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91_HR0335
LRB9106890CBcbA
1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3 Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Jimmy
4 Wilson of Chicago on February 22, 1999; and
5 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson began working as a bartender in the
6 Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago in 1940, and subsequently
7 owned and operated Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap for more than fifty
8 years; and
9 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson and the Woodlawn Tap built a
10 tradition of bringing together community residents, workers,
11 and students, faculty, including Nobel Prize winners, and
12 staff from the University of Chicago; crossing divides of
13 race, class, and ethnicity and providing entertainment,
14 humor, and joy to the patrons; and
15 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson provided employment to hundreds of
16 community residents and students, in many cases enabling
17 those students to afford the costs of completing their
18 education with the wages they earned; and
19 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson was a resolute businessman who ran
20 the Woodlawn Tap on his own terms and watched his business
21 survive and grow over the years due to the character of both
22 the bar and the owner; and
23 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson was recognized on his seventieth
24 birthday by the University of Chicago with a proclamation
25 naming him an honorary post-doctoral alumnus, noting that the
26 Woodlawn Tap had provided fond memories to decades of
27 University of Chicago students; and
28 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson was a loving husband and father and
29 is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Carole and
30 Richard; his daughter and son-in-law, Michele and Anthony;
31 his brother, Bertram; his sister, Louise; five grandchildren;
-2- LRB9106890CBcbA
1 and six great-grandchildren; and
2 WHEREAS, Jimmy Wilson had many friends in the community
3 and elsewhere who will sorely miss him; therefore, be it
4 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
5 NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6 we mourn, along with his family and friends, the death of
7 Jimmy Wilson; and be it further
8 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
9 presented to the family of Jimmy Wilson with our fond hope
10 that his institution, the Woodlawn Tap, continues to thrive,
11 following in the traditions he established.