Chicago In Memoriam: 34 notable Chicagoans who passed away in 2024
CHICAGO (CBS/AP) -- Some of the people memorialized in this story were lifelong Chicagoans, while others spent only a short time in the city.
Some would be considered A-list celebrities, others may be names you're hearing for the first time.
But all left a mark on Chicago that warrants honors. Here is a detailed look at 34 notable Chicagoans who passed away this year.
Greg Gumbel, 78, CBS Sports broadcasting legend
Greg Gumbel, the renowned CBS Sports anchor and commentator, who grew up in Chicago, and graduated from De La Salle Institute, died at the age of 78 on Dec. 27.
Gumbel served as a play-by-play announcer and studio host for CBS Sports, and previously spent several years on air for NBC Sports. He won legions of fans with his work hosting coverage ranging from "The NFL Today" to multiple Super Bowls and Olympic Games.
He began his broadcasting career in 1973 in his hometown of Chicago, at WMAQ-TV, where he was a sportscaster for seven years, winning two local Emmy awards. At the time he took the job, Gumbel was selling hospital supplies in Detroit.
Greg Gumbel joined CBS Sports in 1989 after years of hosting and play-play duties for New York Knicks basketball and New York Yankees baseball for the Madison Square Garden Network, as well as other MSGN programs, which earned him a local Emmy Award. Gumbel also worked at ESPN and WFAN radio in New York before joining CBS.
At CBS Sports, he hosted "The NFL Today," the network's NFL pre-game, halftime and post-game studio show, from 1990-93 and 2004-05, Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, and Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
He served as primetime anchor of CBS Sports' coverage of the 1994 Olympic Winter Games and as co-anchor of the network's weekday morning broadcasts of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games.
He was also play-by-play announcer for regular-season and post-season Major League Baseball, host of the 1990 MLB All-Star Game, college football broadcasts for CBS Sports, and host and play-by-play announcer for the College World Series for several years.
In 1994, Gumbel went to NBC Sports for four years, serving as host of "The NFL on NBC" pre-game show and NBC's Super Bowl pre-game shows in 1996 and 1998.
Gumbel returned to CBS Sports in 1998 as host and play-by-play announcer for college basketball and "The NFL on CBS," where he teamed for six seasons with analyst Phil Simms. He called CBS's coverage of Super Bowls XXXV and XXXVIII, at the time making him the first network broadcaster to call play-by-play and host a Super Bowl.
Gumbel hosted "The NFL Today" for two seasons before returning to the booth to team with Dan Dierdorf for eight seasons, through 2013. He served as host of "Inside the NFL" on SHOWTIME in 2014 alongside analysts Phil Simms, Boomer Esiason, Ed Reed and Brandon Marshall. At CBS, Gumbel also provided play-by-play for regular-season college basketball and the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, NBA regular-season and playoff games and College World Series championship games.
Outside the studio, Gumbel was a longtime supporter of the March of Dimes, serving two six-year terms as a member of the March of Dimes Board of Trustees and an additional 18 years as a member of the organization's National Board of Advisors. For 16 years, he was also a member of the Sports Council for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, which provides direction and guidance for the mission of that organization.
He also served as member of the Board of Regents for his alma mater, Loras College, since 2009.
His younger brother, Bryant Gumbel, also rose to fame in broadcasting as host of NBC's "Today" show and "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" on HBO.
Hans Aeschbacher, 80, executive chef
Hans Aeschbacher, a Chicago culinary icon who served as executive chef at Lawry's The Prime Rib, the United Center, and Smith & Wollensky steakhouse, died April 4.
Aeschbacher—known to many Chicagoans simply as "Chef Hans"—was born in 1944 in Tüscherz-Alfermée, Switzerland. He rose through the ranks as a chef in fine hotel restaurants across Europe, and cooked at the Century Plaza and the Forum sports arena in Los Angeles before arriving in Chicago—where he first worked as Chef de Cuisine at La Cheminee, a famous French restaurant formerly located at 1161 N. Dearborn St. in the Gold Coast.
A Chicago Tribune report noted that Aeschbacher took a detour to a Miami Beach restaurant that later failed—and then returned without a job in 1974 to Chicago, where he applied to Lawry's The Prime Rib.
In about a decade as executive chef at Lawry's—which operated at 100 E. Ontario St. until closing at the end of 2020—Aeschbacher became a local celebrity, making numerous appearances on Chicago radio and TV.
In 1984, Aeschbacher opened Chef Hans Restaurant and Lounge, at 7011 N. Western Ave. in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, according to published reports. He supervised a kitchen staff of 15 there, according to his bio.
Aeschbacher returned to Los Angeles and ran Lawry's California Center, before returning once more to Chicago—where the Wirtz family hired him to serve as executive chef at the Chicago Stadium and its successor, the United Center. He cooked for the Bulls and Blackhawks, and won numerous awards in the position.
In 1998, Aeschbacher became executive chef of Chicago's newly-opened Smith & Wollensky outpost at Marina City. He headed up the kitchen at Smith & Wollensky for 11 years, overseeing the preparation of steaks, lobster, and salmon.
Aeschbacher also held executive positions in the kitchen at Trader Vic's, Palace Grill, and Chicago Cut Steakhouse.
Steve Albini, 61, alt-rock musician and producer
Steve Albini, an alt-rock musician, audio engineer, and producer who recorded albums for bands like Nirvana and Pixies and founded the Chicago recording studio Electrical Audio, died May 7 of a heart attack.
Albini was revered and influential in the world of indie rock. He elevated the genre in its heyday of the 80s and 90s to a standard that still resonates today.
A native of Missoula, Montana, Albini began his music career in 1981 when he formed the punk rock band Big Black while a student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Albini later went on to form two other bands—the controversially-named Rapeman, and Shellac—with the latter being the longest-existing and arguably the most important band of his career as a performer. For Shellac, Albini performed vocals and guitar alongside bassist Bob Weston and drummer Todd Trainer.
Albini also helped record and track some of the most influential albums of the alternative rock era in the 1980s and 1990s, including Nirvana's "In Utero," Pixies' "Surfer Rosa," PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me," Veruca Salt's EP "Blow It Out Your A** It's Veruca Salt," and multiple albums for Urge Overkill and The Jesus Lizard.
He also helped record music for legends such as Cheap Trick, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and Foo Fighters, who recorded their hit song "Something from Nothing" at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.
Albini was known for being a curmudgeon with a sharp tongue. In a Chicago Magazine profile published in 1994, writer Mark Jannot chronicled both Albini's perfectionism in the studio, and his unabashed "streams of bile" he directed toward not only the record industry, but bands of which he disapproved.
But by all accounts, Albini was more than a caustic curmudgeon. Veteran rock critic Jim DeRogatis also emphasized how Albini stuck strictly to the underground ethical aesthetic in the recording studio, by keeping the focus on the musicians he was recording and capturing their sound – not centering himself.
"He wore these industrial overalls in his studio on Belmont just off Western, and he said, 'You hire a plumber, and they come and they fix your toilet.' You hire me, and I capture what you do. I don't put my thumbprint on it. I don't take royalties from the recording,'" said DeRogatis, "which set him apart from 90% of big-name producers."
Contributing: Andrew Ramos, Jim Williams
Bob Avellini, 70, Bears football player
Bob Avellini, a Chicago Bears quarterback who teamed with Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton to lead the team to the 1977 playoffs, died May 4.
The Bears drafted Avellini as a sixth-round pick out of Maryland in 1975. He was with the Bears through 1984—appearing in 73 games with 50 starts, and passing for 7,111 yards and 33 touchdowns. Avellini started in all 14 games in 1976 and 1977 and the first 12 in 1978.
Avellini had the finest season of his NFL career in 1977. His signature play was on Nov. 13 of that year, when he threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Latta with just 3 seconds on the clock—giving the Bears a 28-27 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field, the team recalled.
During the 1977 season, the Bears and the Minnesota Vikings each went 9-5 in the NFC North. Minnesota won the division, while the Bears earned a wild-card playoff berth—making for their first playoff appearance since winning the pre-Super Bowl NFL championship in 1963.
