Mother raised 13 kids in suburbs

Nearly every year, Leo and Catherine Provost gathered with their brood of 13 children to pose for a family portrait for the cover of the local paper in Skokie.

They kidded that it had all the makings for a movie entitled, "Cheaper by the Baker's Dozen." But the family lived it in real life, growing up in a family of seven girls and six boys, whose father was a band director and taught private lessons in their home.

"It was a noisy, busy place," says the second oldest, Catherine Liggett of Lake Forest.

The family's matriarch, Catherine Julia Provost passed away Wednesday, at the age of 89. The 20-year Prospect Heights resident lived for 40 years in Morton Grove before that, where she raised her large family.

Mrs. Provost grew up in Wisconsin, where she attended Holy Angels Academy and Marquette University, graduating with the class of 1940. Family members say that at each reunion, she regularly won the prize for having the most children.

She met her husband during World War II, when she served as a USO director stationed in Wendover, Utah, and he played trumpet and directed a USO band.

The couple married in 1945, and Leo Provost used the G.I. Bill to earn his music degree at the New England Conservatory of Music; then followed with a master's at the University of Illinois.

Children started coming along, and the growing family moved from Boston to Champaign, and ultimately to Skokie, where they rented a small house from officials with St. Peter's Catholic Church, while Leo Provost went to work as Niles East High School's music director.

Eventually, the family built their own five-bedroom tri-level house in Morton Grove, where they settled with their 13 children, born within 18 years.

"There was always cooking and eating going on at all times of the day," Liggett recalls. "Just to eat dinner, we'd stretch from the kitchen into the dining room. At night, it was the girls' job to make all the lunches for the next day."

A typical dinner, she adds, constituted of "dozens" of pork chops, just to feed the hungry group, particularly the growing boys.

Through it all, Mrs. Provost kept the group together, and tightly knit, her children say. A devout Catholic with a lifelong devotion to Mary, she drew her strength from her strong faith.

"She was very strict and kept everyone in line. At night, everyone had to sign in on a chalk board, including my father who had (professional band) gigs every weekend," Liggett says. "But she taught us that family and faith was everything."

Mrs. Provost is survived by her husband, Leo, of 62 years, as well as her children: Marybeth (Ron) Saari of Livermore, Calif., Catherine (James) Liggett of Lake Forest, Margaret (Charles Fyfe) of Oak Park, Patricia Kosinski of Oak Park, Henry of Denver, Colo., Edward (Judy) of Evanston, William (Susan) of Frankfort, Ill., Julie of Prairie du Sac, Wis., Ginger of Anchorage, Alaska, Joseph (Lynn) of Buffalo Grove, Barbara (Daniel Nielsen) of Grayslake, Jack of Las Vegas, Nev. and Peter (Adrienne) of Palatine; as well as 33 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Services were held previously.