Epilogue

Chicago attorney Thomas George Lyons, a former state senator and delegate to the 1970 Constitutional Convention, died Jan. 12 at age 75 in an Evanston nursing home, where he had been paralyzed from inflammation of the spinal cord.

He was a partner in the Government Relations Group at O'Keefe, Lyons & Hynes, which was O'Keefe, Ashenden, O'Brien, Hanson, Lyons & Associates when he became a partner in 1965.

A 1957 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law after service as an Army Ranger captain, Mr. Lyons had been a Chicago police officer. After two years as chief attorney for the Cook County assessor, he became an assistant Illinois attorney general in 1960 and was chief of the Legislative and Revenue Divisions.

Elected to the Illinois Senate in 1964, he was elected vice chair and then chair of the Illinois Constitution Study Commission. As a delegate to the 6th Illinois Constitutional Convention and vice president in 1969-70, he helped draft the document that was approved by voters.

Mr. Lyons chaired the Senate Appro-priations Committee and the Committee on Constitutional Implementation simultaneously in 1972, and was secretary of the Governor's Revenue Study Committee.

A delegate to nine Democratic National Conventions from 1968 to 2000, he served on the Chicago host committee in 1968. He also served seven terms as chair of the Democratic Party of Cook County.

Mr. Lyons was a member of the Character and Fitness Committee of the Illinois Bar from 1980 to 1996, and was appointed a commissioner of the Illinois Court of Claims in 2002. He served on the American Battle Monuments Commission from 1994 to 1998.

A member of the advisory board of the New Horizon Center for Retarded Children, he was former board chair of New Horizon Travel and Tours and the Gladstone-Norwood Trust and Savings Bank.

Mr. Lyons received the Medical of Excellence from the Loyola law school and was designated a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

Survivors include two sons, Francis X. Lyons of Bell, Boyd & Lloyd and Thomas V. Lyons II of the Nolan Law Group, both of Chicago, and a nephew, Wisconsin attorney Patrick Breen.

Retired Chicago attorney and conservationist Joseph Benjamin Cicero died Jan. 12 at age 68 of lung cancer in his Albany Park neighborhood home.

A 1963 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, Mr. Cicero was a labor attorney for the Central States joint board of AFL-CIO until 1976, when he began his 21-year tenure as executive director of the North River Commission.

When a plan arose to develop a shopping center and condominiums at the 155-acre site of a former tuberculosis sanitarium, he convinced Mayor Richard J. Daley to dedicate the land for public use. The resulting North Park Village includes a park, a 46-acre nature preserve, subsidized senior housing and educational facilities.

Mr. Cicero also helped develop a former insurance company site for senior housing, a library and a bank, and was instrumental in the opening of Northside College Preparatory High School in 1999.

Retired 19th Circuit judge Henry Lawrence Cowlin of Crystal Lake died in January at age 82. A veteran of Navy service during World War II, he was a 1952 graduate of the Wayne State University Law School.

Mr. Cowlin's 25 years in practice in---cluded service as an assistant McHenry County state's attorney and a special assistant attorney general. He was attorney for the Villages of Algonquin, Fox River Grove, Huntley and Lake in the Hills, and several townships and municipal districts.

Elected to the court in 1978, he was presiding judge in McHenry County from 1981 to 1992. He was a past president of the McHenry County Bar Association and the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce.

Seymour Samuel “Sy” DeKoven of Win-netka, former executive vice president of the DeKoven Drugstore chain, died Jan. 29 at age 86 of heart disease at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge.

A 1942 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law who served in the Army in Europe during World War II, Mr. DeKoven helped run the 26-location family pharmacy business until it was sold to Perry Drug of Michigan in 1980. He was a volunteer with the Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Retired Cook County assistant public defender Jean Essary of Dolton died in January at age 85. She served in the Army during World War II, in the Air Force during the Korean War, and was a member of the Army Reserve for more than 20 years.

After employment with the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service, Miss Essary graduated in 1970 from The John Marshall Law School and joined the public defender's office the next year. She received a master's degree from Northern Illinois University in 1990 and also was a real estate broker.