The Bears were beaten by Dallas 37-7 in the playoffs that season. Avellini threw 11 touchdown passes and had a career-high 2,004 yards with 18 interceptions.
"Bob was one-of-a-kind; a fierce and tough competitor," the Bears said in a news release. "He's perhaps best remembered for leading the Bears on an improbable run in 1977 to our first postseason appearance in 14 years. He will be missed."
Contributing: The Associated Press
Bill Beavers, 89, Chicago alderman and Cook County commissioner
William Beavers, who served the city and county for 50 years as a Chicago Police officer, a Chicago alderman, and finally a Cook County commissioner, died Oct. 26.
A native of the Kenwood-Oakland community on Chicago's South Side, Beavers worked as a CPD officer for 21 years. After retiring from the force, he was elected alderman of the 7th Ward in 1983—representing parts of the South Shore, South Chicago, and South Deering neighborhoods.
As alderman, Beavers was credited in particular for securing opportunities for Black entrepreneurs and businesspeople for city contracts and initiatives.
"In fact, many of the most successful businesspersons in our city acknowledge Commissioner Beavers as their primary source of help in successfully doing business with the city of Chicago," family spokesman Sean Howard said at the time of Beavers' passing.
Beavers served as alderman until 2006, and was then elected as Cook County Commissioner for the 4th District—a seat he took over from former County Board President John H. Stroger Jr. Beavers served on the County Board from 2006 to 2013.
The Chicago Crusader noted as a county commissioner, Beavers also helped enable Black economic empowerment—broadening his influence from the South Side of the city to the southern suburbs.
Beavers was also credited with helping increase Black representation in the Cook County judiciary—advocating for subcircuit judicial election districts while serving as alderman in the early 1990s so that more Black lawyers could run for judgeships, the Crusader reported.
Barbara Bowman, 96, early childhood education pioneer
Barbara Bowman, a trailblazer in the field of early childhood education and the cofounder of the Erikson Institute, died Nov. 4.
A South Side native, Bowman graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1950 and received her master's degree in education from the University of Chicago two years later. She worked as a preschool teacher early in her career, and went on in 1966 to cofound the Erikson Institute alongside child psychologist Maria Piers, social worker Lorraine Wallach, and businessman Irving Harris.
The institute trains people in social work, child development, and early childhood education. It is meant to give educators the skills to help children thrive.
Bowman was the longest serving of the four founders.
"Barbara Taylor Bowman was a true visionary," Erikson President Mariana Souto-Manning said in a news release. "Her legacy is one of transformation, not only of Erikson but of the entire early childhood education landscape. She didn't just shape an institution—she helped shape the very foundation of the field. Barbara's commitment to justice, equity, and the well-being of all children will continue to animate our mission, inspire our work, and guide the field for generations to come."
Bowman was also the mother of Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama and now the chief executive officer of the Obama Foundation. Bowman's granddaughter, Laura Jarrett, is a national anchor with NBC News.
Walter "Slim" Coleman, 80, activist and community organizer
The Rev. Walter "Slim" Coleman, a Chicago activist whose advocacy for Civil Rights and social justice causes dated back more than half a century, died April 16.
A Texas native, Coleman was raised in Lubbock before entering Harvard University on a scholarship. He left Harvard a month before graduation to begin his work in activism, but did return to finish his education there almost 20 years later.
In the 1960s, Coleman first went to Cleveland to work under the leadership of James Forman at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The predominantly Black college student organization practiced peaceful, direct-action protests that led to civil rights victories.
Coleman and Kathy Archibald—two white SNCC members—moved to Chicago in 1966 at Forman's advisement, with the idea in mind that poor white people in Chicago could be organized through the principles of Black Liberation, Coleman's obit said.
In Chicago, Coleman joined the activist organization Students for a Democratic Society. The headquarters were on the city's West Side near the Illinois Black Panther Party Headquarters on Madison Street, and Coleman got to know party Chairman Fred Hampton.
Coleman also worked with Hampton to help develop the Rainbow Coalition—a union of the Illinois Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, and the Young Patriots Organization, a leftist organization based in Uptown and made up primarily of white migrants from Appalachia.
As a community organizer in the Uptown neighborhood in the 1970s, Coleman organized the International Survival Committee—an auxiliary to the Black Panther Party—along with future Chicago alderwoman Helen Shiller. The committee later became known as the Heart of Uptown Coalition, a political and social service organization focused on needs such as access to affordable housing, medical care, and legal aid.
Coleman is remembered in particular for his role in Harold Washington's historic and successful campaign to become Chicago's first Black mayor in 1983—in particular through a major voter registration effort.
Coleman, who earned a Master of Divinity from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, later became pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. In 2006, the church gained notoriety for providing sanctuary for Elvira Arellano, an undocumented immigrant who herself became well-known as an immigration rights activist.
Coleman also worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) for 10 years, according to an online biography.
Jack Conaty, 77, political reporter
Jack Conaty, a political reporter who was a fixture at Fox 32 in Chicago for over 20 years, died Aug. 28 of complications from cancer.
A Connecticut native, Conaty received his bachelor's degree from Providence College. He taught high school English in New Haven, Connecticut, before switching gears and earning a master's degree from the School of Journalism from the University of Missouri.
Conaty, as noted by his WFLD-TV biography, joined WTVT 13 in Tampa—then a CBS affiliate—for his first reporting job. He later worked in public broadcasting in New Jersey, and then joined WJLA, ABC 7 in Washington, D.C., as a reporter and national correspondent.
At WJLA, Conaty earned an Associated Press Award and United Press International Award for excellence in reporting, according to Fox.
Conaty then moved on to short stint with WTTG, Fox 5 in D.C.. where he won an Emmy Award and earned four nominations. He joined Chicago's Fox 32 in 1987 as political editor, covering Chicago local politics and government, presidential races, national political conventions, and notably the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, his obituary noted.
At Fox 32, Conaty appeared regularly on the 9 p.m. news with CBS Channel 2 News alums Walter Jacobson and Robin Robinson. Conaty also hosted the Sunday morning show "Fox Chicago Perspectives."
Another Channel 2 News alum, Mike Flannery, succeeded Conaty as political editor at Fox 32 after Conaty left the station in 2009.
Conaty had most recently been living in Arizona, published reports noted.
Scott Craig, 89, documentary producer
Scott Craig, a documentary filmmaker and producer who spent several years at CBS Chicago, died April 18.
He had most recently been living in Leland, Michigan.
Craig grew up in Wooster, Ohio, attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for his master's and Ph.D., and took a job at local CBS affiliate WCIA-TV in 1959. He appeared on a children's show featuring skits with puppets, and also filled in as a weatherman, the profile said.
Craig was soon asked to head up a documentary unit at WCIA-TV, and after finishing his education at the U of I in 1963, he came to Chicago and became a producer at WBBM-TV, CBS Channel 2, according to published reports. He later switched to NBC 5, where he remained for 10 years, but returned to Channel 2 as an executive producer in 1975, a 1988 Chicago Tribune profile recalled.
Craig also founded his own production company in Chicago in 1975.
At CBS Chicago, Craig produced some of the station's most memorable and celebrated documentaries and special reports—fronted by Bill Kurtis, Walter Jacobson, and other members of Channel 2's front-line talent.
Among numerous others, these documentaries included "Ed Kelly and the Fighting 47th," a 1979 investigative documentary hosted by Jacobson and focusing on the political climate in the North Side's 47th Ward with Ed Kelly as Democratic Committeeman—and also as general superintendent of the Chicago Park District.
The 1981 CBS Chicago investigative documentary, "Watching the Watchdog," hosted by Kurtis, took to task a report by Geraldo Rivera on ABC's "20/20" that claimed some Chicago real estate speculators were burning down buildings for insurance payouts—and also criticized the investigative techniques used in the "20/20" story, such as "ambush" interviews.
Also in 1981, Craig worked with photographer Steve Lasker for Channel 2 on "The Trial of Shoeless Joe Jackson," a dramatic reenactment that brought viewers to the courtroom after the 1919 scandal in which members of the White Sox conspired to throw the World Series.
