Chicago Sun-Times: All posts by Mitch Dudek

Will in probate case of Chicago recluse’s record-setting $11 million unclaimed estate allowed as evidence, judge rules

2023-12-13T18:19:15.148-06:00

Attorney Ken Piercey unrolls an heir tree showing more than 119 heirs in the $11 million estate of Joseph Stancak, a Chicagoan who died with no will and no immediate relatives.

Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times (file)

Drama and intrigue reached a new level Wednesday in the puzzling case of Joseph Stancak, the frugal, secretly wealthy Southwest Side recluse whose record-setting unclaimed estate is valued at $11 million.

Cook County Probate Judge Daniel O. Tiernan decided to admit a mysterious will that is purportedly the last will and testament of Stancak into the probate case that will ultimately determine who gets the money.

The decision leaves in limbo more than 119 distant Stancak relatives around the globe who had been expecting to share a portion of the proceeds before the will that surfaced over the summer.

Attorneys representing the heirs said they needed to reach out to their clients about the judge’s decision, but they anticipated a legal challenge to the will would be mounted in the coming weeks.

The baffling tale can be traced to the modest brick bungalow in Gage Park where Stancak lived and, somehow, accumulated his millions.

SW Side recluse’s record-setting $11 million unclaimed estate thrown into chaos by newly surfaced will

It’s unclear what Stancak even did for a living. Neighbors thought that maybe he was an electrician or an electrical engineer. They’d occasionally see him tinkering with his old car or a broken lawnmower.

Then, in December 2016, he died at 87, with no will then surfacing and no immediate family left behind — but $11 million in the bank. That made it the largest unclaimed estate in U.S. history and an immediate media sensation when Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs shared details of the case in October 2022.

A search turned up more than 119 distant relatives around the world, and checks divvying up Stancak’s fortune were being prepared to be sent to them.

That is until a court petition filed in June asked the judge overseeing Stancak’s probate case to accept a newly turned-up will.

According to the purported will — dated Aug. 19, 2015 — Stancak left his entire estate to Smart Kids Child Care Inc. and that company’s president, Asad Mahmood.

Attorneys representing Mahmood claim that only two copies of the will were produced: One was to be kept by Smart Kids, and one went to the lawyer who drafted the will, John Alleman.

One unusual line in the will attributed to Stancak reads: “I am a recluse individual in the state of Chicago, Illinois.”

Stancak, in the will, assigned Alleman the task of notifying Mahmood of Stancak’s death.

But Alleman died in a plane crash months after Stancak supposedly signed the document.

And the copy of the will that went to Alleman, a personal injury attorney from Downstate Carbondale, hasn’t been located.

Ken Piercey, who was appointed last year by the judge to be the independent administrator of Stancak’s estate, said Wednesday that admittance of the will negated his role as administrator of the estate.

His future on the case is uncertain. The heirs will need to decide who will represent them going forward, Piercey said.

Piercey said in court filings that he is “highly suspicious” of the authenticity of the “poorly drafted” will that was “found” only after the case made international headlines — and seven years after Stancak died.

Piercey raises the possibility that Alleman’s copy of the will hasn’t been found because “it was never held by him in the first place as the purported will is a fraud upon this estate and this court.”

On Wednesday, the judge acknowledged “the allegations are concerning” and noted that admission of the will “was not final word on validity.”

But without evidence of “fraud, forgery, compulsion or improper conduct,” the document would be admitted because it contained what is, by law, necessary: namely the signatures of Stancak and witnesses, Tiernan said.

“We’re very happy with the result. This is just the beginning,” said Gregory Markwell, an attorney representing Smart Kids.

Markwell declined to share any details on how his client knew Stancak.

Piercey had found zero connection between Stancak and Smart Kids.

In court filings, Piercey cast a wary eye on why a recluse from the Southwest Side would hire an attorney from southern Illinois and travel to New York to finalize the document, as is purported to have happened.

He told the Chicago Sun-Times that Stancak’s signature on the will doesn’t appear to match previous signatures.

Piercey also notes that Smart Kids has no phone number or website and that another company is operating out of its listed address in New York City.

Piercey was left with the difficult task of informing the heirs who had expected to receive their portion of the money by now of their loss in court.

“It’s no fun being the bearer of bad news, even if it’s only temporary because the will may end up being successfully contested,” he said.

“Wow, that’s unbelievable. That’s a turn of events, eh?” said Mike Griglak, 63, a retired Canadian oil sands worker who lives outside Windsor, Ontario, and was an heir to the fortune.

Griglak had planned to use the money to retire to Florida, waving a final toodle-oo to Canada and its bitter winters.

“It’s sad in a way, but then again, it’s not over until it’s over.”

Ramova Theatre to reopen with New Year’s Eve dance party

2023-12-11T16:29:42.807-06:00

Ramova Theatre

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

The newly renovated Ramova Theatre in Bridgeport will host its first public event on New Year’s Eve with Slo ‘Mo, a queer-friendly dance party.

According to Monday’s announcement the all-queer and trans women collective “focuses on lifting up women in music historically and locally in Chicago.”

