Sports fan Helen White Southwell
On snowy Sunday mornings when Chicago's streets were impassable by bicycle, Helen White Southwell packed her station wagon full of newspapers and drove her boys on their paper routes to make sure they finished in time for church.
A passionate sports fan, she routinely gathered up her five sons and their pals and headed by car or bus to Wrigley Field for Cubs games.
Mrs. Southwell battled for years with multiple sclerosis, but died at her Northwest Side home Tuesday of cancer that had been discovered only a few weeks before. She was 70.
"She had forgotten more about sports than most guys knew," said her son David who wrote sports for the Sun-Times for 12 years before switching to the news department three years ago. "She wrote us absence notes for school on Opening Day and packed us lunches knowing we were going to ditch school and go to the Cubs game.
"She was more than a Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks fan. She regularly called in to sports radio programs to straighten them out. If my mom would have been manager of the Cubs, they would have won a World Series by now."
"She was our moral compass," her son Bill said. "She was always there for us, helping with homework, science projects, anything we were involved in, whether it be music-related or sporting events."
The former Helen White met Don Southwell when they were both teenagers working at the old Bresler's Ice Cream factory on West Belden Avenue, where she filled containers with ice cream and he worked in the freezing room. They went out on a double date, each with someone else.
"I knew I was with the wrong girl," Don Southwell said. "I knew from the first time I saw her she was the woman I wanted to marry." They dated for five years, and married when she was 20. Last October, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Mrs. Southwell stayed home raising her five sons until the youngest went off to elementary school. Then she worked 22 years at Jewel Foods before her health forced her retirement. When she was stricken with MS two decades ago, she threw her energies into fund-raising efforts to fight the disease.
Other survivors are sons Donald Jr., Steven and Jeffrey; three sisters, Mae Kolb, Kathy Kowal and Judy La Galante; a brother, John Schoon, and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Jaeger Funeral Home, 3526 N. Cicero. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at United in Faith Lutheran Church, 5447 W. Addison. Burial will be private. [Chicago Sun-Times (IL), March 3, 2000, Author: BRENDA WARNER ROTZOLL, Edition: LATE SPORTS FINAL, Page: 63, Record Number: CST03030099, Copyright (c) 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.]
Married Donald Lee Southwell on October 8, 1949 in Cook County, Illinois.
On snowy Sunday mornings when Chicago's streets were impassable by bicycle, Helen White Southwell packed her station wagon full of newspapers and drove her boys on their paper routes to make sure they finished in time for church.
A passionate sports fan, she routinely gathered up her five sons and their pals and headed by car or bus to Wrigley Field for Cubs games.
Mrs. Southwell battled for years with multiple sclerosis, but died at her Northwest Side home Tuesday of cancer that had been discovered only a few weeks before. She was 70.
"She had forgotten more about sports than most guys knew," said her son David who wrote sports for the Sun-Times for 12 years before switching to the news department three years ago. "She wrote us absence notes for school on Opening Day and packed us lunches knowing we were going to ditch school and go to the Cubs game.
"She was more than a Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks fan. She regularly called in to sports radio programs to straighten them out. If my mom would have been manager of the Cubs, they would have won a World Series by now."
"She was our moral compass," her son Bill said. "She was always there for us, helping with homework, science projects, anything we were involved in, whether it be music-related or sporting events."
The former Helen White met Don Southwell when they were both teenagers working at the old Bresler's Ice Cream factory on West Belden Avenue, where she filled containers with ice cream and he worked in the freezing room. They went out on a double date, each with someone else.
"I knew I was with the wrong girl," Don Southwell said. "I knew from the first time I saw her she was the woman I wanted to marry." They dated for five years, and married when she was 20. Last October, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Mrs. Southwell stayed home raising her five sons until the youngest went off to elementary school. Then she worked 22 years at Jewel Foods before her health forced her retirement. When she was stricken with MS two decades ago, she threw her energies into fund-raising efforts to fight the disease.
Other survivors are sons Donald Jr., Steven and Jeffrey; three sisters, Mae Kolb, Kathy Kowal and Judy La Galante; a brother, John Schoon, and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Jaeger Funeral Home, 3526 N. Cicero. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at United in Faith Lutheran Church, 5447 W. Addison. Burial will be private. [Chicago Sun-Times (IL), March 3, 2000, Author: BRENDA WARNER ROTZOLL, Edition: LATE SPORTS FINAL, Page: 63, Record Number: CST03030099, Copyright (c) 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.]
Married Donald Lee Southwell on October 8, 1949 in Cook County, Illinois.