The 1983 Peabody Award-winning "Studebaker: Less Than They Promised"—narrated by Jacobson—documented the history of Studebaker's decline as an automaker, the effect of its going out of the auto business in 1963 on its home city of South Bend, Indiana, and who was to blame.
Craig also produced more than 20 titles for PBS, and two series for the Home and Garden Network.
Altogether, Craig won more than 100 awards—including a National Emmy and 32 Chicago Emmys. This amounts to more Emmys than any other individual in Chicago television history.
Craig was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle in 1997.
Dennis Deer, 51, Cook County commissioner
Dennis Deer, who was elected to two terms as a Cook County commissioner representing large parts of Chicago's South and West sides, died Aug. 7.
A native of the city's West Side, Deer attended Collins High School. He earned his bachelor's in elementary and special education and his master's in rehabilitation psychology from Jackson State University.
Deer later earned a Ph.D. in Christian psychology.
In Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood, Deer founded Deer Rehab Services, providing comprehensive services to help ex-offenders. He was a certified rehabilitation counselor, licensed clinical professional counselor, forensic counselor, corrective thinking therapist, and Illinois law enforcement standards and training instructor.
In 2003, Deer ran unsuccessfully for alderman of the 24th Ward against incumbent Michael Chandler—a race in which he came in third.
In 2017, Deer was appointed to the 2nd District Cook County Board seat after Commissioner Robert Steele died. Deer was elected to a full term as a county commissioner in 2018 and reelected in 2022.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who served with Deer on the County Board, wrote: "Dennis was a beacon of hope and compassion who fulfilled a mission of improving healthcare, education and economic opportunities for every resident he served. A tireless advocate for the underserved and underrepresented, he was a champion for people, with an unwavering commitment and genuine love for a district that spanned the Loop, Englewood and the West Side of Chicago."
Deer had received a double lung transplant in 2023.
Don De Grazia, 56, author and professor
Celebrated author and Columbia College Chicago professor Don De Grazia died June 13. De Grazia was known in particular for the novel "American Skin."
De Grazia was born in Chicago, but moved with his family to Lake County near the Wisconsin state line as a boy. He returned to the city as a teenager, joined the National Guard, and served a stint in the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Georgia, before earning a GED and ending up at Columbia College Chicago, according a 1997 Chicago Reader profile,
He went on to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees from Columbia College and soon became a professor there. Columbia College credited De Grazia with helping build its creative writing program.
As noted in a 2000 profile by Gina Frangello in the Reader, De Grazia in 1996 was teaching in the fiction writing department at Columbia College while moonlighting as a bouncer at the Metro in Wrigleyville, and living in a Chicago YMCA. De Grazia spent his last $75 to send an "unagented, unsolicited novel" called "American Skin" to Jonathan Caper, an English publisher, Frangello wrote.
The book was published in the U.K. in 1998, and in the U.S. two years later—by which time De Grazia was teaching full-time at Columbia College, Frangello wrote.
As described by publisher Simon & Schuster, "American Skin" is "a timeless story about a young man's coming-of-age as well as a stunning portrait of the class and racial tensions that pervade our society."
The description continues: "Alex Verdi is on the lam, fleeing from the police who have arrested his parents on drug charges and want him for questioning. Traveling to Chicago, he joins a multiracial group of anti-Nazi skinheads and embarks on an odyssey that takes him from the city's embattled streets to an Army boot camp to Northwestern's plush campus, and finally lands him amid the horrors of maximum-security prison."
Much of the action in "American Skin" is set in the area around Clark Street and Belmont Avenue in Lakeview—an area once known for the punks and skinheads who hung out in the parking lot of a Dunkin' Donuts that has since been razed for a Target store.
De Grazia also wrote the play "The Creatives" with Scottish author Irvine Welsh, and served as the editor of the literary journal F Magazine. He was also the manager of the co-ed 16-nch softball team the Lee Elia Experience.
Phil Donahue, 88, daytime talk show pioneer
Phil Donahue, the celebrated daytime talk show host who pioneered the television staple, died Aug. 18 after a long illness.
Donahue's death came only months after President Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The White House called "Donahue" one of the most influential television programs of its time.
Donahue, a Cleveland native and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, worked a few jobs in radio and television before joining WHIO radio in Dayton, Ohio, in 1959. As recalled by the Dayton Daily News, Donahue hosted a program called "The Conversation Piece" at the station. He also worked as an anchor at CBS affiliate WHIO-TV in Dayton.
Donahue later switched stations to WLWD-TV, now WDTN, and founded "The Phil Donahue Show" in 1967. Three years later, the program went into national syndication.
Donahue moved his show to Chicago in 1974 and began taping from WGN-TV 9. The program's name was changed to "Donahue." In January 1982, "Donahue" switched his base of operations in Chicago from Channel 9 to CBS Chicago, taping from the station's old studios at 630 N. McClurg Ct. in Streeterville in the historic Studio 1—which had served as the venue for the Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate in 1960.
With a live studio audience, Donahue focused his show on a single guest or topic, and he didn't stray away from controversy. His first guest was atheist scholar Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and he also addressed issues such as abortion, nuclear war, the Equal Rights Amendment, and LGBTQ+ rights such as the adoption of children by lesbian couples.
Donahue was also the first TV host to feature a person who had AIDS in the early days of the epidemic.
As his audience grew, Donahue interviewed some of the biggest names of the late 20th century, including Muhammad Ali, former President Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Gloria Steinem.
Donahue met his second wife, Marlo Thomas, when she was a guest on his show in 1977. When Donahue was taping in Chicago, he and Thomas lived in north suburban Winnetka with Donahue's four sons from his first marriage to Margaret Cooney.
At the beginning of 1985, Donahue moved his show to New York City. Shortly before he left, Donahue sat down with Walter Jacobson on the Channel 2 News, and Jacobson asked Donahue about concerns that moving the show to New York might draw people expressing resentment and wanting to cut him down a peg, perhaps perceiving he was "thinking of [himself] as a big enough shot to make it in New York."
"This is not a teddy-bear town," Donahue said in reply of Chicago. He added that the show was already a success with New York viewers while he was still taping from Chicago, and said, "I think maybe one of the reasons we're hot in New York… is that we come from Chicago."
Donahue's show ran until 1996. In all, Donahue had what his publicist, Susie Arons, described as "a staggering 29-year run on the airwaves" totaling some 6,000 episodes, winning him 20 Emmy Awards, a Peabody and induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Contributing: Alex Sundby
Tony Durpetti, 80, advertising executive and restaurateur
Tony Durpetti, the beloved owner of the iconic Chicago steakhouse Gene & Georgetti, died Sept. 26. He lived with pulmonary fibrosis and Parkinson's disease for 15 years.
Before taking over the famed steakhouse, Durpetti had a long career in radio advertising—first working with the national radio advertising firm McGavern Guild radio. He rose to the rank of vice president of that company by the early 1980s.
Durpetti started his own radio advertising company, Durpetti & Associates, in 1986, and the company soon grew to 12 offices nationwide and still unmatched sales records.
Gene & Georgetti, 500 N. Franklin St., was cofounded by Durpetti's father-in-law, Gene Michelotti—who came to the U.S. from his native Lucca, Italy, at the age of 15. Michelotti soon met his business partner, Alfredo "Georgetti" Federighi, and they opened the steakhouse together in 1941. Federighi died in 1969, and Michelotti took over as sole proprietor.
Also in 1969, Michelotti's daughter, Marion, married Durpetti—a born-and-bred Chicagoan whose family hailed from the Marche region of Italy, Durpetti's daughter, Michelle, wrote in a 2015 article for the National Italian American Foundation.
When Michelotti died in 1989, Tony and Marion Durpetti bought Gene & Georgetti from Michelotti's widow and Marion's mother, Ida, so that it would stay in the family, his daughter wrote. For the first seven years, Tony Durpetti did double duty managing the restaurant and his radio advertising company—but Durpetti then retired from radio after 30 years to focus on the restaurant full time.
