Full Text of HR0810 101st General Assembly
HR0810 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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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 Katherine | 4 | | Johnson, who passed away on February 24, 2020; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson was born to Joylette and Joshua | 6 | | Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on August 26, | 7 | | 1918; at the age of 15, she enrolled at West Virginia State | 8 | | College and graduated with the highest honors in math and | 9 | | French in 1937; with research opportunities for black female | 10 | | teenage mathematicians negligible, she took a job as a school | 11 | | teacher in Marion, Virginia, where she met and married James | 12 | | Goble; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson and her husband moved to | 14 | | Morrisville, West Virginia, where she was the first black woman | 15 | | to enroll in a master's class at West Virginia University in | 16 | | Morgantown; she left academia to raise her children but | 17 | | returned to teaching after her children were grown; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, In June of 1953, Katherine Johnson was hired as a | 19 | | computer by Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory; though | 20 | | she faced Jim Crow laws and segregation, she thrived and was | 21 | | promoted to the flight research division after two weeks; in | 22 | | 1958, after years of pressure, she became the first woman to |
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| 1 | | attend the editorial meetings of the guidance and control | 2 | | branch of what was to become the Aerospace Mechanics Division | 3 | | of NASA; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, After her husband's death in 1956, Katherine | 5 | | Johnson married James A. Johnson in 1959; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson's calculations were crucial to | 7 | | many important NASA missions; she played a key role when Alan | 8 | | Shepard became the first American in space during his 1961 | 9 | | Mercury mission; John Glenn, the first American to orbit the | 10 | | Earth, refused to fly unless she verified the mathematical work | 11 | | completed by NASA's digital computers; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson calculated trajectories when | 13 | | Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first moon landing in | 14 | | July of 1969 and for the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 mission; she | 15 | | was also involved in the early years of the space shuttle and | 16 | | the Earth Resources satellite; after co-authoring 26 | 17 | | scientific papers and 33 years of service, she retired from | 18 | | NASA in 1986; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson was presented with the | 20 | | Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in | 21 | | 2015; the BBC included her in its list of the 100 most | 22 | | influential women worldwide in 2016; West Virginia State |
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| 1 | | University inaugurated a scholarship in her honor, and she | 2 | | received a plethora of honorary degrees and many awards from | 3 | | NASA; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson's contributions were largely | 5 | | unknown to the general public until the 2016 release of the | 6 | | Oscar nominated film Hidden Figures, which detailed the work | 7 | | she and fellow black female computers Dorothy Vaughn and Mary | 8 | | Johnson did for NASA; Katherine was honored with a standing | 9 | | ovation while on stage at that year's Academy Awards; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson spent her later years | 11 | | encouraging students to enter the fields of science, | 12 | | engineering, mathematics, and technology; she was a member of | 13 | | Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority established by and for | 14 | | African-American women, and was a stalwart of the choir at | 15 | | Carver Presbyterian Church in Newport for over half a century; | 16 | | and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson was preceded in death by her | 18 | | parents, Joylette and Joshua Coleman; her first husband, James | 19 | | Goble; her second husband, James A. Johnson; and her daughter, | 20 | | Connie; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Katherine Johnson is survived by her two | 22 | | daughters, Joylette and Kathy; her six grandchildren; and her |
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| 1 | | 11 great-grandchildren; therefore, be it
| 2 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 3 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 4 | | we mourn the passing of Katherine Johnson and extend our | 5 | | sincere
condolences to her family, friends, and all who knew | 6 | | and loved
her; and be it further
| 7 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
| 8 | | presented to the family of Katherine Johnson as an expression | 9 | | of
our deepest sympathy.
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