The site at 3520 S. Halsted St. opened in 1929 as an ornate, single-screen movie theater. It closed in 1985 but was spared demolition after the neighborhood rallied to save the iconic structure. The efforts also resulted in the theater earning a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.

Shuttered for nearly 40 years, the renovated Ramova will boast a 1,500-seat live music venue and beer garden and grill in partnership with New York-based Other Half Brewing.

Investors include Quincy Jones, Jennifer Hudson and Chance the Rapper.

The New Year’s Eve show will be an homage to the era when the club originally opened and will feature a live jazz band, dancers and DJ sets.

Tickets are $75-$125 and available at ramovachicago.com.

WMAQ-Channel 5 will be broadcasting live from the event as part of its holiday special, “A Very Chicago New Year!”

A city ordinance passed in 2022 said the Ramova project would cost $38.37 million, sharply higher than the $22.9 million budgeted in 2019. The ordinance promised the project a $9.1 million subsidy from tax-increment financing, representing property taxes collected from the area near 35th and Halsted. That was up from a prior commitment of $6.64 million.

Arthur Williams dead: beloved Brookfield Library employee was 52

2023-11-29T18:00:00-06:00

Arthur Williams behind the circulation desk at the Brookfield Library where he worked and brightened many a patron’s day with their book selections.

Provided

Sitting at the front desk of the Brookfield Library, Arthur Williams saw when regulars pulled up to the curb outside and he’d run them out a copy of the free local newspaper.

“He literally would write their names on each newspaper and set them aside and then run them out to cars or have them ready when people walked through the door,” said Kimberly Coughran, director of the library.

“It was very personalized service that he delivered and he had a way of making people feel like they were the only ones he did this for.”

Books placed on hold would also be in Mr. Williams’ hands before customers walked through the door to retrieve them.

Countless children will never forget getting their first library card, with Mr. Williams speaking to them like they were readers of any age about to embark on a special journey.

“These touches, these small things, were how he got to know the community and in return he just developed these long lasting relationships,” Coughran said.

Mr. Williams died Nov. 9 after suffering a heart attack at the library. He was 52.

Hundreds of people came to a memorial service organized by his colleagues.

“It was overwhelming to see so many people at the memorial, people pouring in from kids to seniors who knew and loved Arthur,” said Christal Beyer, a former co-worker. “They all came to pay tribute to this one man who was just the sunshine maker of the library.”

More than 160 people commented on a Facebook post from the library announcing his death. Anecdotes included: “I’d skip the self-checkout when Arthur was there” and “I never saw him without a big smile and he always made our day better.”

One woman noted: “He helped my daughter get her first library card last month. She was so excited and we were all giggling together.”

Mr. Williams’ sister, Bernice Williams, said he felt at home at the library.

“My brother had a big heart and a passion for helping people. He didn’t care what nationality, what race you were, he just made sure you mattered to him. I think he picked it up from our mom and God above,” she said.

Mr. Williams was born June 16, 1971, to Louise Williams Clark and Eugene Clark. She was a manager at a hotel in Oak Brook and he worked for a company that operated parking lots in the Loop.

Mr. Williams grew up in Maywood, went to Proviso East High School and began working at the Maywood Library when he was 14, his sister said.

He worked there for 28 years before taking a job at Bellwood Library — where he dressed as Santa around Christmas — before finally accepting a position at Brookfield Library five years ago.

“As a kid, he’d always just pick up books and just read and read and read,” his sister said.

“He’d say ‘Let’s go the library!’ He loved it. ‘I’d say ‘Oh, this is kind of boring’ but my brother stuck with it. That’s his passion. That’s what he loved.”

Mr. Williams also loved cooking, going to the beach in Chicago, soul and R&B singer Luther Vandross, and eating raw vegetables.

“He would eat jalapeño peppers raw,” Coughran said. “It shocked us and amused us. He loved being the center of attention when he would eat them. We would all shriek and give him the oohs and the ahhs.”

Chatting with patrons made his day.

“He would be just helping so many people throughout his day and they would share their lives with him, what they wanted to read, what their interests were. It’s a very satisfying, wonderful exchange and Arthur just loved being that person, the connector between the library and patron,” Beyer said.

Services have been held.

Willie ‘The Touch’ Hayes dead: Blues drummer played with B.B. King, Muddy Waters

2023-11-27T17:29:10.685-06:00

Willie ‘The Touch’ Hayes

Facebook

When Willie Hayes began playing drums in nightclubs around Chicago, he was still a grade school student and had to sit in storage rooms until it was time to perform because he was too young to even be in the club.

He’d peek out to see what was going on. The children of other musicians occasionally kept him company.

His talent was clear from a young age.

Mr. Hayes performed on a television talent show when he was 9 and within a few years became the drummer for legendary Chicago bluesman Magic Sam.

He also played with Mighty Joe Young and Koko “The Queen of Chicago Blues” Taylor by the time he was 14. At age 16, he went on the road with Magic Sam.

He was assigned the nickname Willie “The Touch” Hayes by Luther Allison, who gave Mr. Hayes a bass drum inscribed with the moniker.