Ty Fahner, 81, former Illinois Attorney General
Former federal prosecutor, Illinois Attorney General, and high-profile law firm leader Ty Fahner died Sept. 16.
Tyrone C. Fahner was born in Detroit, and worked several blue-collar jobs in Southeast Michigan as a teenager.
Fahner attended the University of Michigan alongside radical activist, Chicago Seven defendant, and later California state lawmaker Tom Hayden, the presidential library said. But Fahner himself was "decidedly un-radical," focusing on his fraternity, working to finance his education, and courting his wife Anne, the library said.
Fahner went on to attend Wayne State University for law school, and in 1971, he earned his Master of Laws from the prosecution and defense program at Northwestern University Law School—which at the time was run in part by future U.S. Attorney and Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, the library said.
Fahner went on to private law practice, but soon afterward, he became a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois. He became part of a group of young federal prosecutors who focused on corruption in Chicago city government—known at the time as Thompson's Kiddie Corps—and successfully led the prosecution against longtime City Council Finance Committee Chairman Ald. Thomas Keane (31st), the library said.
After Thompson was elected governor in 1978, Fahner joined his administration as director of law enforcement—tasked with reorganizing state law enforcement agencies. Fahner returned to private practice in 1979, only for Thompson to appoint him Illinois Attorney General the following year after Attorney General Bill Scott was convicted of tax evasion, the library said.
As Illinois Attorney General in 1982—while campaigning for a full term—Fahner was at a Republican election event at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles when an aide came out from behind a big blue velvet curtain and tugged at his jacket. People were being poisoned and dying in multiple places around the Chicago area—and it turned out that what they had in common was that they had all taken Tylenol.
Fahner shifted his focus from his campaign to the Tylenol investigation. He became the main spokesperson as new developments unfolded, and formed a task force with investigators focused solely on solving the case at the time.
"Every call that came in, we took a name, we logged it, put it down what their tip was and they were run down on a daily basis, distributed," Fahner told CBS News Chicago in a 2022 interview for the documentary "PainKiller."
Fahner lost his bid for reelection to Democrat Neil Hartigan. Afterward, Fahner returned to the high-profile private law firm of Mayer Brown. He served as co-chair of the firm from 1998 until 2001, and chair from 2001 until 2007.
Fahner served as a key adviser to former Mayer Brown partner Lori Lightfoot when she served as mayor of Chicago, the law firm said.
Ken Holtzman, 78, Cubs pitcher
Former Cubs pitcher Ken Holtzman, who threw two no-hitters with the Cubs and was the last pitcher to toss a no-hitter without a strikeout in 1969, died April 14.
The left-hander was a pitcher with the Cubs from 1965 until 1971 and again in 1978 and 1979. He posted a 3.76 ERA in 237 games with the Cubs—including two no-hitters. The first was the 1969 no-hitter without a strikeout in 1969, and Holtzman threw a second in 1971.
The Illini alum also won four World Series rings in between his stints with the Cubs—including three straight wins with the Oakland Athletics.
A native of St. Louis, Holtzman originally signed with the Cubs out of the University of Illinois after they drafted him in the fourth round of the inaugural MLB draft in 1965. With the Cubs, Holtzman also crafted a streak of 33 consecutive scoreless innings in 1969. In 1970, Holtzman topped the 200-strikeout threshold for the first and only time in his career.
Following the 1971 season, the Cubs traded Holtzman to the A's in exchange for outfielder Rick Monday. On Oakland's watch, Holtzman made two All-Star teams, authored a 20-win season in 1973, and served as a rotation stalwart for an A's team that won three straight World Series titles from 1972 through 1974. In four postseasons for Oakland, Holtzman registered an ERA of 2.30 ERA in 12 starts and one relief appearance. In the 1973 World Series, Holtzman started Games 1, 4, and 7 against the New York Mets.
In 1976, A's owner Charlie Finley traded Holtzman and slugger Reggie Jackson to the Orioles in a six-player blockbuster. Holtzman would later pitch for the Yankees and then return to the Cubs for the final two seasons of his career. With the Yankees in 1977, Holtzman picked up a fourth World Series ring, although he did not pitch in that postseason.
Across parts of 15 big-league seasons, Holtzman went 174-1500 with an ERA of 3.49 and 1,601 strikeouts in 2,867 1/3 innings.
Ella Jenkins, 100, icon of children's music
Chicago singer and songwriter Ella Jenkins, known as the "First Lady of Children's Music," died Nov. 9.
The children's folk singer's career spanned more than 60 years. Generations of kids grew up Jenkins' music—whether hearing her records at home or school, seeing her on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," or even attending a live performance.
Born in St. Louis, Jenkins moved to Chicago as a child. She taught herself the ukulele and the harmonica as a youngster.
"I'd hear, then I would imitate sounds—and pretty soon, I figured out I could play a tune," Jenkins told the late Harry Porterfield for a "Someone You Should Know" segment on CBS Chicago in 2014.
After graduating from college at San Francisco State University, Jenkins returned to Chicago and worked in community centers. She used music to teach children in those community centers, creating many of her own songs.
In the 1950s, Jenkins started appearing on children's TV shows, which launched her career as a full-time musician.
Jenkins' early TV appearances notably included "The Totem Club" on WTTW-Channel 11, back when the public broadcasting station broadcast from a studio that doubled as an exhibit at what we now call the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. Jenkins first performed on the program in 1956, and soon had her own segment on the show called "This Is Rhythm."
Before long, kids around the country were singing along to Jenkins' songs both traditional and original—"Miss Mary Mack," "Did You Feed My Cow?," "Stop and Go," and of course, "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song," which was released on a celebrated album of the same name in 1966 and covered by Raffi 13 years later. Jenkins' albums also included traditional songs from cultures around the country and the world.
In 2004, Jenkins was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
"Ella Jenkins is one of the premiere artists of children's music. I mean, if you want to think of children's music within the music industry itself, you really need to point to Ella Jenkins as one of the originators," said Maureen Loughran, director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways.
Contributing: Todd Feurer, Jim Williams, Zak Spector
Quincy Jones, 91, composer, bandleader, and record producer
South Side Chicago native and multi-talented music titan Quincy Jones, whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson's historic "Thriller" album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, died Nov. 3 at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles.
With an astonishing career that spanned seven decades, Jones was a force who reshaped the music industry. He was a titan who wore many hats as a bandleader, arranger, composer, producer, and winner of 27 Grammy awards.
Jones' journey began in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, where he was first exposed to music. It was a neighbor there along Prairie Avenue who had a piano that a young Jones would play constantly. But that was when he wasn't getting into trouble.
In a documentary, Jones described how growing up during the Great Depression in the 1930s, he "wanted to be a gangsta until I was 11." He spent much of his time in Chicago on the streets, with gangs, stealing and fighting.
"They nailed my hand to a fence with a switchblade, man," he told the Associated Press in 2018, showing a scar from his childhood.
Jones moved with his family to Bremerton, Washington at the age of 10, and then to Seattle. He played trumpet and joined a swing band at Garfield High School in Seattle, and studied at Seattle University for a semester before he transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston.
As noted by Biography.com, Jones dropped out of Berklee when Lionel Hampton invited him on a tour with his big band in 1951. By his mid-20s, Jones was touring with his own band.
Jones was at ease with virtually every form of American music, whether setting Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" to a punchy, swinging rhythm and wistful flute or opening his production of Charles' soulful "In the Heat of the Night" with a lusty tenor sax solo.
But the top honors Jones received are likely the ones for his productions with Michael Jackson: "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" were albums near-universal in their style and appeal. Jones' versatility and imagination helped set off Jackson's explosive talent as he transformed from child star to the "King of Pop." On such classic tracks as "Billie Jean" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," Jones and Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants. For "Thriller," some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing "Beat It" and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.
Jones worked with jazz giants (Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington), rappers (Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J), crooners (Sinatra, Tony Bennett), pop singers (Lesley Gore) and rhythm and blues stars (Chaka Khan, rapper and singer Queen Latifah).
