During World War II, Mary Del Monte so impressed her superiors with her thirst for learning that her photograph was used for recruitment brochures for the Women’s Army Corps. Mrs. Del Monte, whose life trajectory took her from the shores of Lake Superior to a dietician, wife and mother in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, passed away on June 15 at the age of 94. Born Mary Streidl in the Upper Peninsula town of Menominee, MI, in 1917, she demonstrated an early talent for painting with watercolors and acrylics. Even with her artistic triumphs in high school, she knew that she wanted to study …
Like thousands of Chicagoans, I first met Richard T. Crowe on one of his luxury bus tours of Chicago’s haunted cold spots in 1983. My mom and I took his tour and after three fascinating hours of driving to the sites of infamous murders, train wrecks and haunted cemeteries, we left feeling like we made a new friend. Richard had that way about him. Subscribe to the Oak Lawn Patch newsletter and breaking news alerts. I later had the privilege of interviewing him—several times—as a journalist. Richard always made time for idiots like me who bugged him every Halloween for local ghost stories and …
The night that Kristin Bachman died, staff members at the Park Lawn Residential Center lined up outside her door to say their goodbyes. Ms. Bachman, a resident of Alsip, passed away at age 50 of uterine cancer on April 27. Subscribe to the Oak Lawn Patch newsletter and breaking news alerts. She was remembered as a “truly amazing person that everyone at Park Lawn was grateful to have known” at her memorial service held May 24 at Park Lawn School in Oak Lawn. Known as “Krissy” to her family and friends, Ms. Bachman was born on August 7 1961 at Ingalls Hospital in Harvey. She joined Park Lawn …
