Full Text of SR0875 94th General Assembly
SR0875 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to | 3 |
| learn of the death of Elmer Jenkins of Benton, Illinois, who | 4 |
| passed away on November 3, 2006; and
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| WHEREAS, He was born May 5, 1920, in Westville, to Anna | 6 |
| (Lepengy) and Fred Jenkins; and | 7 |
| WHEREAS, Elmer could read before he began grammar school, | 8 |
| and he read the newspaper to people who gathered at the | 9 |
| neighborhood grocery in the morning; and | 10 |
| WHEREAS, He was Benton High School class president all four | 11 |
| years and played violin in the school orchestra; he later | 12 |
| taught himself to play the clarinet; Elmer loved classical | 13 |
| music and New Orleans Dixieland, and his favorite song was | 14 |
| clarinetist Pete Fountain's rendition of "Just a Closer Walk | 15 |
| with Thee";
and
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| WHEREAS, Following his high school graduation, Elmer | 17 |
| joined the United States Navy, serving at sea as part of the | 18 |
| engine room "black gang" crew; while in the Navy and prior to | 19 |
| World War II, he sailed U.S. ships as part of the United States | 20 |
| Lend Lease effort; he completed his Navy tour serving on a | 21 |
| tugboat based in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, having traversed the | 22 |
| Panama Canal eight times; and | 23 |
| WHEREAS, He entered the University of Illinois after his | 24 |
| tour of duty, but left school the day after Pearl Harbor was | 25 |
| bombed by the Japanese and signed up for air cadet training in | 26 |
| the U.S. Army Air Corps; he earned his wings and was | 27 |
| commissioned as an officer;
during World War II, Elmer served | 28 |
| in Australia and the Philippines as a test and transport pilot | 29 |
| with the 5th Air Force, 15th Air Depot Group; he flew nurses | 30 |
| out of a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines, supervised |
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| the reassembly of P-47s that had come from the United States, | 2 |
| carried parts and retrieved downed planes, tested newly | 3 |
| repaired planes, and flew almost every airship in our country's | 4 |
| arsenal, his favorite was the P-38; while in the Army Air | 5 |
| Corps, Elmer met two fellow servicemen who became special | 6 |
| friends for a lifetime: Joe Kirkham and Danny Scruggs; Elmer | 7 |
| left the service with the rank of captain;
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| WHEREAS, Upon returning from World War II, he entered the | 9 |
| University of Illinois College of Law; and
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| WHEREAS, While he was attending law school, he held down | 11 |
| three jobs to pay expenses and support his growing family; | 12 |
| after he graduated from law school and successfully passed the | 13 |
| Illinois bar exam, Elmer worked for the Federal Bureau of | 14 |
| Investigation in its Kansas City, Missouri office; he later | 15 |
| returned to Benton, where he entered private practice in 1948; | 16 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, For many years, Elmer was retained by Freeman Coal | 18 |
| Company as its compensation attorney; early in his professional | 19 |
| career as an attorney, Elmer clerked for the Illinois Supreme | 20 |
| Court, and in 2003, he was named an Illinois State Bar | 21 |
| Association laureate; and
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| WHEREAS, He was a member of the Benton Masonic Lodge, a | 23 |
| 75-year member of the First Baptist Church of Benton, and was a | 24 |
| Shriner; he enjoyed golf, skiing, traveling, his dogs, trail | 25 |
| riding on horseback, gardening, the Benton Rangers, and seeing | 26 |
| the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series; and | 27 |
| WHEREAS, Elmer Jenkins was preceded in death by his parents | 28 |
| and his brother, Louis;
he is survived by his wife, Lois | 29 |
| Jenkins; his daughters, Nancy Hobbs and her husband, Larry, | 30 |
| Patty Novara, Ellen Curry and her husband, David, and Kathleen | 31 |
| DaNato and her husband, Rick; his stepchildren, Mark Samuels, |
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| Lyndy Girten and her husband, Don, and Terrie Vercellino and | 2 |
| her husband, Steve; his many grandchildren and | 3 |
| great-grandchildren; his brother, Fred; and his many friends; | 4 |
| therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL | 6 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with | 7 |
| his family and friends, the passing of Elmer Jenkins; and be it | 8 |
| further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 10 |
| presented to the family of Elmer Jenkins.
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