Sports fan Helen White Southwell
On snowy Sunday mornings when Chicago's streets were impassable by bicycle, Helen White Southwell packed her station wagon full of newspapers and drove her boys on their paper routes to make sure they finished in time for church.
A passionate sports fan, she routinely gathered up her five sons and their pals and headed by car or bus to Wrigley Field for Cubs games.
Mrs. Southwell battled for years with multiple sclerosis, but died at her Northwest Side home Tuesday of cancer that had been discovered only a few weeks before. She was 70.
"She had forgotten more about sports than most guys knew," said her son David who wrote sports for the Sun-Times for 12 years before switching to the news department three years ago. "She wrote us absence notes for school on Opening Day and packed us lunches knowing we were going to ditch school and go to the Cubs game.
"She was more than a Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks fan. She regularly called in to sports radio programs to straighten them out. If my mom would have been manager of the Cubs, they would have won a World Series by now."
"She was our moral compass," her son Bill said. "She was always there for us, helping with homework, science projects, anything we were involved in, whether it be music-related or sporting events."
The former Helen White met Don Southwell when they were both teenagers working at the old Bresler's Ice Cream factory on West Belden Avenue, where she filled containers with ice cream and he worked in the freezing room. They went out on a double date, each with someone else.
"I knew I was with the wrong girl," Don Southwell said. "I knew from the first time I saw her she was the woman I wanted to marry." They dated for five years, and married when she was 20. Last October, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Mrs. Southwell stayed home raising her five sons until the youngest went off to elementary school. Then she worked 22 years at Jewel Foods before her health forced her retirement. When she was stricken with MS two decades ago, she threw her energies into fund-raising efforts to fight the disease.
Other survivors are sons Donald Jr., Steven and Jeffrey; three sisters, Mae Kolb, Kathy Kowal and Judy La Galante; a brother, John Schoon, and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Jaeger Funeral Home, 3526 N. Cicero. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at United in Faith Lutheran Church, 5447 W. Addison. Burial will be private. [Chicago Sun-Times (IL), March 3, 2000, Author: BRENDA WARNER ROTZOLL, Edition: LATE SPORTS FINAL, Page: 63, Record Number: CST03030099, Copyright (c) 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.]
Married Donald Lee Southwell on October 8, 1949 in Cook County, Illinois.
On snowy Sunday mornings when Chicago's streets were impassable by bicycle, Helen White Southwell packed her station wagon full of newspapers and drove her boys on their paper routes to make sure they finished in time for church.
A passionate sports fan, she routinely gathered up her five sons and their pals and headed by car or bus to Wrigley Field for Cubs games.
Mrs. Southwell battled for years with multiple sclerosis, but died at her Northwest Side home Tuesday of cancer that had been discovered only a few weeks before. She was 70.
"She had forgotten more about sports than most guys knew," said her son David who wrote sports for the Sun-Times for 12 years before switching to the news department three years ago. "She wrote us absence notes for school on Opening Day and packed us lunches knowing we were going to ditch school and go to the Cubs game.
"She was more than a Cubs, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks fan. She regularly called in to sports radio programs to straighten them out. If my mom would have been manager of the Cubs, they would have won a World Series by now."
"She was our moral compass," her son Bill said. "She was always there for us, helping with homework, science projects, anything we were involved in, whether it be music-related or sporting events."
The former Helen White met Don Southwell when they were both teenagers working at the old Bresler's Ice Cream factory on West Belden Avenue, where she filled containers with ice cream and he worked in the freezing room. They went out on a double date, each with someone else.
"I knew I was with the wrong girl," Don Southwell said. "I knew from the first time I saw her she was the woman I wanted to marry." They dated for five years, and married when she was 20. Last October, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Mrs. Southwell stayed home raising her five sons until the youngest went off to elementary school. Then she worked 22 years at Jewel Foods before her health forced her retirement. When she was stricken with MS two decades ago, she threw her energies into fund-raising efforts to fight the disease.
Other survivors are sons Donald Jr., Steven and Jeffrey; three sisters, Mae Kolb, Kathy Kowal and Judy La Galante; a brother, John Schoon, and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Jaeger Funeral Home, 3526 N. Cicero. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at United in Faith Lutheran Church, 5447 W. Addison. Burial will be private. [Chicago Sun-Times (IL), March 3, 2000, Author: BRENDA WARNER ROTZOLL, Edition: LATE SPORTS FINAL, Page: 63, Record Number: CST03030099, Copyright (c) 2000 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.]
Married Donald Lee Southwell on October 8, 1949 in Cook County, Illinois.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