Mr. Hayes died Nov. 5 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident three days earlier not far from his home. He was 73.

Mr. Hayes, who focused on blues, jazz, funk and R&B, also played with Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, Son Seals, Lurrie Bell, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, the Temptations, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, to name a few. He also did a stint with Ike and Tina Turner.

“Music is all about feeling; that’s what it’s about,” Mr. Hayes said in a 2013 interview with Blues Blast magazine. “And then when people hear it, they know it’s coming from the heart and they go, ‘Damn! They’re playin’ that s---, man.’ ”

He also played in the soul band South Side Movement, which opened for Al Green and James Brown and scored a hit with “I’ve Been Watching You.”

A 1982 live appearance with Koko Taylor was turned into an album, “Blues Explosion,” that won a Grammy.

Mr. Hayes appeared in bit parts in movies that starred the A-listers, such as “Thief,” “Ali,” “Hardball” and “Road to Perdition.” He posed with stars Will Smith, James Caan, Tom Hanks and Keanu Reeves in photos displayed prominently at his home.

Mr. Hayes appeared on many blues albums released by Delmark Records.

“He was a first-call gig and session drummer,” said Julia Miller, CEO of Delmark.

“Whenever anybody said ‘Oh s---, we need a drummer,’ he was first guy you’d call,” said keyboardist and pal Johnny Iguana.

Mr. Hayes, who began drumming when he was 4, was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.

“I just can’t picture anything but laughter when I think of him,” Iguana said. “Booming laughter arose from him. He was always looking for ways to enjoy life through laughter. I remember touring with him and Junior Wells and we’d be in the van and he’d point at people outside and imagine what they were saying and he’d be doing all kinds of voices and faces. ...

“He had one drum solo he’d do, he threw his sticks up in air, he was twirling the sticks, looking this way and that, laughing. He turned into a little kid on stage, especially during his solo, like a kid who opened up his Christmas present in the closet early, just very joyful and infectious,” Iguana said.

Mr. Hayes was also known for being dapper.

“Whenever he took the stage he was always looking immaculate. I was like, ‘How many suits does this guy have?,’ and always with a matching handkerchief,” Iguana said.

In recent years Mr. Hayes performed with his own group, the Willie Hayes Band.

Mr. Hayes, who sometimes wore a black baseball hat with white lettering that said “The Touch,” also worked in the engineering department at Ascension Saint Alexius Hospital in Hoffman Estates until he retired earlier this year.

He last performed on stage at the 2022 Chicago Blues Festival.

“He really had a remarkable career,” said Linda Cain, editor of Chicago Blues Guide. “I remember he said he’d be in the studio and someone turned on a metronome, and he’d be like, ‘Turn that thing off. I don’t need a metronome. My foot is the metronome.’ He had all kinds of stories from being on the road and made friends wherever he went.”

Mr. Hayes was born Aug. 20, 1950, in Clarksdale, Arkansas, and moved to Chicago at a young age. He was one of 10 siblings.

He was raised in Lawndale and attended Farragut High School, where he played with several older classmates in a band called The Mandells.

Mr. Hayes, who was a black belt in karate, suffered enormous grief in recent years. His namesake son, Willie Hayes Jr., died in 2002 at age 11 from leukemia, and another son, Robert Calvin, died in 2019 at age 38 from stomach cancer, according to Mr. Hayes’ daughter Tiana Hayes. Mr. Hayes’ wife, Debra Hayes, passed away earlier this year.

Mr. Hayes regularly posted about his love for each of them on Facebook.

“He was a loving father, he did everything he was supposed to as a father,” Tiana Hayes said.

Mr. Hayes is also survived by one other daughter, Toyia Howery-Phillips, his son William Jenkins and eight grandchildren.

Services have been held.

Evrod Cassimy song to help CHA families celebrate Christmas

2023-11-21T16:00:00-06:00

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Evrod Cassimy’s voice may be measured, authoritative or pointedly inflective — the required tools for any broadcast journalist — but his range transcends anchor desks and live stand-ups around town.

He has, well, pipes, really.

Cassimy, 39, a relatively new face on Chicago’s TV news scene, is also a singer who has performed as an opening act for notables such as Patti LaBelle, En Vogue and Boyz II Men.

The journalist just celebrated his one-year anniversary at NBC 5 Chicago, where he works as a reporter and weekend anchor, and spent the previous decade as a newscaster in Detroit, where a few of his original tunes got radio play, and several concerts benefitting a local high school led to out-of-the-blue calls from reps of the legendary performers.

Cassimy, who classifies music as a hobby, is again putting his pipes to good use — this time for a charitable cause in Chicago.

He’s releasing a Christmas song he wrote titled “Please Come Home for Christmas” on streaming platforms that will be available for purchase starting Nov. 24, with all proceeds going to the Chicago Housing Authority to help families celebrate the holiday.

“I wanted the money to go to residents for their Christmas needs, like food and gifts,” he said.

Cassimy came up with the idea after taking part in a Mother’s Day panel discussion with CHA residents who talked about their struggles to find community, love and support when times get tough.

