2017 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 23
BY SENATOR MIZELL AND REPRESENTATIVE WHITE
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To declare May 26, 2017, "John Wayne Day" at the Legislature in recognition of the legacy
of an American film icon and of the work of the John Wayne Foundation in the fight
against cancer.
WHEREAS, John Wayne remains one of America's most renowned and larger-than-
life personalities who, with a career spanning five decades, appeared in more than one
hundred seventy films, which made him the most popular film actor of the Twentieth
Century; and
WHEREAS, John Wayne was an incredible actor and worked in almost every genre
of film, from The Quiet Man, a romantic comedy about an Irish-born, American former
boxer who returns to Ireland, looking for anonymity, but finding love and peace after the
violence of his earlier career; to films about post-Civil War stories and how soldiers from
both the North and the South dealt with the war's aftermath; and
WHEREAS, Wayne starred in a movie about Louisiana and its earlier attempt to
conduct a lottery that would not be riddled with fraud and corruption; however, forces in the
state are engaged in protection rackets and killing winners to funnel the money to corrupt
judges and line the pockets of the miscreants; Wayne is a Yankee attorney traveling to New
Orleans to take the post of state's attorney with the goal of ending the lottery; while sailing
the Mississippi River, Wayne falls in love with the daughter of the man who runs the
Louisiana State Lottery Company and general chaos ensues, but a lavish Mardi Gras scene
provides a uniquely Louisiana feeling to the film; and
WHEREAS, Wayne starred also in primarily historical films, including The Alamo,
which he directed, produced and starred in, stories of World War II such as The Longest
Day, a movie about the D-Day invasion and The Sands of Iwo Jima, about one of the most
significant battles in the Pacific theater of the war; and
Page 1 of 3 SCR NO. 23 ENROLLED
WHEREAS, the genre for which he is most remembered were the Westerns, stories
of cowboys, cattle drives, and gallant men rescuing women in distress, and his Oscar
winning performance in True Grit, which was a Western film focusing on traits that Wayne
brought to all his films; his grit, courage, and strength; and
WHEREAS, Wayne was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, bearing his
likeness and inscribed, simply "John Wayne-American"; and
WHEREAS, in 1980, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian
honor was presented posthumously by President Jimmy Carter, to Wayne's widow at which
time he remarked: "The Duke' still leads missions on heroic adventures on behalf of fairness
and justice. He embodies the enduring American values of individualism, relentless bravery,
and perseverance. He was the quintessential patriot."; and
WHEREAS, John Wayne was a force not only on screen, but in American culture
in the middle years of the Twentieth Century, and his successful fight against lung cancer
in 1964 seemed to support the qualities reflected in both his movies and his life, but sixteen
years later, in 1979, he succumbed to stomach cancer; and
WHEREAS, in the time between his bout with lung cancer and his death, he became
passionate about helping others fight the disease and, eventually, finding a cure; and
WHEREAS, after his death and to honor his life, John Wayne's family established
the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the mission of the foundation is to bring the
courage, strength, and grit, traits so closely associated with John Wayne, to the fight against
cancer; and
WHEREAS, the foundation established the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John's
Health Center in Santa Monica, California where research is continually working to
understand fully the disease and to find effective treatments and, eventually, cures; and
WHEREAS, the foundation also funds an innovative skin cancer awareness and
prevention program, focused on youth and first taught to and continues to be used by
lifeguards along the California coast which is known as "Block the Blaze"; and
WHEREAS, skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, with nearly
four million Americans diagnosed annually, but it is ninety-five to one hundred percent
curable when caught early and treated quickly; and
Page 2 of 3 SCR NO. 23 ENROLLED
WHEREAS, "Block the Blaze", a program that focuses on prevention and self-
screening, has educated over twenty-three thousand junior lifeguards in California and more
than two hundred thousand young people and by 2016 the program expanded to Delaware,
Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia; and
WHEREAS, John Wayne was born in Winterset, Iowa on May 26, 1907, making the
designation of John Wayne Day this year a remembrance of the one hundred tenth
anniversary of his birth; and
WHEREAS, considering his contribution to the nation over five decades of
portrayals of all of the basic American values, John Wayne was certainly an American
patriot, who through his initial activism and the continuing work of his family and countless
others through the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the John Wayne Cancer Institute,
with its programs such as "Block the Blaze", has so positively impacted American life and
culture and has continued to do so after his death, through the Institute, with a grit, courage,
and strength that should be an example and a goal of all who treasure the values of this most
unique democratic nation.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
declare May 26, 2017, "John Wayne Day" at the Legislature in recognition of the legacy of
an American icon of film and of the work of the John Wayne Foundation and the John
Wayne Cancer Institute in the fight against cancer.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Page 3 of 3