John Mcintyre Pianist

A lifetime in Westmont

In the 90 years Marian Elza lived in Westmont, she saw a lot of things from her home at 16 N. Warwick Ave.

She lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and saw her 10 children grow and have grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren. All while living in Westmont.

Elza, 91, died after a short illness on June 1 at ManorCare Health Services in Westmont.

Her daughter, Vivian Schupmann, of Bedford, N.H., said her mother was the most long-standing resident of the village of Westmont when she died last week. Born Feb. 2, 1920 in Chicago, Elza and her family moved to Westmont shortly after her birth. Elza went to school at Central School in Westmont, which today is Manning Elementary School, and married William Alexander Elza in 1937. The couple had 10 children together. They were married 48 years before he passed away in 1985.

 Elza lived at the Warwick address until 1967, when a fire destroyed the house. She relocated to 306 S. Adams St., where Schupmann said Elza lived until earlier this spring when she had an accident and became ill.

Throughout her lifetime in Westmont, Elza worked at the old Zolotar dry cleaners on Quincy Avenue across from the train station in Westmont, at Prince Castle in La Grange and later as a manager at Lab-Tek, then located on East Burlington Avenue in Westmont and later in Aurora.

One of her Lab-Tek co-workers, Sylvia Joch, who lives along the 200 block of North Warwick Avenue, said she first met Elza in 1970. She described Elza as a hard-working, nice woman who did everything possible to take care of her family.

“She didn’t go out much, as much of her time was in taking care of her husband,” said Joch. “She was a very nice lady who always wanted to help people out.”

Joch said she last spoke to Elza about two weeks before she became ill.

Another co-worker, Frank Kolody, who worked with Elza until she retired in 1982, said she was a well-liked, hardworking employee who always was willing to do more and learn more about her job.

“When she retired in 1982, the entire company closed up shop for a day to recognize her,” said Kolody, who retired in 1995. “That was never done before and hasn’t been done since. That was how well liked she was.”

Schupmann said her mother was passionate about sewing, cooking and music, and as a former member of the Faithful Circle Quilters in Downers Grove, she enjoyed creating stacks of quilts. She also loved to crochet and made extensive Barbie Doll wardrobes for her granddaughters, Schupmann said.

You Don't Say: That man and his pronouns - English grammar ...

Apparently President Obama’s announcement that U.S forces killed Osama bin Laden has led some writers to fall back on the threadbare canard* that the president is uncommonly fond of the first-person pronouns.

I call this a canard because it has been demolished by Mark Liberman, the University of Pennsylvania linguist who presides over Language Log. Professor Liberman has taken the trouble to compare President Obama’s public statements with those of recent presidents, discovering that he uses first-person pronouns no more often than any other recent chief magistrate, and often less than the Presidents Bush, père

My mother, who grew up in the South, also doubtless heard racist comments. They were not allowed in this family. But she didn't leap to the conclusion that every criticism of someone who was black was based on race. Some people are simply found irritating, or arrogant, or obnoxious, or incompetent based on perception or actual performance. (The opinion of the Ivy League notwithstanding, of course.)