“I knew I wanted to do something for them,” he said during a recent chat. “A lot of them are working multiple jobs and just want to be together with all their loved ones. So the theme for the song was family and needing help and not wanting to be alone, but sometimes feeling alone.”

The tune (sharing a title with the Charles Brown classic also recorded by the Eagles) begins: “I’m tired of being disappointed at Christmas. Santa won’t you please articulate why I ain’t get nothing on Christmas Day. I just want one thing at Christmas, I don’t think I’m asking too much, I’m not being disingenuous. ... I just want my family, so please, please come home for Christmas, I don’t need no gifts, no mistletoe, I just want the ones I love the most.”

In 2018, Cassimy started his own record label, Everything Evrod Entertainment. He’s released three studio albums and raised more than $100,000 to benefit students at a Detroit high school.

Cassimy grew up in Rockford singing in his family’s church and attended Columbia College Chicago.

“Returning to Chicago has been incredible. One of the first live shots I did was on Thanksgiving Day last year right outside my old college dorm where the [city’s] parade was stepping off,” he said.

Cassimy, the son of two educators, is married and has two sons, ages 6 and 11, and a daughter who’s 2.

“Singing is what I love. I don’t do it for accolades or recognition. I do this for fun. I’ve never thought about it as a career. I’ve always been a nosy person. Journalism is it for me,” said Cassimy, who lives on the North Side.

That being said, he’s open to new musical opportunities and has been building his credentials in Chicago.

He sang the national anthem at a Chicago Sky game and is slated to sing the song at a DePaul University men’s basketball game in March.

“My music is from the heart. A mix of pop, R&B and gospel, experiences I’ve gone through. I write my own melodies and lyrics,” he said, adding that he doesn’t play the instruments that accompany him (but he does have a background in piano and saxophone).

“I always have ideas for lyrics and songs in my mind,” he said.

One of his most memorable moments in news and music happened in 2013 when Aretha Franklin’s publicist called Cassimy, who’d been lobbying for an interview, and said the legendary songstress agreed to chat.

“I was shocked,” recalled Cassimy. “Aretha lived in Detroit and was familiar with me as a news anchor and over time we became close friends.”

Franklin invited Cassimy to recording sessions. He attended her funeral in 2018.

“I still have the last text messages we shared,” he said.

Cassimy said his favorite Christmas song is ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’

And he’s a Cubs fan, but has love for the White Sox and jumped on an L train when he was in college at Columbia to take part in the festivities outside U.S. Cellular Field when the Sox won the World Series.

Linda Hirshman, lawyer and author who urged educated mothers not to stay home to raise kids, dead at 79

2023-11-17T13:30:00-06:00

Linda Hirshman.

Provided

Former Chicagoan Linda Hirshman ruffled feathers with a 2005 article that argued that women, particularly highly educated women, who left the workforce to stay home and raise kids were harming society.

Such women, she argued, should make money and wield power. Anything less would be a failure to feminism, not a triumph of female agency.

“The real glass ceiling is at home,” she wrote.

Her article was published in 2005 by The American Prospect as the “mommy wars” raged, pitting mothers of opposing viewpoints on such issues against each other.

Ms. Hirshman, alarmed by the large number of women subscribing to the opt-out phenomenon, as it was known, offered several rules women could follow, including: Focus on a well-paying job that would allow a woman to avoid solving job problems with marriage. Also: Consider “marrying down” — to a less financially well-set partner — to have the upper hand in the relationship.

“Don’t think of this as brutally strategic,” she wrote. “If you are devoted to your career goals and would like a man who will support that, you’re just doing what men throughout the ages have done: placing a safe bet.”

Women, she said, should avoid taking on the lion’s share of housework, even if that would mean having a dirtier house.

“Either the other adult in the family will take a hand or the children will grow up with robust immune systems,” she wrote.

She also urged women to simplify their lives by having just one child.

“The opt-out revolution is really a downward spiral,” she wrote. “We care because what they do is bad for them, is certainly bad for society, and is widely imitated.”

Ms. Hirshman, 79, died Oct. 31 in Vermont. The cause was cancer.

As part of her research, she spoke with brides whose names she got from wedding announcements in The New York Times to find out what happened to them 10 years later — 85% in her sampling had left the workplace or were working part-time.

The article stirred rage among conservatives and liberals and led to appearances on “60 Minutes” and “Good Morning America.”

“She was never short on opinions,” her daughter Sarah Hirshman. ”And she said, ‘Look, political revolutions that bring societal change have a structure, and I am going to write less about feminism and more about that framework and what makes an effective social revolution and who makes that change.’ ”

Ms. Hirshman met her first husband Harold Hirshman at Cornell University. They got married in 1966, and both went to law school at the University of Chicago, where Ms. Hirshman was one of three women in the class of 1969, her daughter said.

Linda Hirshman with future husband Harold Hirshman at their graduation from Cornell University in 1966.

Provided

“It was incredibly hostile, the whole institution and everyone she encountered told her that she wasn’t supposed to be there and wasn’t deserving or equal,” her daughter said.