Retired Chicago attorney Richard Joseph Faletti of Clarendon Hills, a respected collector and appraiser of African art, died Dec. 25 at age 84 of brain cancer in his Phoenix, Ariz., home.

A 1949 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he had flown in combat missions during World War II as an Army Air Corps captain.

Mr. Faletti joined Winston & Strawn in 1955 and opened its Hong Kong office in the early 1980s. He was managing partner in the Phoenix office from 1985 until his retirement in 1989.

His interest in African art began when his corporate practice took him to Nigeria in the 1970s. He became a member of the advisory committee of the African and Amerindian Art Department of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Mr. Faletti's acquisitions were a traveling exhibition, “A Sense of Wonder: African Art from the Faletti Family Collection,” in U.S. museums during the 1990s. Pieces from the collection have been donated to the Art Institute and the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois.

Retired Mt. Prospect attorney Thomas Masumichi Hiura, who was interned with his family in an Arizona relocation camp during World War II, died Jan. 1 at age 81 in Grand Rapids, Mich., four days after he concluded his Illinois law practice.

Mr. Hiura eventually served in the Army Intelligence Service and was on a troop ship en route to Japan when the war ended. After his discharge, he remained in Japan for three years as a civilian translator.

A 1955 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he was editor of the Antitrust Law Economic Review an author of an unpublished work titled “Hiura Monogatari.”

St. Charles attorney Gerard Charles Kepple died Jan. 28 at age 59 in Delnor Community Hospital, Geneva. Born in Scotland, he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1979.

Retired Chicago attorney and certified public accountant Phillip Irwin Lifschultz of Glencoe died Dec. 20 at age 79 of cancer in Las Vegas. A 1956 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he joined the tax department of Arthur Andersen & Co. as an accountant.

Mr. Lifschultz was vice president for taxes of Montgomery Ward & Co. from 1963 until 1978, when he became financial vice president and controller at Henry Crown & Co., retiring in 1981.

He chaired the Illinois auditor general's advisory board from 1965 to 1973 and the Civic Federation of Chicago from 1980 to 1982, and was an education project director for the Executive Service Corps of Chicago from 1980 to 1987.

Additional information has been received about retired Chicago attorney Charles E. Lindell, whose death on Dec. 17 at age 78 was reported in the January issue.

After service as an Army paratrooper, Mr. Lindell graduated in 1953 from the University of Chicago Law School. He had a private practice on the South Side for many years and was a resident of South Holland until 1991, when he moved to Dyer, Ind.

J. Keith Mann, a Stanford University emeritus law professor who was born in Alexis, Ill., and had an honorary doctor of laws degree from Monmouth College, died Nov. 27 at age 82 of pneumonia.

A 1949 graduate of the Indiana University Law School after Navy service during World War II, Mr. Mann practiced in Washington, D.C., and taught at the University of Wisconsin before joining the Stanford faculty in 1952.

A law professor whose students included Sandra Day O'Connor, he was an associate dean from 1961 to 1985 and acting dean on two occasions. He retired in 1988.

Retired Morrison attorney John Dreese Mennenoh, a past president of the Whiteside County Bar Association, died Jan. 2 at age 78 of leukemia and lymphoma.

A 1954 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he served two years in the Army before joining Chicago Title and Trust Co. as an examining attorney. He opened the firm's escrow department in Lake County and subsequently managed the Peoria County Division.

In 1971, Mr. Mennoneh purchased the H. B. Wilkinson Title and Abstract Co. in Morrison and retired in 1996. He was treasurer and chair of the Whiteside County Cancer Society.

Retired Chicago attorney Lyman L. Mitchell of Wilmette died in January at age 93. A 1937 graduate of the University of Iowa Law School, he served in Army Intelligence in London during World War II.

A partner in Chapman and Cutler for more than 30 years, Mr. Mitchell was a former Evanston alderman and past president of the Wilmette Baseball Association.

Retired Chicago attorney Thomas E. Moran of Glencoe died in January at age 91. A 1939 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he was a partner in Rothbart, Stein & Moran for several years.

