Bill Text: IL HR1515 | 2009-2010 | 96th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mourns the death of Janina Monkute Marks of Chicago.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2010-11-30 - Resolution Adopted [HR1515 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2009-HR1515-Introduced.html

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HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Janina
Monkute Marks of Chicago, who passed away on November 13, 2010;
and
WHEREAS, She was born in 1923 to a railroad worker's family
in Radviliskis, Lithuania; in 1939, her family moved to
Kedainiai where she became a child actress and studied drama at
the National Theater of Kaunas; in 1944, she was separated from
her parents and sent to refugee camps in Czechoslovakia; there,
she married a friend, Martynas Nagys; after the Allied bombing
of Dresden, they went to Austria and worked as laborers in a
sanatorium for German soldiers until the end of the war; and
WHEREAS, After three years, Mrs. Marks learned that her
sister was living in Freiburg, Germany, and moved to join her;
she enrolled in a postwar art school run by Lithuanian refugee
artists and studied drawing, painting, and weaving; in 1949,
she immigrated to Kennebunkport, Maine, with her husband and
young son, Sigi, under sponsorship of the Franciscan Fathers;
she left Maine for Chicago, where she found friends from
Lithuania forming the Lithuanian Theater Company; and
WHEREAS, In Chicago, her marriage to Nagys ended in

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divorce; shortly thereafter, she met and fell in love with a
jeweler, Ira Marks and they married in 1953, raising three sons
of their own, along with Sigi Nagys; once settled in Chicago's
Hyde Park neighborhood, Mrs. Marks returned to art, taking
classes and becoming an active member at the Hyde Park Art
Center; and
WHEREAS, Later, she became one of the leaders of the
Lithuanian Woman Artists Association in Chicago; her works were
shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, the North Shore Art
League of Winnetka, the Dunes Arts Foundation of Michigan City,
the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, and the Lithuanian
Museum of Art in Lemont; in 1970, after several critics
suggested her paintings would make splendid tapestries, she
returned to weaving; and
WHEREAS, When her husband developed symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease, she weaved a series of tapestries in rich,
dark colors that touched on themes of sadness and isolation
with titles like "Watching and Waiting" and "Why Can't I Fly?";
after her husband died in 2000, she focused her energy on
opening a museum and transferring all her work to Lithuania; in
October of 2001, she traveled to Lithuania for the grand
opening of the Janina Monkute Marks Museum; and
WHEREAS, Janina Monkute Marks is survived by her four sons,

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Sigi Nagys, and Daniel, Peter, and Paul Marks; and her 10
grandchildren; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
mourn, along with her family and friends, the passing of Janina
Monkute Marks; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to the family of Janina Monkute Marks as a symbol of
our sincere sympathy.