Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

legislation, I think one day what I would like to do is go down to Springfield
and just get somebody to start in 1957 and give me a list of all the bills
I've personally handled and those that I've been a big supporter of. So many
of them now, it's just--I can't remember them all. There are thousands.
There's one way I can do that. My wife has probably got about fifteen scrapbooks
for me. She used to keep all that information and I could probably go
through those scrapbooks and churn out a lot of the high points. Because,
for example, when I first went to the legislature, I felt that people in the
community did not know enough about what the legislative process was about.
And so I wrote a series of articles for the Chicago Defender, the local paper
out our way, on the legislative process, you know. In a very elementary kind
of way, so the people could understand, you know, what we were about and how
it's done and so forth. Gradually, the articles became more sophisticated as
I discussed the intricacies and nuances of the pending legislation.
Q: Did you have any other activities like that to keep the people informed as
to what was going on or what you felt was important?
A: In later years, I would get out a little three or four page tome about what
my activities had been, highlights of the legislative session.
Q: And was that published by the Defender?
A: No, no. That was published by me personally. We would just get it out to
everybody in the district.
SESSION 4, TAPE 4, SIDE 1
Q: Sir, I got a little bit ahead of the chronology of things yesterday and
I would like to go back and pick up two primary subjects today. First of all
I would like to know something about your wife and her family background, and
then secondly I would like to go back into your political base, the ward and
the early days of that, if that's all right, sir.
A: That's okay.
Q: When was your wife born, sir?
A: My wife was born in 1927. May 10.
Q: And your wife's name is . . .
A: Paris, first name. Middle name, Angelina.
Q: And her maiden name was Bradley.
A: Bradley.