She got her degree, began representing unions and argued cases before the Supreme Court. She stepped away from labor law after actions taken under former President Ronald Reagan limited union power.

“She said, ‘I’m not going to keep throwing myself at this because it’s not going to change in the near future,’ ” her daughter said.

Ms. Hirshman became a law professor at what was then Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she brought a feminist perspective to the legal and philosophical relationship between men and women. She got her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Illinois Chicago and moved to Massachusetts to teach philosophy at Brandeis University.

“Under no circumstances did she stay home and take care of kids,” her daughter said.

Ms. Hirshman was born April 6, 1944, outside Cleveland to Charles Redlick, who ran a floor-coverings store, and Sylvia Bogart Redlick, who took care of the kids and helped at the store.

She wrote her first op-ed piece when she was just 11 years old and sent it to Cleveland’s major newspaper, The Plain Dealer.

The American Prospect article was the basis for her 2006 book “Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World.”

Ms. Hirshman went on to publish four more books: “Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution,” “Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World,” “Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment” and “The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation.”

At the time of her death, she was working on a book about right-wing media’s destabilization of democracy with media columnist and friend Margaret Sullivan.

Ms. Hirshman lived in Chicago from 1966 to 1997, mostly in Lincoln Park. Her first marriage ended in divorce. David Forkosh, her second husband, died in 2012.

Services have been held. A memorial is being planned in New York City in the spring.

Ms. Hirshman is also survived by stepdaughters Margot Ettlinger and Elyse Cutler and seven grandchildren.

‘Windy City Rehab’ fan favorite Ari Smejkal on what’s next after leaving HGTV show

2023-11-16T20:42:25.184-06:00

Former “Windy City Rehab” craftsman Ari Smejkal at a job site in Bucktown.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

Ari Smejkal has a lot of plans and strong feelings about the HGTV show “Windy City Rehab” that made the carpenter (more of an artisan, really) a recognizable figure — but first let’s review a portion of his resume that’s left off the show.

He once was a bodybuilding bouncer at Chicago’s hottest club.

The year was 1985. The mega-club phenomenon had just reached Chicago with the opening of Limelight, which had a pick-and-choose policy at the door. And Smejkal, then 23, was hired to man it.

“The first night we opened, 4,000 people came,” he says of the club, which was at 632 N. Dearborn St. “I had to pull in Michael J. Fox and all these celebrities, and I was grabbing them out of the crowd and picking them up and carrying them in.”

Dressed in jeans, T-shirt, cowboy boots and occasionally spurs, Smejkal made as much as $3,000 a week — largely from handshakes with cash in them.

“That was a crazy year of my life,” he says.

Smejkal worked a few other doors in the city (Big Nasty, anyone?) and took a few sucker punches but says he usually had the upper hand.

The gig lasted about a year, his exit precipitated by a scuffle that left a club-goer, who happened to be an attorney, with a broken arm.

“I got to fight, meet girls, drink for free. I thought I was invincible when I was younger,” says Smejkal, 60, who laughs at the notion and points to X-rays taken earlier this year during a monthlong trip to India to undergo magnetic therapy.

Ari Smejkal holds back a crowd on opening night at Limelight, a nightclub where he bounced in the 1980s.

Cheri Eisenberg

The X-rays show an old neck fracture from a tubing accident in Wisconsin when bodybuilding buds were whipping him around a lake and imploring him “not to be wuss” after a rough tumble in the shallows. He iced it for two days.

‘Windy City Rehab’ craftsman Ari Smejkal announces retirement

And carpentry work since his teens did a number on his shoulders. “Tough it out” stopped working when he couldn’t sleep through the night, leading him in February to a clinic in Bangalore, where he stayed at the Ritz-Carlton for about $100 a night and spent an hour a day under magnetic forces.

“I felt like I was 20 years old again,” says Smejkal, who parted ways with “Windy City Rehab” over the summer after seven seasons. “I feel like now that I am off the show I feel like I’m just starting again, like my juices are crazy. I’m doing all this cool stuff.”

A Chicago property rental magnate recently flew him to an oceanfront abode in the Florida Keys to build a Hemingway-style bar and possibly outfit the land with a series of Airstream campers that eventually will be rented out for beaucoup bucks. A gut-rehab in Bucktown for a Chicago construction company executive also is keeping him busy.

Ari Smejkal gathers his materials at a Bucktown job site.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

“And I’ve got another project coming up for a lady here. Her dad is one of the big mob guys. I can’t say the name because I don’t want to get killed,” he says with a laugh.

He says his clients also have included Joan Cusack, Brent Seabrook and Jeremy Piven.

“I think I made less money by being on the show because I blew off potential clients that would spend a quarter or a half million and just give me an idea and say: We trust you. Do what you want,” says Smejkal, who’s also still making and selling paintings, too, priced from $3,000 to $7,000.

‘Windy City Rehab’ carpenter Ari Smejkal on his newfound fame: 20 to 30 business calls a day, ‘guys and girls hitting on me all the time’

And he’s now flipping properties for Charming Renovations, a company he and his wife Lara Heffernan just started. Their first project is a 1950s brick home in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, s a short drive from the 10-acre farm where he and Heffernan live with their three daughters, goats, chickens, dogs and cats.

