levon Karayan, Sara Catania and husband Mark Nollinger, | 11 | | Melissa Catania, Amy Catania and partner Benjamin Kent, | 12 | | Annemarie Catania, and Margaret Catania and husband Wesley | 13 | | Williams; her grandchildren, Andrew Wigsmoen, Alex Wigsmoen, | 14 | | Sophia Karayan, Remy Karayan, Lincoln Karayan, Genevieve | 15 | | Nollinger, Lucas Nollinger, Elijah Catania, Grey Catania, | 16 | | Alice Catania, Francesca Catania, Inertia Catania, and Aviva | 17 | | Catania; and numerous members of her extended Catania family; | 18 | | therefore, be it | 19 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 20 | | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 21 | | we mourn the passing of former Illinois State Representative | 22 | | Susan Catania and extend our sincere condolences to her |
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| 1 | | family, friends and all who knew and loved her; and be it | 2 | | further | 3 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 4 | | presented to the family of Rep. Catania as an expression of our | 5 | | deepest sympathy. |
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