HELEN SCLAIR: 1930-2009 - Authority on cemeteries
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Sunday, December 20, 2009, News, p. 49
Author: Trevor Jensen, Tribune reporter
Helen Sclair's address during the last years of her life will remain unchanged into eternity.
A recognized authority on cemeteries and burial practices, Mrs. Sclair lived in a house on the grounds of Bohemian National Cemetery on Chicago's Northwest Side since about 2001. Her cremated remains will rest not far away under a granite stone bearing the inscription, "The Cemetery Lady, An Advocate for the Dead."
Mrs. Sclair, 78, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, Dec. 16, in the Harmony Healthcare and Rehab Center in Chicago, where she had been recovering from surgery, said her daughter, Lu Helen Sclair.
Mrs. Sclair lectured around the country to groups like the Association for Gravestone Studies, taught on burial and genealogical related topics at the Newberry Library, and possessed encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago-area cemeteries.
"It made her feel connected to the family and the person who died," Sclair said. "It was important for her to see where the person was laid to rest."
In 1991, she made significant discoveries on Chicago's early years while scouring records made available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System at Northeastern Illinois University.
She found that some families were trying to get their ancestors' remains out of Lincoln Park as recently as 1900, leading her to believe that old bones still linger beneath the lakefront park. Her work also sharpened knowledge of the immigration patterns that shaped Chicago.
The documents she dug up were, said one historian at the time, a million-to-one shot, comparable to finding a painting by an old master in an attic trunk.
Her fascination with cemeteries dated to her childhood in bucolic Lake County. Born Helen Young, her mother died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by close friend of her mother's on a duck farm.
In Studs Terkel's book "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith," Mrs. Sclair recalled that "the first thing my foster family did was take me to visit my mother's grave down in southern Illinois."
Later, she spent weekends tending grave markers at a local cemetery, trimming the grass and watering flowers. She felt an earlier generation had a better handle on death, and studied the old rituals that marked human passing, her daughter said.
Her father, Irvin Young, was an entrepreneur and former missionary in Africa who helped his friend Marlin Perkins bring gorillas to Lincoln Park Zoo.
She attended a boarding school in Kenosha and graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota, then went to work for a small manufacturing company her father had started on Sheffield Avenue. It was there she met her first husband, James Henry Holcomb, a machinist who lost his job, left town to find work and never returned.
She later married Marvin Sclair, who died in 1975.
For 30 years she taught school, mostly at Gladstone Elementary on the Near West Side. She lived most of her adult life in Lincoln Park until health problems made it difficult to trek up the stairs to her fourth-floor apartment on Lill Street.
Through a friend, she learned of an old caretaker's house at Bohemian National Cemetery that was available for rent.
"Someone asked if she thought it was too weird to live there," her daughter said. "She didn't, and it was really a wonderful match."
Among other benefits of living in a cemetery, she later said, was that unlike Lincoln Park, there was never any problem finding a parking space.
Mrs. Sclair is also survived by a grandchild.
A service is being planned for the spring.
Below is a link of a video remembering the Chicago Cemetery Lady, Helen Sclair. [Algae notified me of this website.]
http://video.wttw.com/video/1371687619/
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Sunday, December 20, 2009, News, p. 49
Author: Trevor Jensen, Tribune reporter
Helen Sclair's address during the last years of her life will remain unchanged into eternity.
A recognized authority on cemeteries and burial practices, Mrs. Sclair lived in a house on the grounds of Bohemian National Cemetery on Chicago's Northwest Side since about 2001. Her cremated remains will rest not far away under a granite stone bearing the inscription, "The Cemetery Lady, An Advocate for the Dead."
Mrs. Sclair, 78, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, Dec. 16, in the Harmony Healthcare and Rehab Center in Chicago, where she had been recovering from surgery, said her daughter, Lu Helen Sclair.
Mrs. Sclair lectured around the country to groups like the Association for Gravestone Studies, taught on burial and genealogical related topics at the Newberry Library, and possessed encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago-area cemeteries.
"It made her feel connected to the family and the person who died," Sclair said. "It was important for her to see where the person was laid to rest."
In 1991, she made significant discoveries on Chicago's early years while scouring records made available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System at Northeastern Illinois University.