For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who didn't own at least one record with his name on it or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who didn't have some connection to Jones.
Jones was also always spreading the wealth. Just last year, he teamed up with fellow Chicagoans Jennifer Hudson and Chance the Rapper to reopen the Ramova Theater in Bridgeport and bring a world-class entertainment venue to residents of the South Side.
Contributing: Andrew Ramos, The Associated Press
Billy Lawless, 73, restaurateur and Irish senator
Chicago restaurateur Billy Lawless—a tireless advocate for immigrant rights who became Ireland's first-ever emigrant senator—died Nov. 8.
William Noel Lawless was born in Galway, Ireland. According to the Irish Times, he sold his family's dairy farm in the 70s, and went on later to run bars and hotels in Ireland.
Lawless also ran unsuccessfully for Galway City Council in 1991, losing to neighbor and friend Michael Higgins, according to the Irish Times.
In 1998, Lawless moved to Chicago after becoming enamored with the city while visiting a cousin, according to the publication. That same year, he opened The Irish Oak, formerly at 3511 N. Clark St. in Wrigleyville.
Many Irish construction workers would visit the bar, and some were undocumented, the Irish Times reported. Lawless went on to take up the cause of immigrant rights, and went on to become vice president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
In 2007, Lawless also funded the Gage Hospitality Group—with the mission, as stated on the restaurant group's website, of "providing a rustic, yet refined dining experience served with genuine hospitality."
In 2016, then-Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny nominated Lawless to the Irish Seanad. Lawless became the first overseas Irish senator representing the Irish diaspora. He served one term.
John Lansing, former CBS Chicago news director
John Lansing, a former CBS Minnesota and CBS Chicago news director who went on to become the chief executive officer of National Public Radio, died Aug. 14 at his home in Wisconsin.
Lansing—a Minneapolis native—got his start in the media business as a studio technician and photographer at WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, when he was only 17. He went on as a young man to work as a photographer for WAVE-TV in Louisville.
Lansing attended Bellarmine University, but left before completing his degree when he was hired as news director at WWMT-TV, Grand Rapids. Lansing then returned to his hometown of Minneapolis, where he was named assistant news director at KARE NBC 11 in 1988—and then news director at CBS Minnesota, WCCO-TV 4, in 1990.
Published reports note that at WCCO, Lansing developed a "family-sensitive" approach to the news in an environment where a focus on crime and a sensational approach to local news was the norm in much of the country. He was also credited with his commitment to weather coverage—at one point rushing into the station when a skeleton crew was working during a blizzard in Halloween 1991, and asking meteorologist Paul Huttner to "turn [WCCO] into the Weather Channel" and to go on the air and stay on as long as possible.
In the fall of 1994, Lansing moved to CBS Chicago, WBBM-TV, Channel 2 as news director—joining general manager and fellow WCCO alum Bob McGann. As noted in published reports, McGann, Lansing, and other CBS Chicago news staffers launched community meetings to gather feedback and criticism about local TV news as they revamped the station's local newscasts with a community-focused approach in mind—calling Channel 2 News "Chicago's News."
Lansing was also at the helm as longtime afternoon anchor Lester Holt took over alongside Linda MacLennan as the anchor of Channel 2's 10 p.m. news, while the renowned Bill Kurtis scaled back his duties to anchoring the 6 p.m. newscast alongside Mary Ann Childers.
During Lansing's tenure—which ended right around the time of the historic and deadly heat wave of July 1995—Channel 2 boasted the talent of the all-star weather team of Steve Baskerville, Harry Volkman, and Lansing's fellow Minneapolis alum Paul Douglas, who took his forecasts to the roof of CBS Chicago's McClurg Court broadcast center.
In August 1995, Lansing took over as vice president and station manager at WXYZ-TV, ABC 7 in Detroit, and two years later took the same position at WEWS-TV, ABC 5 in Cleveland. Lansing went on to take over as vice president, senior vice president, and in 2005, president of Scripps Networks—the parent company of the Detroit and Cleveland stations.
Lansing then served as CEO and director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media from 2015 until 2019. The independent federal agency oversees public service media networks that distribute programming around the world in 63 languages.
In 2019, Lansing took over as CEO of NPR. In an obit story by Media Correspondent David Folkenflik, the public radio broadcasting organization noted that Lansing's focus from the start was diversifying the staff, programming, and news coverage choices in what he called his "North Star."
Poynter noted that Lansing created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office at NPR—and the number of people of color on the executive team and the staff as a whole increased significantly during his tenure. NPR also noted that Lansing publicly defended "All Things Considered" host Mary Louise Kelly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused her of lying to listeners in 2020.
Lansing retired from NPR at the end of 2023.
Harry Leinenweber, 87, federal judge
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who served as a judge in the Northern District of Illinois for nearly 40 years, died June 11.
A native of Joliet, Leinenweber earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1959, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1962. He began his legal career in private practice in Joliet, and soon served as a part-time city attorney there, according to the Federal Bar Association.
Leinenweber was appointed special prosecutor for Will County in 1968, and also served as special counsel to the Village of Bolingbrook and the Will County Forest Preserve.
Leinenweber served as a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1973 until 1983. Afterward, he returned to private law practice with the firm Dunn, Leineweber & Dunn Ltd.
Leinenweber was nominated by President Ronald Reagan and appointed to the federal court in Chicago 1985, and assumed senior status in 2002. He kept up an active caseload until the end of his life.
Among the recent high-profile cases over which Leinenweber presided was R. Kelly's federal criminal trial last year. Leinenweber sentenced Kelly to 20 years in prison for enticing minors into sexual activity.
Leinenweber also presided over the trial last year of four ex-ComEd officials—Michael McClaine, Anne Pramaggiore, Jay Doherty, and John Hooker—who were all convicted of a conspiracy to bribe then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
In March 2024, it was also Leinenweber who ordered $1.5 million in back pay for former employees of the Signature Room atop the former John Hancock Center, ruling the owners of the iconic restaurant and lounge failed to give workers proper notice when the business abruptly closed in September.
Bob Love, 81, Bulls basketball player
Bob Love, an NBA basketball legend who played nine seasons with the Chicago Bulls, died Nov. 18 after a long battle with cancer.
Love was born in Louisiana. As a child, he suffered from a stutter, which led him to turn inward and dream of playing basketball professionally, according to the HistoryMakers.
Love used to practice with wire hangers shaped like hoops that he would nail into his grandmother's house, according to the HistoryMakers.
Love graduated from Morehouse High School in Bastrop, Louisiana and then from Southern University in Baton Rouge with a degree in Food and Nutrition. He first played basketball with the Cincinnati Royals.
Love went on to play for the Milwaukee Bucks—and joined the Bulls in the middle of the 1968-1969 season. During his time with the Bulls, Love—nicknamed "Butterbean"—was a three-time NBA All-Star.
The 6-foot 8-inch Love was also the Bulls' leading scorer for seven straight years, and remains the second-highest scorer in Bulls history after Michael Jordan.
The Bulls called Love a "tenacious defender and a cornerstone of our team."
Love suffered a back injury in 1976. He was traded to the New York Nets and then the Seattle SuperSonics, but his basketball career was soon over.
The HistoryMakers noted that Love struggled after leaving professional basketball after the 1976-1977 season—with his stutter posing a challenge for obtaining steady work. Love was working as a dishwasher for $4.45 an hour by 1984, the HistoryMakers reported.
But Love's stutter was treated by a therapist, and by 1992, he was back with the Bulls as the director of community affairs, the HistoryMakers reported. In the years afterward, Love also gave motivational speeches.
Love's No. 10 jersey has been retired and hangs in the rafters at the United Center—joining the likes of Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Jerry Sloan.
One of Love's last public appearances was at the Bulls' inaugural Ring of Honor ceremony in January. Love was one of 13 inductees honored at the ceremony—along with the entire 1995-96 Bulls team.
Contributing: Ryan Baker
Ann Lurie, 79, philanthropist
Ann Lurie, the prolific philanthropist whose donations benefitted medical treatment and research in Chicago and around the world, died June 24.
