Hanover Park restaurateur, village worker dies

Helen Schneider never ran for public office in Hanover Park, but for many years she was one of the first people residents met when walked into village hall.

Schneider worked alongside former three-term village clerk Sonya Crawshaw in the years leading up to Crawshaw being elected mayor. She later worked for Sherry Craig.

Together, they helped record village documents and records, as well as administer local services, from voters' registrations to vehicle stickers.

Mrs. Schneider passed away Thursday. The 57-year resident of Hanover Park was 89.

“She was a wonderful lady, who was so gracious and welcoming to people,” Sherry Craig said.

Mrs. Schneider and her husband, Roy, were among the community's first residents when they moved to the village in 1954, with the dream of opening their own restaurant.

Together, they ran the Country Grill, located at 2020 W. Lake St. in Hanover Park. It served mostly hamburgers and other sandwiches, but local farmers knew they could find homemade soups and stews as well.

Roy Schneider drew on his years working alongside his father at their butcher shop in Chicago before opening the restaurant. Helen Schneider helped with some of the cooking and serving customers, said their daughter, Kathy Payne of Crystal Lake.

“They wanted to move out of the city,” Payne says. “They dreamed of opening their own restaurant, and Hanover Park offered them the opportunity.”

The couple ran the restaurant for seven years, from 1954 to 1961, before selling it to new owners who opened it as the Lakewood Restaurant.

Running the Country Grill during the village's early years immersed the couple in Hanover Park's development from a rural community into an incorporated village.

Roy Schneider helped to lay the groundwork for its incorporation in August 1958. He then served as the village's first police chief, called magistrate at the time, which mostly involved issuing traffic citations and providing security.

When Roy Schneider passed away in 1978, Helen Schneider looked for employment at village hall, which coincidentally was located directly across the street from the restaurant that she and her husband opened.

“She always had a smile on her face,” Craig said. “She welcomed people to town and loved to tell stories about the early days.”

Besides Payne, Mrs. Schneider is survived by another daughter, Patti Schneider of Rockford.

Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Countryside Funeral Home, 1640 Greenmeadows Blvd. before an 11:30 a.m. funeral Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church, 513 Parkside Circle, both in Streamwood.