Stone, Bernard L.
Bernard L. Stone Soundex Code S350
6833 N. Kedzie Avenue Politicians
wikipedia entry for Bernard L. Stone
Bernard L. Stone was born in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago on Thursday, November 24, 1927 to Sidney and Rebecca Stone. He was one of two children in the Stone family, the other being his sister Delores.
He was educated in the Chicago Public School System, at Von Humboldt Elementary School, 2620 W. Hirsch Street and Tuley High School, 1313 N. Claremont Avenue (now Roberto Clemente Community Academy, 1147 N. Western Avenue), where he was a letterman on the school’s football team and where he met his future wife, Lois.
College found him attending Wilbur Wright Junior College, 3400 N. Austin Avenue, (now Wilbur Wright College, 4300 N. Narragansett Avenue) where he was president of his freshman class. After a hitch in the U.S. Army in 1945, Bernie returned home two years later to Chicago and earned his Degree of Jurist Doctor from the John Marshall Law School, 315 S. Plymouth Court.
Bernie Stone was the Alderman of the 50th Ward. He held office for 38 years; from 1973 to 2011.
He was the son of Sidney Stone and Rebecca Stone, nee: Rebecca Spinks
His wife was Lois Stone
Children:
son: Jay Stone
daughters: Ilana Stone, Lori Stone, and the late Holly Ellen Stone and Robin H. Stone
brother of Delores Stone
Service Tuesday, December 23, 2012, 12 Noon at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Boulevard (at Niles Center Road), Skokie. Interment Waldheim Cemetery.
Chicago Sun-Times, Monday, December 22, 2014,
Former alderman Bernard Stone, who represented the 50th Ward on Chicago’s Far North Side before losing a re-election bid in 2011, has died.
Stone died early this morning from complications from a fall, one of his daughters said Monday.
Stone, who served almost four decades in office, was 87.
“He loved serving the people, he loved his job — he lived his job,” said daughter Ilana Feketitsch.
Stone died about 1:30 a.m. at Skokie Hospital said, Feketitsch. Feketitisch said the fall occurred Saturday.
Stone lost his seat on the City Council in 2011 to Alderman Debra Silverstein. He told his staff at the time “I had a good run.” But he also complained he lost to incoming Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “machine,” and he labeled the mayor-elect an “emperor.”
Originally a Democrat, Stone followed fellow alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak into the Republican Party for a failed run for recorder of deeds, only to rejoin the Democratic Party. He led the fight against the 1992 World’s Fair and built a wall down the middle of Howard Street between Chicago and Evanston preventing traffic from crossing from Chicago into Evanston and vice versa. The fence ran from Kedzie Avenue east to Maplewood Avenue. He sponsored the city’s condominium conversion law and ordinances mandating seat belts on school buses and forcing landlords to maintain temperatures of at least 63 degrees overnight.
But was particularly proud of having championed the gut-wrenching parade that finally gave Chicago’s Vietnam War veterans a welcome home he felt they richly deserved but never got. And he regretted voting for the city’s 75-year, $1.15 billion deal that privatized Chicago’s parking meters.
“If I could go through life without making a mistake, I’d be a perfect person,” Stone said. “But we all make mistakes.”
Photos
RPWRHS photo L009-0455 shows Alderman Bernard L. Stone at the opening of the 1st Chicago Bank, 7015 N. Western Avenue on Wednesday, May 4, 1994.