Lurie was born and raised as the only child of a single mother in Florida, where she earned a nursing degree from the University of Florida. She moved to Chicago in 1973, where she worked as a pediatric intensive care nurse at the former Children's Memorial Hospital.
In 1977, Ann Lurie married Bob Lurie, a real estate developer, who died in 1990 from colon cancer. The two had six children together.
Lurie ran the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation, which supported several charitable causes in Chicago and around the world.
Such donations included $100 million to build the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, which opened in Streeterville in 2012 and serves more than 200,000 children each year. When her donation was announced in 2007, Lurie said she saw it as "making an investment in the future of Chicago's children."
Lurie also served as a lifetime member of the Board of Trustees at Northwestern University, where she's also given more than $60 million over the years, the university said. Lurie invested in the Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where her husband had undergone treatment.
"Ann had a tremendous impact on Northwestern through her generosity, her leadership and her service," said Northwestern President Michael Schill in a statement upon her passing. "As a trustee, she helped propel the University and our medical research to ever greater heights. She touched so many lives, both at Northwestern and well beyond."
Lurie was also the founder of the Chicago chapter of Gilda's Club, which provides a community of social and emotional support to anyone impacted by cancer.
Lurie also founded the Africa Infectious Disease Village Clinics, and worked in Africa to oversee operations that provided medical care to the Maasai people of Kenya, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases noted. In addition, Lurie worked with One Love Africa to fund 30 rural schools with electrical generators and fresh-water wells in Ethiopia.
Contributing: Alex Ortiz, Tara Molina
Bill Melton, 79, White Sox baseball player
Former White Sox slugger and broadcaster Bill Melton, nicknamed "Beltin' Bill," died Dec. 5.
A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, Melton was signed as a free agent by the White Sox out of high school in 1964. He made his MLB debut in 1968, and spent eight of his 10 seasons in the Majors with the White Sox.
Melton hit .258/.340/.432, with 134 doubles, six triples, 154 home runs, 535 RBI, and 448 runs scored over 976 games with the White Sox from 1968 through 1975, making the American League All-Star team in 1971.
Melton was the first White Sox player to hit 30 or more home runs in a single season in 1970, and was the first White Sox player to lead the American League in home runs in 1971—finishing with 33 homers both years.
Melton finished his career as the White Sox career home run leader until Harold Baines surpassed him in 1987. Baines was later overtaken by Carlton Fisk, who was then bypassed by Frank Thomas. Melton currently ranks 9th on the White Sox in career home runs, with 154.
Melton was traded to the California Angels in 1975 and in turn to Cleveland the following year. He retired from baseball after the 1977 season.
In 1992, Melton returned to the White Sox as a team ambassador and part-time scout. Melton worked with Michael Jordan as a hitting instructor after Jordan briefly pivoted to baseball during his hiatus from the NBA and the Chicago Bulls from 1993 until 1995.
In 1998, Melton joined the White Sox television broadcast crew as a pregame and postgame analyst on WGN Channel 9, and later Comcast SportsNet and NBC Sports Chicago, before retiring in 2020.
"Bill was a friend to many at the White Sox and around baseball, and his booming voice will be missed," White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement.
Contributing: Todd Feurer
Bob Newhart, 94, actor and comedian
Bob Newhart, the Chicago area native who became an iconic comedian and the star of two immensely popular sitcoms, died July 18.
Born in Oak Park, George Robert Newhart was one of four children of George David Newhart and Pauline Burns. The Oak Park Tourist website noted that Newhart's family moved to the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side nearby when he was young, and he attended St. Catherine of Siena Grade School on the Oak Park side of Austin Boulevard.
For high school, Newhart graduated from Saint Ignatius College Prep, at 1076 W. Roosevelt Rd. on the Near West Side, in 1947. Newhart performed with the Harlequins theatre group at Saint Ignatius, and the 380-seat McLaughlin Theatre at the venerable Jesuit high school has long honored him with the Bob Newhart Stage.
Newhart went on to receive his bachelor's degree from Loyola University Chicago in 1952. A theater at the Mundelein Center at the Loyola Lake Shore Campus in Rogers Park also bears Newhart's name.
After a stint in the U.S. Army, Newhart attended Loyola University Law School, but flunked out after 18 months, according to archive news reports. He then began working as an accountant with U.S. Gypsum in Chicago.
Newhart's official website notes that he found accounting boring, and would call up a friend, Ed Gallagher, to improvise comedy routines.
They were advised to record and syndicate their routines, which was a success. But Gallagher, an advertising executive, got a job in New York and moved there in 1959—while Newhart stayed in Chicago and had to go it alone, his website noted.
Newhart got the attention of Chicago disc jockey Dan Sorkin, who in turn got him a meeting with the head of Warner Brothers Records, his website noted. Warner Brothers offered Newhart a contract, and his record, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart" was the first comedy album to top the Billboard charts.
Newhart moved to Los Angeles in 1961, but his first CBS sitcom, "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-1978), was set back in his hometown of Chicago. Newhart's character, Bob Hartley, was a Chicago psychologist—and the show open depicted him leaving an office just in from the Magnificent Mile near the Wrigley Building, getting on a Chicago Transit Authority 'L' train, and arriving at the Thorndale Beach Condominium building at 5901 N. Sheridan Rd.
From 1982 to 1990, Newhart starred in the CBS sitcom "Newhart," playing Dick Loubin, an author who moves from New York City with his wife to Vermont to operate a historic inn.
In addition to his TV success, Newhart appeared in numerous films throughout his decadeslong career, including the 1970 adaptation of Joseph Heller's classic "Catch-22" and 2003's "Elf," in which he played Papa Elf, who also serves as the film's narrator.
Newhart's first and only Emmy win came in 2013, when he took home the award for best guest actor in a comedy for his role as Arthur Jeffries, aka Professor Proton, on "The Big Bang Theory."
In a 2017 interview with CBS News Chicago, Newhart told Vice Gerasole he always visited Chicago whenever he could—with two sisters living in the area.
Newhart was also a diehard Cubs fan. On X, then Twitter, Newhart was thrilled to fly a "W" flag for the Cubs as they won the World Series in 2016.
Contributing: Jordan Freiman, Noel Brennan, Vince Gerasole
Chilli Pepper, age unspecified, performance artist and LGBTQ+ advocate
Chilli Pepper, a celebrated performance artist who was one of Chicago's most famous drag performers for more than 40 years and a staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and causes, died Sept. 11.
As noted in the Windy City Times, Chilli Pepper was crowned Miss Gay Chicago in 1974, and was the first Miss Continental in 1980. In a 2017 Chicago Magazine interview, she told the late writer Bill Zehme she preferred the term "female impersonator" to "drag queen"—but as noted by the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, she gained a great deal of media exposure when few were speaking of drag or drag queens.
After being approached by Jim Flint, owner of the Baton Show Lounge in River North and later Uptown, Chilli became one of the drag club's most popular performers for decades, the Windy City Times reported.
Chilli was also one of the first local celebrities to bring attention to AIDS awareness in the 1980s, the Hall of Fame noted. She addressed the subject during the 80s and 90s on numerous nationally syndicated talk shows, including those of Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey, and Jerry Springer—all of whom taped from Chicago for at least part of their television runs.
Chilli was also a visible Chicago celebrity about town, with name-checks in Irv Kupcinet's Chicago Sun-Times column and the "Tower Ticker" and "Inc." in columns in the Chicago Tribune, the Hall of Fame noted.
Chilli also famously performed as a living mannequin for the opening of the old Barneys New York store on Oak Street, and performed at the premiere of the movie "Hair" in Chicago in 1979—in front of an audience that was not familiar with drag, the hall of fame noted.
Oprah Winfrey became a close personal friend of Chilli's. Just this past March, Chilli presented Winfrey with a GLAAD Media Vanguard Award—which the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation presents each year to an ally who does not identify as LGBTQ+, but who has shown dedication to promoting LGBTQ+ people and issues.