She found that some families were trying to get their ancestors' remains out of Lincoln Park as recently as 1900, leading her to believe that old bones still linger beneath the lakefront park. Her work also sharpened knowledge of the immigration patterns that shaped Chicago.
The documents she dug up were, said one historian at the time, a million-to-one shot, comparable to finding a painting by an old master in an attic trunk.
Her fascination with cemeteries dated to her childhood in bucolic Lake County. Born Helen Young, her mother died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by close friend of her mother's on a duck farm.
In Studs Terkel's book "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith," Mrs. Sclair recalled that "the first thing my foster family did was take me to visit my mother's grave down in southern Illinois."
Later, she spent weekends tending grave markers at a local cemetery, trimming the grass and watering flowers. She felt an earlier generation had a better handle on death, and studied the old rituals that marked human passing, her daughter said.
Her father, Irvin Young, was an entrepreneur and former missionary in Africa who helped his friend Marlin Perkins bring gorillas to Lincoln Park Zoo.
She attended a boarding school in Kenosha and graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota, then went to work for a small manufacturing company her father had started on Sheffield Avenue. It was there she met her first husband, James Henry Holcomb, a machinist who lost his job, left town to find work and never returned.
She later married Marvin Sclair, who died in 1975.
For 30 years she taught school, mostly at Gladstone Elementary on the Near West Side. She lived most of her adult life in Lincoln Park until health problems made it difficult to trek up the stairs to her fourth-floor apartment on Lill Street.
Through a friend, she learned of an old caretaker's house at Bohemian National Cemetery that was available for rent.
"Someone asked if she thought it was too weird to live there," her daughter said. "She didn't, and it was really a wonderful match."
Among other benefits of living in a cemetery, she later said, was that unlike Lincoln Park, there was never any problem finding a parking space.
Mrs. Sclair is also survived by a grandchild.
A service is being planned for the spring.
Below is a link of a video remembering the Chicago Cemetery Lady, Helen Sclair. [Algae notified me of this website.]
http://video.wttw.com/video/1371687619/
HELEN SCLAIR: 1930-2009 - Authority on cemeteries
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Sunday, December 20, 2009, News, p. 49
Author: Trevor Jensen, Tribune reporter
Helen Sclair's address during the last years of her life will remain unchanged into eternity.
A recognized authority on cemeteries and burial practices, Mrs. Sclair lived in a house on the grounds of Bohemian National Cemetery on Chicago's Northwest Side since about 2001. Her cremated remains will rest not far away under a granite stone bearing the inscription, "The Cemetery Lady, An Advocate for the Dead."
Mrs. Sclair, 78, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, Dec. 16, in the Harmony Healthcare and Rehab Center in Chicago, where she had been recovering from surgery, said her daughter, Lu Helen Sclair.
Mrs. Sclair lectured around the country to groups like the Association for Gravestone Studies, taught on burial and genealogical related topics at the Newberry Library, and possessed encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago-area cemeteries.
"It made her feel connected to the family and the person who died," Sclair said. "It was important for her to see where the person was laid to rest."
In 1991, she made significant discoveries on Chicago's early years while scouring records made available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System at Northeastern Illinois University.
She found that some families were trying to get their ancestors' remains out of Lincoln Park as recently as 1900, leading her to believe that old bones still linger beneath the lakefront park. Her work also sharpened knowledge of the immigration patterns that shaped Chicago.
The documents she dug up were, said one historian at the time, a million-to-one shot, comparable to finding a painting by an old master in an attic trunk.
Her fascination with cemeteries dated to her childhood in bucolic Lake County. Born Helen Young, her mother died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by close friend of her mother's on a duck farm.
In Studs Terkel's book "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith," Mrs. Sclair recalled that "the first thing my foster family did was take me to visit my mother's grave down in southern Illinois."
Later, she spent weekends tending grave markers at a local cemetery, trimming the grass and watering flowers. She felt an earlier generation had a better handle on death, and studied the old rituals that marked human passing, her daughter said.
Her father, Irvin Young, was an entrepreneur and former missionary in Africa who helped his friend Marlin Perkins bring gorillas to Lincoln Park Zoo.
