HR0857 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0857 LRB097 20758 GRL 67312 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to honor Chinta Strausberg for her work in journalism; and

WHEREAS, Chinta Strausberg was born on the South Side of Chicago where her parents lived in her maternal grandfather's "family-only" building; she later moved to Markham, where she lived until the age of 16; she then lived with her maternal grandmother's best friend, Ora Higgins, for a year before getting her own apartment while in her senior year at John Marshall Harlan High School; she subsequently worked at Sears Roebuck & Co., getting off work at midnight and attending college during the day; and

WHEREAS, Chinta Strausberg met and married her husband, Bernard, at the age of 21; following his passing, she moved back to Chicago and returned to the Chicago Public Library, where she worked as a senior library clerk; she later worked for the federal government and the University of Illinois; she later began working on the second shift at First National Bank as a computer operator; while working at First National Bank, she graduated from Roosevelt University, where she majored in journalism; after taking several undergraduate courses in journalism at Northwestern University and attending at Medill's School of Journalism in Evanston for a semester, she became a proof-reader/copy editor for the American Hospital Association (AHA); while working full time at the AHA, she worked at WSSD radio as a newscaster, weekly talk show host, acting news director, and acting public affairs director; and

WHEREAS, When there were discussions of closing the WSSD radio station, Chinta Strausberg accepted an offer by the managing editor of the Chicago Defender to join the paper; she was officially put on the Defender's payroll on May 10, 1981; she worked for the Chicago Defender for 23 1/2 years as the paper's political reporter, covering city, county, State, federal, national, and international news; she worked in the paper's City Hall newsroom until she resigned on April 30, 2004, when she began working for then-Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn as senior policy advisor and director of constituent services; and

WHEREAS, Chinta Strausberg resigned from the Lieutenant Governor's office on February 2, 2006 to work for late Cook County Board President John H. Stroger, Jr. as director of communications and public affairs; following the election of Mr. Stroger's son as Board President, she briefly served as his director of communications before becoming his assistant; and

WHEREAS, Chinta Strausberg currently serves as director of communications for the re-election campaign of United States Representative Bobby L. Rush; and

WHEREAS, Chinta Strausberg is a faithful servant at Saint Sabina Church, where she has been affiliated since 1982; and

WHEREAS, Chinta Strausberg will be honored for her civic rights and journalism work at an event in her honor on March 12, 2012 at Hardtime Josephine's Cookin' in Chicago; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we honor Chinta Strausberg for her work and wish her continued success and happiness in her future endeavors; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Chinta Strausberg as a symbol of our esteem and respect.