Jack Klasey

Contributor at Kankakee Daily Journal

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Articles

KLASEY: 'The Bachelor:' 1908 edition

Feb 1, 2025 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

More than two decades ago, a popular show called “The Bachelor” debuted on television. Over the course of a TV season, it followed the efforts of an eligible young man (The Bachelor) to select a fiancée from among a group of attractive young single women. In the series’ final episode, the bachelor would propose marriage to the woman he chose.
Klasey: A 1951 fire in Manteno

Jan 26, 2025 | shawlocal.com | Jack Klasey

When the Manteno fire whistle sounded in the late afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 30, 1951, volunteer firefighter Paul Maisonneuve was donating a pint of blood at the Red Cross blood bank. “As soon as their technician was through with him,” reported the Kankakee Daily Journal on Jan. 31, “he jumped up from the cot and rushed out to the fire. He remained fighting the blaze until the early hours this morning.”On fire was a two-story building in the heart of Manteno’s business district.
KLASEY: A 1951 fire in Manteno

Jan 25, 2025 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

When the Manteno fire whistle sounded in the late afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 30, 1951, volunteer firefighter Paul Maisonneuve was donating a pint of blood at the Red Cross blood bank. “As soon as their technician was through with him,” reported the Kankakee Daily Journal on Jan. 31, “he jumped up from the cot and rushed out to the fire. He remained fighting the blaze until the early hours this morning.”On fire was a two-story building in the heart of Manteno’s business district.
Klasey: 1958: Kankakee’s “almost” year

Jan 18, 2025 | shawlocal.com | Jack Klasey

The year 1958 was one that 14 Kankakee boys would remember for the rest of their lives. It was the year that they came within one game of becoming the Little League World Champions. “Kankakee’s Little Leaguers, champions of the Great Midwest and a week hence champions of the world — they hope — were blared a gigantic welcome home Saturday night,” reported the Kankakee Daily Journal on Sunday, Aug. 17, 1958.
KLASEY: 1958: Kankakee’s “almost” year

Jan 18, 2025 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

The year 1958 was one that 14 Kankakee boys would remember for the rest of their lives. It was the year that they came within one game of becoming the Little League World Champions. “Kankakee’s Little Leaguers, champions of the Great Midwest and a week hence champions of the world — they hope — were blared a gigantic welcome home Saturday night,” reported the Kankakee Daily Journal on Sunday, Aug. 17, 1958.
A century in Bourbonnais

Jan 10, 2025 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

The century from 1860 to 1960 saw much change in the Village of Bourbonnais. In 1860, it had 2,205 residents, almost all of whom spoke the French-Canadian dialect; in 1960, the village population had grown to 3,336, but the predominant language was English. In that century, the dirt roads that formed a distinctive “Y” in the heart of the village became the paved highways U.S. 45 and Illinois 102; traffic changed from horse-drawn wagons and buggies to gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
KLASEY: A North Pole letter

Jan 3, 2025 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

In early August 1958, Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Patterson, of Bourbonnais, received a telegram from Commander William Anderson, captain of the USS Nautilus, the Navy’s first nuclear-powered submarine. The telegram informed the Pattersons that their son, Gary Lee, was a member of the Nautilus crew when it made an historic voyage under the North Pole. Later in the month, the couple received a long letter from Gary Lee, detailing his experiences during the epic journey.
KLASEY: A short history of a long street

Dec 27, 2024 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

Stretching almost four miles across the center of the city, Court Street is one of Kankakee’s oldest and longest streets. Beginning at the city’s eastern boundary near Splear Road, the four-lane concrete thoroughfare passes beneath Interstate 57 and continues westward through a neighborhood of mixed residential and commercial buildings before reaching downtown Kankakee at Harrison Avenue.
KLASEY: Kankakee’s Belt Route

Dec 20, 2024 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

In the years following World War II, Kankakee was “booming” with new factories, a growing population, sprawling housing developments, and a bustling downtown filled with stores, restaurants and other businesses. Accompanying that growth, however, was severe traffic congestion, especially on major roads funneling heavy auto and truck traffic through the heart of the city.
KLASEY: When The Flame blew out

Dec 13, 2024 | daily-journal.com | Jack Klasey

Kankakee Police Sergeant Tom Jones and Patrolman Paul Blanchette were driving on Willow Street near Harrison Avenue in the early morning hours of July 8, 1958, when they noticed a “glow” one block to the north, beyond the American-Marietta [now Valspar] Paint Co. plant. Jones and Blanchette then drove to the area, where they discovered that the “glow” was a fire burning in The Flame Restaurant and Bar at 625 E. Fair St., just west of Mound Grove Cemetery.