Florida Senate - 2012                            (NP)    SR 2128
       
       
       
       By Senator Smith
       
       
       
       
       29-03629A-12                                          20122128__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution honoring the life of Sara Louise Jones
    3         Pettis.
    4  
    5         WHEREAS, Sara Louise Jones was born and raised in Miami,
    6  where she graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in
    7  1938, and
    8         WHEREAS, Sara Louise Jones went on to attend Florida Normal
    9  and Industrial Institute in St. Augustine, graduating in 1940,
   10  and several months later met her future husband Cyrus Pettis,
   11  and
   12         WHEREAS, in 1947, Sara and Cyrus relocated to Ft.
   13  Lauderdale, where they bought a home and began a family, which
   14  grew to include seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and four
   15  great-grandchildren, and
   16         WHEREAS, in 1985, the 25 Pettises went to the White House
   17  to be recognized by then-First Lady Nancy Reagan as a Great
   18  American Family, one of only nine families so honored for their
   19  exemplary lives and civic service, including creating jobs for
   20  black youth and developing programs for the elderly, and
   21         WHEREAS, under Sara Louise Jones Pettis’ guiding hand, all
   22  seven of their children went to college, with some earning
   23  graduate degrees, and
   24         WHEREAS, Sara Louise Jones Pettis was a long-time member of
   25  Mt. Olive Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School for
   26  more than 20 years, was active in the Parent Teacher
   27  Association, which presented her with a National Lifetime
   28  Membership Award, and served as a poll worker for more than 30
   29  years, and
   30         WHEREAS, Sara Louise Jones Pettis was employed for 21 years
   31  by the Broward County School Board as a teacher’s assistant and,
   32  upon her retirement in 1988, her sons established a scholarship
   33  in her name at Dillard High School to benefit an outstanding
   34  college-bound senior, and
   35         WHEREAS, on February 15, 2011, Sara Louise Jones Pettis
   36  died at age 90 from natural causes at her Ft. Lauderdale home,
   37  NOW, THEREFORE,
   38  
   39  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   40  
   41         That the members of the Senate remember the life of Sarah
   42  Louise Jones Pettis and the legacy she leaves behind as a
   43  devoted and adoring mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother
   44  and as a champion of quality education.