Former Chicago attorney Louis Clark Roberts died Jan. 15 at age 57 in his Rumson, N.J., home. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1975 and practiced with Peterson, Ross, Schloerb & Seidel for several years before joining CNA Insurance in New York.

Retired Glencoe attorney Jerome Shalon of Scottsdale, Ariz., died Dec. 28 at age 77. A 1953 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he managed real estate ventures until he moved to California in 1986.

Chicago attorney Harvey Marvin Silets, a partner in Katten Muchin Rosenman, died Jan. 23 at age 75 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A 1956 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, he was a high-profile white-collar criminal defense lawyer.

After Army service, Mr. Silets became an assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the division that prosecuted tax fraud. He entered private practice in the 1960s and joined Katten Muchin 14 years ago.

Mr. Silets was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Tax Counsel, and he served on the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.

Retired Chicago attorney George B. Silverman, a resident of Sun Lakes, Ariz., died Jan. 12 at age 82. While working in the family hardware store in Maywood and living in Oak Park, he attended the Chicago-Kent College of Law and graduated in 1969.

Mr. Silverman was with the Heritage Insurance Co. in Chicago and Phoenix, where he moved in 1979, and also with the Merit and Prestige Insurance Companies. He retired 12 years ago and was a volunteer judge.

A captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Mr. Silverman was a navigator and bombardier in the Pacific Theater.

Retired Chicago attorney Benito Har-rison Smith died Jan. 12 at age 89 of cancer in his Park Manor neighborhood home. A teacher for 22 years who graduated in 1951 from The John Marshall Law School, he joined the law department of Chicago Public Schools in 1970 and retired in 1984.

Mr. Smith joined the Army Air Corps during World War II and received flight training in Tuskegee, Ala. He was an active member of the DODO chapter of Tuskegee Airmen.

Retired attorney Earl Richard Smith, a native of Nashville, Ill., died Dec, 17 at age 93 in San Antonio, Texas. A former Coast Guard Reserve captain, he had law degrees from George Washington, Georgetown and Catholic Universities. He practiced in Washington, D.C., from 1950 to 1970 and retired from the law in 1973.

A member of the Sons of Pioneers of Illinois, Mr. Smith was a descendant of two Washington County families and a founder of the County Historical Museum.

He wrote several historical and genealogical essays for The Nashville News, including three book-length articles: “Story of the Darter Cemetery,” “Man from Ayres Point,” and “Murder in the Cabin.”

Renetta Smith, an immigration judge for the U.S. Department of Justice in Orlando, Fla., died Feb. 1 at age 47. She had been an immigration judge in Chicago for several years and was rated consistently as one of the most lenient in granting asylum.

In a 1996 case, in which Miss Smith gave political asylum to an Ivory Coast man who had been beaten by police for union activities, counsel included two students from the Chicago-Kent College of Law Immigration Clinic.

A 1986 graduate of the Southern Law School in Louisiana, she was one of 15 distinguished alumni honored at a 1999 reception in Baton Rouge during her Chicago tenure.

Retired Cambridge attorney Kenneth L. Telleen died Jan. 8 at age 97 at the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights. The son of former judge Leonard E. Telleen, he was a 1934 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law.

When his brother, Leonard William Telleen, graduated the following year, they formed Telleen & Telleen, now Telleen, Horberg, Smith & Carmen. They also founded the Henry County Title and Abstract Co., which was sold later to First American Title.

During his 60 years in practice, Kenneth Telleen was an assistant attorney general from 1941 to 1949, Cambridge village attorney from 1939 to 1974, and for other towns that include Geneseo.

Jacksonville attorney and certified public accountant Ralph E. Thomson died Jan. 3 at age 84 at Passavant Area Hospital. A 1947 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Mr. Thomson joined the law firm of his father, William E. Thomson, in Thomson & Thomson, which became Thomson, McNeely & Crews.

Former DuPage County attorney James K. Young died in January at age 73. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1963 and represented York Township and the villages of Villa Park and Lombard.