Full Text of HR0073 102nd General Assembly
HR0073 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Anthony "Tony" J. Leone Jr. was born on September | 3 | | 1, 1950 and raised in Springfield; after schooling at St. | 4 | | Aloysius Grade School and Griffin High School, he attended | 5 | | Springfield College, Illinois State University, and Sangamon | 6 | | State University, earning degrees in Commerce and in | 7 | | Economics; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Developing an early interest in Illinois | 9 | | politics, Tony Leone became an officer with the Sangamon | 10 | | County Young Republicans and with the Sangamon State | 11 | | University College Republicans; he served as an organizer for | 12 | | a list of elected Illinois leaders, including key | 13 | | Springfield-area organizational roles for former | 14 | | Representative Josephine K. Oblinger and former State | 15 | | Representative Irv Smith; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, With his credentials in recordkeeping and | 17 | | political organization work, Tony Leone was chosen as | 18 | | Assistant Clerk of the Illinois House for the 81st General | 19 | | Assembly, in which capacity he served ex officio on the board | 20 | | of the Legislative Information System (LIS), which was then a | 21 | | newly-created General Assembly support agency that was | 22 | | beginning to move toward pioneer computerization of the | 23 | | operations of the Illinois legislature; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, As a result of the November 1980 election, the | 2 | | Republicans took majority control of the House in the 82nd | 3 | | General Assembly; Speaker George Ryan then named Tony Leone to | 4 | | be Clerk of the House; as the Clerk of the House during the | 5 | | final two years of the 177-member Illinois House of | 6 | | Representatives, and with only rudimentary electronic | 7 | | machinery to help out, he faced organizational and | 8 | | record-keeping challenges that the current 118-member Illinois | 9 | | House of Representatives can only imagine; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, With the partisan changeover in the November 1982 | 11 | | election, Tony Leone once again became Assistant Clerk of the | 12 | | House, serving in this role from 1983 through 1992; during the | 13 | | 1980s, he also filled many other posts of citizen leadership | 14 | | in Springfield, Sangamon County, and statewide Illinois, | 15 | | including the chairmanships of the Property Tax Appeals Board | 16 | | (PTAB) and the Sangamon County Board of Review; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, Long fascinated with the process of campaigning | 18 | | and electing women and men to office, Tony Leone served as an | 19 | | officer on countless electoral boards and commissions, | 20 | | including service as the Supervisor of Public Disclosure for | 21 | | the Illinois State Board of Elections, the Chief Clerk of the | 22 | | Sangamon County Election Office, and the Assistant Chief Clerk | 23 | | of the Springfield Board of Elections; he served as an |
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| 1 | | election official on the city, county, and state levels and | 2 | | believed that he was the only person in Illinois to have done | 3 | | so; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Moving to the private sector, Tony Leone founded | 5 | | Leone & Associates in 1995; retaining and intensifying his | 6 | | interest in and support of the atmosphere of Springfield's | 7 | | Illinois Capitol Complex, he redeveloped the Complex-adjacent | 8 | | Pasfield House, a historic (1896) Victorian mansion, into a | 9 | | bed and breakfast and Springfield showplace; the Pasfield | 10 | | House also served as a place for him to house his legendary | 11 | | collection of Illinois and U.S. political memorabilia; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, As a champion of Springfield, Illinois heritage | 13 | | preservation, Tony Leone was named the 2011 Historic | 14 | | Preservationist of the Year by the Illinois Historic Sites | 15 | | Commission; in 2019, he co-authored "Springfield's Celebrated | 16 | | Horseshoe Sandwich" that is the definitive published history | 17 | | of the Illinois delicacy; this book was published as part of | 18 | | the American Palate series offered by the History Press; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, In 2010, in line with Tony Leone's longtime | 20 | | championship of the history of Illinois, former Governor Pat | 21 | | Quinn appointed him to the board of the Illinois Historic | 22 | | Preservation Agency; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, On Wednesday, February 3, 2021, Tony Leone's | 2 | | friends were saddened to hear that the longtime political | 3 | | organizer, Illinois General Assembly staff member, election | 4 | | official, state official, showplace host, and author had | 5 | | passed away at age 70 in his home town of Springfield after | 6 | | fighting against a cascading series of health challenges; | 7 | | therefore, be it
| 8 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 9 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 10 | | we mourn the death of former Clerk of the Illinois House of | 11 | | Representatives Anthony "Tony" J. Leone Jr. and remember the | 12 | | tireless work that he performed for the election process and | 13 | | for the people of Springfield, the people of Sangamon County, | 14 | | and the people of central Illinois; and be it further
| 15 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 16 | | presented to Tony Leone's longtime special friend, Cathy | 17 | | Cragoe, and to his goddaughter, Karle Giganti Valentino.
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