SR0550 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0550 LRB104 17062 ECR 30477 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of June Carol Porter, who passed away on December 4, 2025; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 19, 1934; she was raised in Kansas City, Kansas, where she attended Mason Memorial United Methodist Church and graduated from Sumner High School and Kansas City Junior College; she received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Baker University in 1956, and she completed graduate work at Pittsburgh State Teachers College; she married the Reverend Kwame John R. Porter, Ph.D. in 1961, and he preceded her in death in 2019 after 57 years of marriage; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was a distinguished and lifelong educator whose teaching career included the Chicago Public Schools, the Austin Christian Academy, and the Guaranteed Alternative Schools; she also educated children in group home settings and in preschool, elementary school, high school, and after-school programs; she served as director of Adult Literacy for Literacy Chicago for more than 30 years, during which time she taught adult students to read, developed English as a Second Language programming, and trained volunteers to teach adult students before retiring in 2017; more recently, she became a published author of the children's book, Shh! Shh! The Children are Praying, in June 2025; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was a lifelong member of United Methodist Church and served the church in various capacities, including as a US-2 home missionary deployed to Jacksonville, Florida, where she was a teacher at the Boylan-Haven School for Girls, as a Sunday School superintendent, and as an active member of the United Methodist Women's organization; she and her husband were active with the Christ United Methodist Church in the Englewood community of Chicago, assisting in civil rights and ministry work, and they additionally attended Fellowship United Methodist Church in West Pullman for several years before joining the United Church of Hyde Park; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was a board member of United Voices for Children for several years, where she also served as president for one term, and she was an active member of the Alfreda Wells Duster Civic Club; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was nominated as one of the Chicago Tribune's Remarkable Women in December 2011; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was known for her compassion and generosity, touching the hearts of the people who knew and loved her as well as strangers who later became her friends or associates; and

WHEREAS, June Porter was the mother of six, the grandmother of 12, and the great-grandmother of 12; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of June Carol Porter and extend our sincere condolences to her family, friends, and all who knew and loved her; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of June Porter as an expression of our deepest sympathy.