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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
IN MEMORY OF MARGURITE "MARGO" BUTLER
WHEREAS, Margo Butler lived a rich and fulfilled life of devotion to community, family and faith. She was a strong community leader and activist founding Evanston Area Black Catholics as well as being a dedicated and enduring force in the Office for Black Catholics of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Margo Butler died October 5 at 79; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was passionate about her church, she founded the Evanston Area Black Catholics [EABC] in 1998, bringing together black Catholics from North Shore communities to ensure African-American culture was melded into the Catholic experience; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Butler's hard work and devotion were singled out for distinction. The Office for Black Catholics of the Archdiocese of Chicago presented Ms. Butler the Father Augustus Tolton St. Nicholas Parish Award in 1999 for outstanding service and contributions to the black Catholic community of Metropolitan Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler also received the Sister Thea Bowman Award from the Holy Angels Knights of St. Peter Claver Auxiliary, and in 2002, the Office for Black Catholics presented her with the Dr. Nathan Jones Award for her work to promote involvement and enrichment of the faith for black Catholics within the Archdiocese; and
WHEREAS, At St. Nicholas Parish in Evanston, where she was an active member for well over forty years, she founded the church's 15-year-old Kwanzaa celebration, annually drawing black Catholics from across the region. She served as a lector, Eucharistic minister, and minister of care. She was the first chairperson of the church's Race & Ethnic Unity Committee; a member of the Parish Pastoral Council for years and chairperson for two years; member of its Finance Council since 2004; and member of its Welcoming and Bereavement committees; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was secretary of the planning committee for the Archdiocese' Black Catholic Convocation held in Chicago in 2000, editor of its proceedings book, and local co-chair of the National Black Catholic Congress IX held in Chicago in 2002. She was also secretary of the ongoing Black Catholic Convocation Implementation Committee; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was born in Chicago on Aug. 4, 1934, the only child of Russell Anderson and Mary Louise Higgins Anderson; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was a lifelong Evanstonian, and, like her mother before her, she attended the Illinois Technical School for Colored Girls, a Catholic boarding school at 49th & Prairie Ave. then run by the Irish nuns of the Sisters of Good Shepherd in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Butler was a 1951 Evanston Township High School graduate, she went on to attend the former Evanston Business College, then Northwestern University as a part-time student, before attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and then Roosevelt University; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Butler spent nine and a half years working for the federal government at the Fort Sheridan U.S. Army post, for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its Cold Regions Research & Engineering Lab, and for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Butler spent 18 years in corporate America, as an administrative specialist at IBM; an administrative manager for Continental Airlines, and a regional consultant for Xerox Corp., during which time she attended the former Xerox Document University in Leesburg, Va. She also worked for the diversity advocacy group, Chicago United and spent 10 years in the medical field, working at Evanston Hospital and Baxter Labs, and managing a doctors' medical practice. Ms. Butler was also a successful residential real estate agent in Evanston and on the North Shore; and
WHEREAS, She was strong leader in the educational community having devoted a great deal of time volunteering in Evanston schools, where she was a longtime PTA member at the former Skiles Junior High School, King Lab School, and Evanston Township High School; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was also a passionate advocate for diversity, she served on the North Shore Committee for an Urban League, and on the Executive Committee for the NAACP; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was an active and engaged community board volunteer she sat on the boards of the United Way and YWCA; and was a former member of the Auxiliary Board of VFW Snell Post #7186; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Butler was a world traveler who, in addition to seeing most of the United States visited Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico; Amsterdam, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Tahiti. Her lifelong dream to visit Africa was fulfilled just this summer, with a visit to Ghana; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Butler was a devoted spouse to James E. "Lefty" Butler for over sixty one years, the couple raised three sons Michael, James and Russell; and
WHEREAS, Margo Butler was also the doting grandmother to Barbara Steele, Karli Butler, Nina Butler, James Williams and Gary Dubose; and great-grandmother to two great-grandchildren; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Commissioners of Cook County, on behalf of the 5.2 million residents of Cook County takes great pleasure in commemorating the extraordinary life of Marguerite Butler, and herewith expresses its sincere gratitude for the invaluable contributions she has made to the many Citizens of Cook County, Illinois; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of this Resolution be spread upon the official proceedings of this Honorable Body and that an official copy of the same be tendered to the family of the Marguerite "Margo" Butler.end