She attended a boarding school in Kenosha and graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota, then went to work for a small manufacturing company her father had started on Sheffield Avenue. It was there she met her first husband, James Henry Holcomb, a machinist who lost his job, left town to find work and never returned.
She later married Marvin Sclair, who died in 1975.
For 30 years she taught school, mostly at Gladstone Elementary on the Near West Side. She lived most of her adult life in Lincoln Park until health problems made it difficult to trek up the stairs to her fourth-floor apartment on Lill Street.
Through a friend, she learned of an old caretaker's house at Bohemian National Cemetery that was available for rent.
"Someone asked if she thought it was too weird to live there," her daughter said. "She didn't, and it was really a wonderful match."
Among other benefits of living in a cemetery, she later said, was that unlike Lincoln Park, there was never any problem finding a parking space.
Mrs. Sclair is also survived by a grandchild.
A service is being planned for the spring.
Below is a link of a video remembering the Chicago Cemetery Lady, Helen Sclair. [Algae notified me of this website.]
http://video.wttw.com/video/1371687619/
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Sunday, December 20, 2009, News, p. 49
Author: Trevor Jensen, Tribune reporter
Helen Sclair's address during the last years of her life will remain unchanged into eternity.
A recognized authority on cemeteries and burial practices, Mrs. Sclair lived in a house on the grounds of Bohemian National Cemetery on Chicago's Northwest Side since about 2001. Her cremated remains will rest not far away under a granite stone bearing the inscription, "The Cemetery Lady, An Advocate for the Dead."
Mrs. Sclair, 78, died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, Dec. 16, in the Harmony Healthcare and Rehab Center in Chicago, where she had been recovering from surgery, said her daughter, Lu Helen Sclair.
Mrs. Sclair lectured around the country to groups like the Association for Gravestone Studies, taught on burial and genealogical related topics at the Newberry Library, and possessed encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago-area cemeteries.
"It made her feel connected to the family and the person who died," Sclair said. "It was important for her to see where the person was laid to rest."
In 1991, she made significant discoveries on Chicago's early years while scouring records made available through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository System at Northeastern Illinois University.
She found that some families were trying to get their ancestors' remains out of Lincoln Park as recently as 1900, leading her to believe that old bones still linger beneath the lakefront park. Her work also sharpened knowledge of the immigration patterns that shaped Chicago.
The documents she dug up were, said one historian at the time, a million-to-one shot, comparable to finding a painting by an old master in an attic trunk.
Her fascination with cemeteries dated to her childhood in bucolic Lake County. Born Helen Young, her mother died shortly after her birth, and she was raised by close friend of her mother's on a duck farm.
In Studs Terkel's book "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith," Mrs. Sclair recalled that "the first thing my foster family did was take me to visit my mother's grave down in southern Illinois."
Later, she spent weekends tending grave markers at a local cemetery, trimming the grass and watering flowers. She felt an earlier generation had a better handle on death, and studied the old rituals that marked human passing, her daughter said.
Her father, Irvin Young, was an entrepreneur and former missionary in Africa who helped his friend Marlin Perkins bring gorillas to Lincoln Park Zoo.
She attended a boarding school in Kenosha and graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota, then went to work for a small manufacturing company her father had started on Sheffield Avenue. It was there she met her first husband, James Henry Holcomb, a machinist who lost his job, left town to find work and never returned.
She later married Marvin Sclair, who died in 1975.
For 30 years she taught school, mostly at Gladstone Elementary on the Near West Side. She lived most of her adult life in Lincoln Park until health problems made it difficult to trek up the stairs to her fourth-floor apartment on Lill Street.
Through a friend, she learned of an old caretaker's house at Bohemian National Cemetery that was available for rent.
"Someone asked if she thought it was too weird to live there," her daughter said. "She didn't, and it was really a wonderful match."
Among other benefits of living in a cemetery, she later said, was that unlike Lincoln Park, there was never any problem finding a parking space.
Mrs. Sclair is also survived by a grandchild.
A service is being planned for the spring.
Below is a link of a video remembering the Chicago Cemetery Lady, Helen Sclair. [Algae notified me of this website.]
http://video.wttw.com/video/1371687619/
Inscription
HELEN A. SCLAIR
The Cemetery Lady
1930 2009
AN ADVOCATE FOR THE DEAD
Family Members
Spouse
