PRINTER'S NO. 2905
No. 485 Session of 2005
INTRODUCED BY WHEATLEY, DeWEESE, VEON, McGEEHAN, SAINATO,
LEDERER, YOUNGBLOOD, BISHOP, WALKO, RAMALEY, HARHAI, RIEGER,
COSTA, WATERS, SANTONI, CORRIGAN, RUBLEY, OLIVER, CRUZ,
MARKOSEK, HERSHEY, FABRIZIO, GINGRICH, FRANKEL, SHANER,
MYERS, SURRA, WANSACZ, STABACK, READSHAW, SCAVELLO, DALEY,
PARKER, DeLUCA, PHILLIPS, BUXTON, SATHER, GRUCELA, PISTELLA,
BALDWIN, LEVDANSKY, TANGRETTI, COHEN, STETLER, MUNDY,
GERGELY, FORCIER, MELIO, ROEBUCK, JAMES, CALTAGIRONE,
WOJNAROSKI, KOTIK, MAHER, PALLONE, SIPTROTH, KIRKLAND, ROSS,
GEIST, THOMAS AND BLACKWELL, OCTOBER 24, 2005
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
OCTOBER 24, 2005
A RESOLUTION
1 Noting with sadness the death of August Wilson, who brought
2 Pittsburgh's Hill District and the uniqueness of the African-
3 American experience to American theater.
4 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson died on October 2, 2005, in Seattle,
5 Washington, leaving behind his wife, Constanza Romero, two
6 daughters, Sakina and Azula, four sisters and two brothers; and
7 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel on April
8 27, 1945, in Pittsburgh; and
9 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson changed his name to August Wilson in 1965
10 to honor his mother, Daisy Wilson Kittel, after his father's
11 death; and
12 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson's celebrated ten-part, decade-by-decade
13 series of plays chronicling the effects of slavery on 20th-
14 century African Americans has been referred to as the Pittsburgh
1 Cycle; and
2 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for two of these
3 plays, "Fences" and "The Piano Lesson"; and
4 WHEREAS, A high school dropout, Mr. Wilson began writing
5 poetry after a period of self-study at the Pittsburgh Public
6 Library; and
7 WHEREAS, From 1968 through 1978 Mr. Wilson worked as
8 cofounder, scriptwriter and director of Black Horizons on the
9 Hill, a theater company in Pittsburgh; and
10 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1978 and
11 settled in Seattle in the 1990s; and
12 WHEREAS, Mr. Wilson is the sole recipient of a high school
13 diploma issued by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; and
14 WHEREAS, The Virginia Theater on Broadway is being
15 rededicated as the August Wilson Theater; and
16 WHEREAS, Funeral services for Mr. Wilson were held October 8,
17 2005, at Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and
18 Memorial in Pittsburgh; therefore be it
19 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
20 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania note with sadness the death of
21 August Wilson, who brought Pittsburgh's Hill District and the
22 uniqueness of the African-American experience to American
23 theater; and be it further
24 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
25 the family of August Wilson.
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