Richard Phelan, 86, former Cook County Board president
Former Cook County Board President and Illinois gubernatorial candidate Richard Phelan died March 27 of metastatic cancer.
Richard Phelan, Dick for short, grew up on the North Side of Chicago and attended Quigley Seminary Preparatory School, according to his obituary. At one time, he considered becoming a Roman Catholic priest.
Phelan earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center.
Phelan worked as a trial lawyer at several Chicago firms, and began his own firm—Phelan, Pope & John—in 1976. The firm became one of the city's leading law firms, Phelan's obituary said. Some of Chicago's most prominent trial lawyers—including Phelan's brother-in-law, former Illinois Appellate Court justice William Quinlan—worked with the firm.
In 1985, Phelan successfully defended Jewel Food Stores against a lawsuit accusing the grocery store chain of willful neglect over the sale of salmonella-tainted milk.
In 1989, Phelan was appointed as a special outside counsel to lead the U.S. House Ethics Committee Probe of U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas). Wright was accused of such ethics violations as accepting improper gifts from a developer and using bulk purchases of his book, "Reflections of a Public Man," to obtain speaking fees greater than the maximum Congress allowed.
Wright denied the claims, but ultimately resigned.
In 1990, Phelan ran successfully for Cook County Board president. In that role, Phelan is remembered for using his executive powers to restore abortions at Cook County Hospital in 1992. The former board president, George Dunne, had banned abortions at the hospital.
Several Cook County commissioners went to court to fight Phelan's decision on abortion access at the hospital, but Phelan prevailed.
Phelan ran in the Democratic primary for Illinois governor in 1994—coming in third behind then-Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris and the winner, Illinois Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch. Netsch, in turn, lost to Republican incumbent Gov. Jim Edgar.
After losing his gubernatorial bid, Phelan returned to practicing law—becoming managing partner of the firm Foley & Lardner and also serving as president of the Chicago Bar Association and a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
David Roe, 71, radio news anchor and reporter
David Roe, who spent 35 years as an anchor and reporter on WBBM Newsradio, died Jan. 20 after a battle with esophageal cancer.
A native of Denver, Roe first broke into radio as a disc jockey at a small radio station in northeastern Wyoming, according to an archive report by the Tribune content agency.
He later returned to Colorado, and switched to the news side of radio when a flood crashed through Thompson Canyon near Love, Colorado and killed 143 people in 1976, the newspaper reported.
Roe worked for stations in Denver, including KNUS, before joining WBBM Newsradio in 1983. At the time, the then-CBS-owned station was located in the old CBS Chicago broadcast center at 630 N. McClurg Ct., upstairs from Channel 2.
Roe was a familiar and authoritative voice to generations of WBBM Newsradio listeners—working as a midday and later evening anchor and reporting on any and all news going on in the Chicago area.
Roe also served as shop steward for the SAG-AFTRA union that represents on-air talent.
Roe retired in 2018.
"For 35 years, David Roe had the voice, the knowledge, the heart, and the humor to get the job done," WBBM Newsradio said in an obit piece. "No one was better or more prepared for anything."
Stuart Rosenberg, 68, musician and radio host
Stuart Rosenberg, a renowned Chicago musician, music teacher, writer, and radio host, died May 7.
In a published obituary, Rosenberg was noted as a bandleader "known for his long and energetic horahs that set the dance floor ablaze," as well as "an artist, a writer, a raconteur, a snappy dresser, an endlessly quotable conversationalist."
As noted in a 2012 Evanston RoundTable profile, Rosenberg maintained a lifelong adoration for music from around the world—first learning about Sephardic music from the Jewish diaspora while in school in Haifa, Israel on a scholarship at the age of 16, and years later forming a band that played Sephardic music.
Rosenberg studied violin with Joseph Golan of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a young man, and also studied mandolin with Kenneth "Jethro" Burns of the duo Homer and Jethro from the "National Barn Dance" radio show, the Evanston RoundTable reported.
In 1986, Rosenberg became the third host of the WBEZ folk and world music radio show "Flea Market," following Art Thieme and Jim Post. Originally broadcast and doubling as a live concert from the auditorium at the Old Town School of Folk Music's Lincoln Park location on Armitage Avenue, the "Flea Market" show with Rosenberg as host originated from the Navy Pier ballroom.
A SoundCloud compilation of highlights from "Flea Market" shows hosted by Rosenberg features artists from k.d. lang to bluegrass legend Bill Monroe—and a 17-piece accordion orchestra called the International Accordioneers. In a remembrance posted online, longtime theatre executive Richard Friedman recounted a Navy Pier concert Rosenberg organized featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Howard Levy, and Iris Dement, in which "[s]o many people flocked to the Pier that it had to be shut down."
Rosenberg later hosted two free-form weekend music programs out of WBEZ's studios—"Earth Club" and "Radio Gumbo."
He also played mandolin and violin with several different bands, including the Otters, the Rogues, the Laketown Buskers, and Jonathon Brandmeier's band, Johnny and the Leisure Suits, according to a Chicago Tribune archive report.
Rosenberg also played and programmed the biannual Greater Chicago Jewish Festival, taught klezmer music at the Old Town School, wrote music listings for Chicago Magazine, and worked as a producer and engineer for musical artists in his basement studio, Long Dog Studios, according to his obit.
In the 1980s, Rosenberg co-founded the Society for the Preservation of Arts and Culture in Evanston, or S.P.A.C.E.—a do-it-yourself storefront music venue. In 2008, Rosenberg and his co-owners relaunched S.P.A.C.E. as a premier Chicago area music venue. Located at 1245 Chicago Ave. right off Dempster Street in Evanston, S.P.A.CE. has welcomed an assortment of local and national touring folk, rock, and jazz acts to its stage and recording studio.
Rosenberg was a longtime resident of Skokie.
Mary Ann Smith, 77, Chicago alderwoman
Mary Ann Smith, who served 22 years as alderwoman of Chicago's 48th Ward, died July 31 of complications from Parkinson's disease.
A graduate of Mundelein College, Smith was appointed alderwoman by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1989—replacing Kathy Osterman, who had left the seat to take over as the director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events. As alderwoman, Smith represented parts of the Edgewater, Uptown, and Andersonville neighborhoods.
She was credited with beautifying the area, helping create new parks and public spaces, and helping businesses develop in the ward.
Smith was inducted into Chicago's LGBT Hall of Fame as a friend of the community in 1997. The Hall of Fame noted that Smith convened the 48th Ward Gay and Lesbian Coalition—later known as the North Lake Shore Gay and Lesbian Community. She was credited in particular for supporting affordable housing for those with HIV/AIDS.
Early in her time in office, Smith also opened her home to host a meeting between members of the coalition and three Chicago Police commanders to ensure police responsiveness to LGBTQ+ issues, the hall of fame said.
Smith was also an advocate for marriage equality at a time when it was not yet the law in Illinois or the vast majority of the country. She told the Windy City Times in a February 2007 interview: "I don't see why a gay couple should settle for anything less. As a human being, a mother and a neighbor, I wouldn't presume to tell someone who he should love."
Smith served as alderwoman until 2011. Her predecessor's son, Harry Osterman, was her successor, and the younger Osterman was in turn succeeded by current Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th).
Of Smith, Manaa-Hoppenworth wrote: "She cared deeply for the 48th ward and continued to serve long after her time in office, most recently volunteering on our Zoning Advisory Council. Alderwoman Smith was part of a long history of exceptional female leadership in the 48th Ward, and paved the way for other women like me to sit on City Council."
Contributing: Todd Feurer
Dana Starks, 74, Chicago Police official
Dana Starks, a Chicago Police official who rose through the ranks to serve as first deputy superintendent and briefly as superintendent, died Oct. 14.
According to Chicago Tribune archive reports, Starks was born in the Englewood neighborhood and grew up in the Altgeld Gardens housing development on the city's Far South Side.
Starks joined the Chicago Police Department as a patrolman in 1977, and worked his way up through the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, commander, and deputy chief.