They hired a high school kid/computer whiz to film the work — footage that might end up on a YouTube channel titled HDTV, short for Hammer Design TV.

He and his wife also are planning to take over an ice cream shop to open a pop-up store in nearby Cedarburg, Wisconsin, this winter to sell housewares and clothing featuring the emblem of Smejkal’s Hammer Design Group — and, sure, ice cream.

“I can only work so many hours. I’m getting older. I’ve got my young kids I want to hang out with, and a lot of time I’ll tell clients, ‘Sorry, I’m going to go play tag instead of work on your project. I hope you understand,’ ” says Smejkal, whose blended brood of six includes daughters Everly, 6, and Scout, 5.

One thing his plans do not include — network television.

“I’ve had a few offers, but I think that would take away from what I want to do again with my projects,” he says.

That the Alison Victoria-led “Windy City Rehab” soared in viewership after soap opera-style drama with former co-star Donovan Eckhardt became the focus of the show isn’t lost on Smejkal.

“I think TV loves drama,” he says.

Smejkal says it was hard saying goodbye to Victoria as he left the show because they’re friends, but he was becoming frustrated with the show’s limited budgets and his lack of airtime. Smejkal says his on-air interaction often boiled down to some version of his responding to what she wanted by saying, “I can do that.”

“They literally cut me off every time because I think they didn’t want me growing bigger than Alison,” he says.

Smejkal says he wasn’t paid the first season and later settled for $3,000 an episode after asking for $10,000. He says he never said “no” when Victoria asked him to drop what he was doing and do a project for the show.

“She’s a force,” he says.

But Smejkal did say no recently when a producer asked him to help choose the carpenters who will replace him on the show — for free.

“It became offensive, like I was going to jump at the opportunity,” he says.

He says he also was asked whether an episode of “Windy City Rehab” could focus on his work renovating a home for his wife’s Charming Renovations company, an offer he declined.

Smejkal, who grew up in the far northwest suburbs, the son of a carpenter and a school superintendent, sold his Logan Square home five years ago and moved to Wisconsin. He has no plans to move back to Chicago.

He speaks with a smile, though, of his days in Chicago, especially when, in the 1990s, his studio was in a renovated firehouse across from the Gene & Georgetti restaurant near the Merchandise Mart. The first floor was a showroom with a workshop in the back. The second floor was the guys working for him. The third floor had a racquetball court and a 30-foot bar that Smejkal built.

He’s still finishing one last project for his friend’s HGTV show — using a vinegar solution to get the exact right patina on the metal hood that hangs over a stove in the massive property on the Northwest Side featured on “Alison’s Dream Home.”

“She almost likes it,” Smejkal says with a laugh. “This is, like, my seventh try.”

Alison Victoria’s dream home comes true on ‘Windy City Rehab’

Ray Tate dead: Musician who ran Old Town School of Folk Music, taught John Prine guitar was 86

2023-11-16T17:25:56.331-06:00

Ray Tate

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Ray Tate wasn’t much for executive perks — when he ran the Old Town School of Folk Music in the 1960s and 1970s, his office was a table in the lobby and meetings were regularly punctuated with the picking of a tune or two on guitar.

Before he took the reins, Mr. Tate taught guitar lessons at the fabled nonprofit North Side music institution.

“The spirit of the Old Town School was bringing music to people who had never played before, and Ray was at the center of that,” said Michael Miles, a teacher at the school.

“The Old Town School is much bigger now, the bathrooms are cleaner and there’s corporate sponsorship, but the main thing that’s never changed is you could have a cabdriver sitting next to a brain surgeon trying to figure out how to play ‘Kumbaya’ and they become friends, and Ray’s personality was a key part of that. He was a very warm, friendly guy,” said Ed Holstein, another teacher at the school.

Mr. Tate died Oct. 8 from natural causes. He was 86.

Mr. Tate did not just teach and run the school; he was also a prolific musician.

He accompanied other musicians on stage, performed as a studio musician, created jingles for radio and television ads and established Project Upbeat, a program for city kids at the Old Town School that garnered a letter of support from then President Richard Nixon. He also composed, arranged and produced more than 25 film scores and television themes.

Ray Tate

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Mr. Tate was born Jan. 8, 1937, to Vivian Beebe Tate and Raymond S. Tate Sr. His father worked for a meatpacking company and his mother was a hospital clerk.

He grew up near 89th Street and Stony Island Avenue and received his first guitar for Christmas at age 10. He took a few lessons and spent countless hours playing along with records.

He began teaching at Old Town School shortly after it opened in 1957, when it was located on North Avenue in Old Town. He became head of faculty in 1965 and served as executive director from 1971 to 1982. The school moved to Armitage Avenue in 1968 and later opened a location on Lincoln Avenue.

One of his students was a young suburban mailman named John Prine, who learned finger picking from Mr. Tate.

