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2006 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 257
Celebrating the life of Rebecca Jeffers Guthrie.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 10, 2006
Agreed to by the Senate, February 16, 2006

 

WHEREAS, Rebecca Jeffers Guthrie of Springfield, a lifelong community volunteer and advocate for autistic children and adults, died on April 11, 2005; and

WHEREAS, Rebecca "Becky" Guthrie was born on July 21, 1925, in Wheeling, West Virginia, attended Denison University, and was a graduate of the University of Miami; and

WHEREAS, as the wife of John Reiley Guthrie, a retired general in the United States Army, Becky Guthrie served her country honorably as an active duty Army wife for more than 30 years; and

WHEREAS, as the mother of six children, one of whom is autistic, Becky Guthrie was a leader in the right-to-education movement in Virginia; and

WHEREAS, between 1965 and 1973, Becky Guthrie served on the governor’s board establishing special education standards, helped establish the National Society for Autistic Children and the Northern Virginia Society for Autistic Children, and participated in other special education initiatives in Fairfax County that helped ensure that the right to a free and appropriate public education was included in the Constitution of Virginia in 1971; and

WHEREAS, Becky Guthrie served as a trustee of St. John’s Community Services for more than 10 years, where she helped oversee the expansion of community-based services for developmentally disabled adults in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey and raised funds to endow a home for developmentally disabled adults in Fairfax, Virginia; and

WHEREAS, throughout her life, Becky Guthrie was known as an outstanding “builder of relationships” and a friend and inspiration to all who knew her; and while stationed in Japan with her husband, she was a great ambassador who strengthened the bonds of friendship between Americans and Japanese; and

WHEREAS, Becky Guthrie will be missed by her family and countless friends and admirers in the Army and in Annandale, as well as abroad; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the passing of an outstanding community volunteer and fine Virginian, Rebecca Jeffers Guthrie; 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 Rebecca Jeffers Guthrie as an expression of the respect in which her memory is held by the members of the General Assembly.