Jazz performance at the library was a delight

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By Kathy Headley

Your correspondent in Chicago Lawn and Marquette Manor

6610 S. Francisco • (773) 776-7778

Last Thursday, I went over to the Chicago Lawn Branch Library for Jazz Night. I was so glad I did. In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, Adult Librarian Bruce Sullivan brought the Sylvia Strings Quintet in for a special performance.

What a delight! From the beginning it was obvious the musicians were good friends; and even though they played with other groups as well, it was easy to see they have been playing together for a long time because they were having fun and never missed a note. Familiar favorites like Delilah and Little Brown Jug got the evening going; and by the end, they even got the audience to join in on Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing. They promised to come back again and I hope we don’t have to wait until next April for that to happen.

This next announcement I think would be especially important to anyone that was a member of Thomas Memorial Congregational Church, or perhaps those that may have grown up in or around the 3200 block of West 63^rd Place. I received word that Ruth Hook passed away last week. While it has been quite a while since Ruth lived here, five generations of her family lived in the area since 1906 and in their home at 3253 W. 63^rd Place, beginning in 1912.

For those of you not familiar with the Hook family, members of the Hook and Ashby families were very active at TMC for lots and lots of years, and active in the neighborhood as well. Ruth’s Mom, Ada (nee Ashby), just passed away in January last year.

Congratulations go out to St. Rita High School Head Baseball Coach John Nee (’93), who was inducted into the Chicago Catholic League Hall of Fame.

If you plan on driving down 63^rd or 69^th Streets, there is a viaduct reconstruction going on between Bell and Hamilton Avenues until Friday, June 30. Best to take Marquette Road or 59^th Street if you are headed in that direction.

A bilingual Mother’s Day Novena will take place at Nativity BVM Church from Saturday, May 6, to Saturday, May 14. For more information, contact the parish office at (773) 776-4600.

Nativity BVM Parish will celebrate Lithuanian Mother’s Day this Sunday, May 7, at the 11 a.m. Mass. First communicants will also receive their First Communion at this Mass.

This Sunday May 7, is Welcome Sunday at St. Adrian Church, which includes hospitality after the 8 a.m. Mass.

This year the month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. With that in mind, the Chicago Lawn Adult Book Discussion will be a conversation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. This takes place on Tuesday, May 9, from 6:30 to 7:30 at the library. So, there is still time to pick up the book at the Chicago Lawn Branch if you would like to join in the conversation. The book itself sounds very interesting and I hope to snag a copy before they are all checked out.

Nature Play Day for kids up to age 10 will be offered by the Sand Ridge Nature Center at Dan Ryan Woods on Wednesday, May 10. These Nature Play Days allows children to connect with nature through sensory engagement and play featuring stories, arts and crafts and exploratory items. These are free events with no registration required. For more information, email [email protected].

The 116^th Annual Solemn Novena to St. Rita of Cascia at the St. Rita Shrine, 7740 S. Western, begins on Saturday, May 13 at 7 p.m. and continues every night through Monday, May 22. Veneration of the Relic of St. Rita will be available each evening.

Now let’s return to 1973. Last week we were thinking of going to a Friday night fish fry at 2525 W. 71^st St. Stan L. was the first to remember The Gold Coast Inn. He tells us they generally had an organist to entertain patrons on Fridays.

At this time in 1973, Mrs. Charlotte Lombardo of 72^nd and Rockwell was holding the grand opening of her new business venture. Interestingly Mrs. Lombardo entered the business world at the age of 17 when she opened a dry-cleaning shop shortly after her graduation from Mercy High School. By the time she was 19, she had switched to another field and was operating her own pizzeria. I found that to be kind of amazing actually.

Then came a decision to step out of the business world to raise her family of six children. But by 1973 the lure to operate her own business returned. That led to the opening of this new business at 6307 S. Artesian. Any guesses what kind of business it was? Here’s a hint to help jog your memory: It was a specific type of market.