Mr. Tate co-owned the Fifth Peg, a bar and music venue across the street from the Old Town School’s Armitage Avenue location. Students took advantage of its open mic night, and on one such occasion in 1969, Mr. Tate was in the room when Prine, then 24, decided to take the stage and play a few songs he’d written.

“He sang ‘Sam Stone’ and ‘Paradise’ and ‘Hello In There’ and all the jaws in the room dropped to the floor, including Ray’s,” said Chris Farrell, a musician, former Old Town School teacher, and pal who heard Mr. Tate recall the tale.

Prine, whose musical career took off after that, may have been the best example, but Mr. Tate helped thousands of students reach their goals — whether it was becoming a professional, making music on the living room couch with friends, or playing alone after a day of work.

“It was a special time back then. There was a folk scene in Chicago, and there were no iPhones, nothing to do except go out and find a place you can feel comfortable in and have a few beers,” Holstein said.

Prine and fellow musicians Steve Goodman and Bonnie Koloc, all of whom studied at the Old Town School, were at the center of the scene — and everyone was friends with Mr. Tate.

In 1975 Mr. Tate cooked a Virginia ham before performing at Somebody Else’s Troubles in Lincoln Park for “Cook and Sing Night,” in which the featured artist cooked dinner for everyone, recalled Holstein. Prine played, too, that year, but wasn’t much of a cook, so 500 White Castle hamburgers were ordered.

Mr. Tate hired Chicago bluesman Billy Branch as a harmonica instructor in the late ’70s and included Branch in a performance he organized for cable television that also included powerhouse musicians Paul Butterfield, Willie Dixon and Roger McGuinn.

Other musicians he played with were Doc Watson, the Clancy Brothers, Arlo Guthrie, Chet Atkins, Pete Seeger, Jim Post and Ella Jenkins.

Mr. Tate also composed and arranged “When First Unto This Country” — performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and various artists at Orchestra Hall in 1981.

“He was a musician to his heart, very affable guy, but no-nonsense when it came to music,” said Branch, a longtime friend.

In 1982 Mr. Tate left the Old Town School and he later moved to Texas, where he lived on a ranch, established an arts program for gifted students at a local high school, trained horses and formed a band called the Spirit of Texas that was named the official cowboy music band of Texas by the state legislature, his daughter Gretchen said.

He retired to Virginia in 2011 and joined with local musicians in a band called Swing Project.

Before his death, Mr. Tate, a graduate of Northern Illinois University, was rehearsing to play a concert of music composed by poet Shel Silverstein. Mr. Tate and the late Silverstein were friends and musical collaborators.

Mr. Tate’s first musical love was bluegrass, followed by classical, country, western, jazz, gypsy jazz, blues and folk.

Mr. Tate, who was married four times, is survived by his daughters Gretchen Tate, Angela Jones, Cassandra Worrick, Martha Tate and several grandchildren.

Black Excellence award winners announced in theater, dance, music and more

2023-11-08T18:33:53.696-06:00

Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young is honored with a special recognition at the 2023 Black Excellence Awards ceremony Monday evening.

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The 2023 Black Excellence Awards ceremony Monday evening showcased a broad range of talent in the city’s Black arts scene.

The awards were presented by the Black Arts & Culture Alliance of Chicago, a nonprofit that offers artists resources ranging from workshops to mentorship in theater, dance, music, literature, technology, film and visual arts.

The 23rd annual award ceremony was held at The Black Ensemble Theater, 4450 N. Clark St.

Here is a list of award winners.

Outstanding Dance Production — Praize Production Inc., “Call Her by Name”
Outstanding Choreography — Tracey Franklin, “Freedom” at Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre
Special Recognition: Outstanding Dance Production — “Refraction” at Hubbard Street Dance
Special Recognition: Outstanding Producer — The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project
Outstanding Theater Production — Black Ensemble Theater, “Reasons: A Tribute to Earth, Wind and Fire”
Outstanding Director — John Ruffin, “Imitation of Life” at Theater 47
Outstanding Actor — Darren Jones, “Ezekiel’s Wheel” at MPAACT
Outstanding Actress — Jyreika Guest, “How Blood Go” at Congo Square Theatre
Special Recognition, Producing Advocate, Theater: Outstanding Performer — Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, “Boulevard of Bold Dreams” at Timeline Theater
Special Recognition, Producing Advocate, Theater: Outstanding Director — Marti Gobel, “Is God Is” at A Red Orchid Theatre
Outstanding Jazz Musician — Yvonne Gage
Outstanding R&B Musician — Jimmy Burns Band
Outstanding Film Direction — Marquis Simmons, “Broke Down Drone”
Outstanding Film — “Hindsight,” directed by Kimberly M. Vaughn and produced by her production company Suburban Blvck Girl Production
Outstanding Non-Fiction Work — Lowell Thompson, author of “African Americans in Chicago (Images of America)”
Outstanding Fiction Work — Damone Bester, author of “Mendel: Sometimes Ya Gotta Run for Your Life”
Outstanding Poetry Work — Growing Concerns Poetry Collective artists: McKenzie Chinn, Mykele Deville and Jeffrey Michael Austin for “First You Need A Body”
Outstanding Visual Artist — Maxwell Emcays for Englewood Public Unveiling
Outstanding Exhibition — All Children Draw, Blanc Gallery
Special Recognition: Black Arts Advocate — Vincent E. Williams, late founder of the Black Theatre Alliance Awards
Special Recognition: Black Arts Advocate — Erin Harkey, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
Special Recognition: Black Arts Advocate — avery r. young, Chicago Poet Laureate

Mike Lopez, Chicago firefighter and artist, dead at 49

2023-11-08T17:52:40.837-06:00

Chicago firefighter Mike Lopez was able to “turn every situation into a laugh riot,” a friend said.

