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2008 SESSION

089081500
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 597
Offered March 3, 2008
Celebrating the life of Mary Walton McCandlish Livingston.
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Patrons-- Englin, Albo, Alexander, Amundson, Armstrong, BaCote, Barlow, Bouchard, Bowling, Brink, Bulova, Caputo, Carrico, Dance, Ebbin, Eisenberg, Hall, Howell, A.T., Hugo, Hull, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, D.C., Kilgore, Lewis, Marsden, Mathieson, McClellan, Melvin, Miller, P.J., Moran, Morrissey, Nichols, Phillips, Plum, Poisson, Pollard, Scott, J.M., Shannon, Shuler, Sickles, Spruill, Suit, Toscano, Tyler, Vanderhye, Ward and Watts
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WHEREAS, Mary Walton McCandlish Livingston of Alexandria, a respected citizen and generous community supporter, died on March 23, 2007; and

WHEREAS, born in Fairfax in 1914, Mary Walton Livingston was part of a family with deep Virginia roots; her grandfather, Robert McCandlish, was in the Confederate artillery at Gettysburg, and her great-grandfather, Thomas Moore, was with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia until he was paroled at Appomattox; and

WHEREAS, Mary Walton Livingston attended the Fairfax County public schools throughout most of her childhood and graduated from the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., before heading off to Sweet Briar College at age 17; and

WHEREAS, after her college graduation, Mary Walton Livingston returned to Fairfax to work for the county's Chamber of Commerce and then joined the National Archives; at age 23 she became president of the local chapter of the Business and Professional Women's Club; and

WHEREAS, Mary Walton Livingston married the late Schuyler Livingston in 1939 and they had three children; and although she did not work outside the home while raising her children, she was very active in community fundraising and civil rights work; and

WHEREAS, committed to the idea of integration and equal education for African-American students, Mary Walton Livingston worked on biracial church and PTA groups to keep the public schools operating during the period of resistance to court-ordered desegregation in the late 1950s, and in 1951 she was honored by the Fairfax branch of the NAACP with a certificate for her efforts; and

WHEREAS, in 1962 Mary Walton Livingston returned to the National Archives to work on oral histories from the Johnson administration and to organize other presidential libraries; later, she worked on authenticating the claims of Japanese internees after they were awarded reparations by the federal government in 1988; and

WHEREAS, a founding member of Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill in Alexandria, Mary Walton Livingston served as a Sunday school superintendent and teacher for many years and was always active in the church’s many missions and programs; and

WHEREAS, a woman of boundless energy and determination who was in many ways ahead of her time, Mary Walton Livingston will be fondly remembered and greatly missed by her three children, William Livingston, Mary Petersen, and Elizabeth Useem; 10 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and countless other family members and dear friends; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of a fine Virginian, Mary Walton McCandlish Livingston; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Mary Walton McCandlish Livingston as an expression of the General Assembly’s respect for her memory.