Full Text of HR0874 093rd General Assembly
HR0874 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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HR0874 |
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LRB093 21979 KEF 50231 r |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | 3 |
| Representatives wish to congratulate Judge Odas Nicholson, | 4 |
| retired, on being honored as a 2004 Law Day Honoree by the | 5 |
| Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church in Chicago; and
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| WHEREAS, May 1, 2004 is known as national Law Day to help | 7 |
| promote the importance of the legal system in the United | 8 |
| States; and | 9 |
| WHEREAS, Judge Odas Nicholson was born in Pickens, | 10 |
| Mississippi and moved north to Chicago at the age of twelve | 11 |
| following the death of her mother; after graduating from | 12 |
| Marshall High School and Wilson Junior College she was accepted | 13 |
| at the University of Chicago, School of Law, and the DePaul | 14 |
| School of Law; in 1947, she was the only African American to | 15 |
| graduate from the DePaul School of Law in Chicago; and
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| WHEREAS, Her need to work while in school in order to | 17 |
| finance her education is what inevitably prompted her | 18 |
| enrollment at DePaul; presently, she has amassed over 53 years | 19 |
| of distinguished service in the legal arena, having been | 20 |
| admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1948; and
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| WHEREAS, From October 1949 to June of 1973, she represented | 22 |
| the Supreme Life Insurance Company of America in all of its | 23 |
| litigation in municipal, State, and Federal District Courts | 24 |
| first as a Trial Attorney, next as the Assistant General | 25 |
| Counsel and Assistant to the General Counsel of Supreme Life | 26 |
| Insurance Company; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1969, Judge Nicholson was elected as a Delegate | 28 |
| to the historic Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention from | 29 |
| the 24th Senatorial District of Illinois; she served as the | 30 |
| secretary of the convention and considers that one of her |
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HR0874 |
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LRB093 21979 KEF 50231 r |
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| proudest moments; she also served with distinction as a member | 2 |
| of the Judiciary Committee and chaired a Special Committee to | 3 |
| disseminate information on the new Constitution to the voters | 4 |
| of the State; and | 5 |
| WHEREAS, In 1980, she was elected to the Circuit Court of | 6 |
| Cook County; she had previously resigned her position at the | 7 |
| Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, where she had been | 8 |
| head of the Office of General Counsel for the Chicago and | 9 |
| Kansas City Regions, in order to "rest a while"; instead, a | 10 |
| friend convinced her to run for a State court judgeship; while | 11 |
| on the bench, she handled everything from small claims cases, | 12 |
| to juvenile cases, jury trials, and motions; she remained on | 13 |
| the bench until her retirement in 1994; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 15 |
| NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | 16 |
| congratulate Judge Odas Nicholson for being selected as a Law | 17 |
| Day 2004 Honoree by the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church | 18 |
| and for her lifetime of contributions to the legal community | 19 |
| and to the citizens of Illinois; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 21 |
| presented to Judge Odas Nicholson as a token of our respect.
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