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The say-anything manner of Chicago firefighter Mike Lopez left people bobbing in the wake of his personality as he made his mark at places around the city.

There was the red bench outside his Bronzeville firehouse, where he cut it up with colleagues and passersby. And Section 429, Row 10, at Bears games and the lot where he tailgated. Huddles at St. Cajetan elementary school, where he coached football.

“His unique talent to turn any situation into a laugh riot was unrivaled,” his friend Steve Urbon said.

Mr. Lopez died from complications due to diabetes Oct. 27. He was 49.

He was a curse word virtuoso and a storyteller and quipster with little regard for audience — abrasive and endearing, friends said.

“He was one of those guys you just could not be mad at,” said retired Chicago Fire Department Lt. Bill Smith. “He’d always make you smile. He was like a son to me.”

Mr. Lopez left regular firefighting duties when, in 2021, an infection in his right foot led doctors to amputate several toes, and later, his leg. Using a prosthetic, he continued doing what he loved: going to Bears games, bowling, concerts and coaching.

He once proudly hoisted his prosthetic to be used as a beer mug at a party and on another occasion stationed it atop the bar at McNally’s, an Irish Pub on the South Side. His brother Mathew Lopez, a Chicago police sergeant, grabbed it off the pine for safekeeping.

McNally’s, one of Mike Lopez’s favorite South Side bars, honored him upon his death.

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Mr. Lopez was 21 and a huge fan of live music when he took the exam to be a Chicago firefighter in 1995. Then, for the most part, he forgot about it.

“It wasn’t like a lifelong dream or anything like that, but our next-door neighbor growing up in Beverly — a close friend of the family — he was a fireman,” his brother said.

Mr. Lopez, a graduate of Mount Carmel High School, got his fine arts degree from Columbia College Chicago and moved to the North Side, not far from Wrigley Field, to be closer to his favorite music venues. The location also suited him because he was a massive Cubs fan.

“The bands that kind of changed our perspective on the world were the Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins,” his friend Bill Phelan said.

Mike Lopez (right) with his friend Bill Phelan.

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“Pumpkins at the Metro in 1993 was pretty epic,” Phelan said. “Just to the right of the sound booth, that was our spot. We also saw the White Stripes at the Empty Bottle in 2000, when they were still selling their own CDs.

“Mike was mostly a foot-tapper, a head-bopper, with little bursts of excitement, a fist-pump kind of thing,” he said. “He was a big dude. You didn’t want him dancing in a crowd.”

Post-college, while working as a clerk at a law firm, Mr. Lopez began an email campaign to stop the Fox television network from cutting its daily time slots for “The Simpsons” from two to one.

In 2002, he was watching a football game at the Beverly bar Cork and Kerry when he met his future wife, who was on a pub crawl sponsored by the radio station WXRT. Mr. Lopez handed her and two of her friends business cards, each with a laughable pickup line and his phone number.

“He was everything to me,” Katie Lopez said. “I remember one night we sat and looked at Yes album covers for, like, two hours and compared them.

“He was exceptionally sensitive and extremely sentimental. He kept every card he ever got. He was also very intelligent and a talented artist and writer, and he never gave himself enough credit for that.”

She said they recently divorced but remained best friends.

A sketch Mike Lopez did of a friend’s new home,

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Friends encouraged him to showcase his art but said Mr. Lopez was self-conscious about criticism, probably from critiques he received as an art student.

He was tapped by the city to become a firefighter in 2006 at 32 — 11 years after he applied for the job.

“You could just tell he liked being at the firehouse,” Smith said. “It’s like a family.”

“A lot of people who passed by the firehouse or the scene of an event probably have a story about Mike, people who met him once,” Phelan said. “Loud. Loved the city and hated the city. If you’re a true Chicagoan it’s never just one.”

A painting by Mike Lopez.

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When Mr. Lopez lost his leg, “His firefighter friends built a ramp for him at our home,” Katie Lopez said. “They were visiting him at the hospital and in rehab. And, if it wasn’t them, it was their wives and girlfriends. It literally brought him to tears countless times.”

Mr. Lopez was born in June 1974 to John and Meridith Lopez. His father worked for a company that leased fleet vehicles. His mother was a nurse.

Mike Lopez’s niece Claire McKeon shows sketches she did with her uncle shortly before he died, hers on the left, his on the right.

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His death was unexpected. The day before he died, he’d been teaching one of his nieces to use shading to add depth as the two sketched flowers in a jar.

Services have been held.