As commander of the Harrison (11th) District on the city's West Side, Starks came together with community and faith groups to set up the city's first Cease Fire Zone—which was to credit for a 67% drop in shootings in the district within 10 months, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) wrote in a resolution.
Starks was promoted to first deputy superintendent in October 2003, serving as second in command to Supt. Phil Cline. When Cline resigned in April 2007, Starks took over as interim CPD superintendent until Mayor Richard M. Daley named Jody Weis to the position on a permanent basis.
When Weis took over, Mayor Daley appointed Starks chairman of the city's Commission on Human Relations, a position he held until 2011.
Kathleen Thompson, 78, writer, playwright, activist
Kathleen Thompson, a writer, playwright, and feminist activist who opened Chicago's first feminist bookstore, died Dec. 21.
As noted in an obit article by the Windy City Times, Thompson was born in Chicago but spent most of her formative years in Oklahoma City. In a 2007 interview with Tracy Baim for the Chicago Gay History project, Thompson said she began her activist work by boycotting Oklahoma City amusement parks that did not allow Black people to enter.
Thompson returned to the Chicago area to attend Northwestern University, and remained in Chicago permanently afterward, the Windy City Times reported.
In the early 1970s, Thompson opened Pride and Prejudice, the first feminist bookstore in Chicago, in a relatively recently demolished building at 3322 N. Halsted St. in the Northalsted district.
Chicago Gay History noted that the store became the nerve center for a feminist collective that offered pregnancy testing and abortion counseling as part of the underground Jane Collective. Pride & Prejudice later became The Women's Center on Halsted, and also offered a lesbian counseling service and an artists' collective.
In 1974, Thompson published her first book, "Against Rape," along with co-writer Andra Madea. The book is described on its cover as "a survival manual for women: how to avoid entrapment and how to cope with rape physically and emotionally."
The book remained in print until 1990 and was used at rape crisis centers around the country, the Windy City Times reported.
Thompson wrote several other books on social justice-oriented topics—many of them with writer Hilary Mac Austin, the Windy City Times reported. Thompson was also the author of several children's and young adult books, the publication reported.
For several years, Thompson focused her talents on writing stage plays, working with actor Mike Nowak. Along with Nowak and actor Judith Easton, Thompson co-founded The Commons Theatre company—for which she served as artistic director, the Windy City Times reported.
The publication noted that eight of Thompson's plays were produced at The Commons Theatre, including a musical comedy with an all-women cast called "Caught in the Act," and a mashup of Shakespeare and Hollywood noir mystery called "Dashiell Hamlet," which the late Actor Mike Nussbaum worked on with her.
Thompson also wrote murder mysteries. She was also a champion of gardening and ecology in the Logan Square neighborhood where she lived, the Windy City Times reported.
Kris Vire, 47, theatre critic and arts writer
Kris Vire, a veteran Chicago theatre critic and arts writer, died Nov. 18 after a long battle with cancer.
A native of Fayetteville Arkansas, Vire attended the University of Arkansas before moving to Chicago in 2001. Speaking to American Theatre in 2018, Vire said he arrived in Chicago as a "lapsed actor," and fell into theatre criticism "through the back door" as he tried to network with the local theatre community.
In 2003, Vire helped found the Gapers Block news site. He told American Theatre that he started writing theatre news with Gapers Block, and joined Time Out Chicago as a freelance theatre critic and reporter when the Chicago edition of the magazine launched in 2005.
Vire joined the staff of Time Out Chicago as a theatre critic in 2007, and eventually became senior editor.
At Time Out Chicago, Vire wrote not only about theatre, but also comedy, dance, film, LGBTQ+ events and issues, and travel, among other subjects.
Vire parted ways with Time Out Chicago in 2018, and went on to serve as arts and culture editor for Chicago Magazine. He also wrote for the New York Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, Fodor's Travel, The Guardian, American Theatre, and PerformInk, and published the "Storefront Rebellion" Substack newsletter with exclusive reviews of Chicago stage productions.
Vire also appeared frequently as a guest on radio and television, including appearances on CBS Chicago's newscasts.
In the Facebook post announcing Vire's passing, his longtime partner Joe Torres wrote that Vire had spent the last year battling metastatic colon and esophageal cancer at the same time—all while keeping up with his freelance writing and editing career.
Vire's most recent Chicago Magazine feature ran on Monday, Nov. 4, showcasing photographer Mark Ballogg and his pictures of artists' workspaces.
Chet Walker, 84, Bulls basketball player
Chicago Bulls basketball legend and Hall of Famer Chet Walker died June 8 after a long illness.
A native of Bethlehem, Mississippi, Walker moved with his family to Benton Harbor, Michigan, as a boy. He was set to attend the University of Nebraska, but NBA.com's Sam Smith wrote that Walker was "kidnapped" while on a stopover in Chicago and taken to Peoria at Bradley University.
Walker became Bradley's all-time leading scorer and helped the team win the NIT title. At Bradley, he became known as "Chet the Jet."
Walker was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals in 1962, and was with that team when they moved and became the Philadelphia 76ers. He played with the 76ers until 1969, sharing the court with Wilt Chamberlain.
Walker was part of the celebrated 1966-1967 76ers team that set the record at the time with 68 wins in a season. During the 1967 playoffs, Walker averaged 21.7 points, 7.6 points and 2.1 assists per game, as the Sixers ended the Boston Celtics' reign of eight consecutive championships by defeating them in the Eastern Conference finals, then took down the San Francisco Warriors in the Finals.
Walker was traded to the Bulls in 1969, playing alongside Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier, and Bob Love—who also passed away this year. Smith noted that Walker scored 56 points in one game for the Bulls—a record only ever broken for the team by Michael Jordan.
During six seasons with the Bulls, Walker averaged 20.6 points on 48.3% shooting, made four All-Star appearances, and led the Bulls to the playoffs every time.
Walker was also known as a Civil Rights activist and for his role in labor advocacy for players. Walker was the Bulls' representative of the NBA Players in 1970, and was a plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the players to challenge the planned merger between the NBA and ABA and the league's reserve clause, which tied players to one team.
The lawsuit succeeded in delaying the merger of the two leagues until 1976, and granting the players free agency for the first time. But Walker did not believe the settlement went far enough—and he filed a separate lawsuit against Bulls owner Arthur Wirtz.
After a salary dispute following the 1975-1976 season, Walker quit the Bulls the NBA—balking in particular at an attorney's statement that he was "legally Bulls property," CBS Sports reported.
After retiring, Walker began producing TV movies in Los Angeles—including the 1989 series, "A Mother's Courage," which was based on the life of Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas' mother, Mary. Walker also helped produce Muhammad Ali's movie, "Freedom Road."
Walker was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. He was also part of the Bulls' inaugural class for its Ring of Honor in January.
Contributing: Jack Maloney/CBS Sports
Karen Yarbrough, 73, Cook County clerk
Karen Yarbrough, the first woman and the first African American to serve as Cook County clerk, died April 7.
Yarbrough died during her second term in office, five days after she was hospitalized with an undisclosed medical condition.
A Washington, D.C., native, Yarbrough moved to west suburban Maywood with her family as a girl. She earned a bachelor's degree in business management from Chicago State University, and a master's in inner city studies from Northeastern Illinois University.
In 2000, Yarbrough was elected as an Illinois state representative for the 7th District, representing parts of the western suburbs.
Yarbrough served in the Illinois State House from 2001 until 2012. That year, she was elected Cook County Recorder of Deeds.
In 2018, Yarbrough was elected Cook County Clerk, succeeding retiring Clerk David Orr. The clerk's and recorder of deeds' offices merged in 2020.
The clerk's office is responsible for managing elections in suburban Cook County. It also keeps records of property sales; birth, death, and marriage certificates; and other vital records in Cook County.
In 2021, Yarbrough took over as the interim chair of the Illinois Democratic Party after longtime Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan was removed amid a corruption scandal. Yarbrough served in the role until U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Illinois) was elected as the new chair.
Yarbrough also founded the Hathaway Insurance Agency in Maywood, and served as president of the Maywood Chamber of Commerce.
Contributing: Andrew Ramos
