Proud Lake County mom has two mayors in family
The stats for the Lady Hustlers bowling league in Round Lake were posted a little later than usual on Tuesday.
"After the party last night I went home and entered the scores. By midnight, I had the scores on the Internet," said Evelyn Dietz, 81, who was born and still lives in Round Lake Park.
Why so late? Because Dietz, the league secretary, couldn't miss the joint victory celebration for her daughter and son.
Jean McCue was re-elected mayor of Round Lake Park, and voters supported James Dietz for the same position in Round Lake, neighboring towns where family history runs six generations deep.
"When I got done bowling, I went down to the American Legion and joined them," she said. She did pretty well, too, rolling 141, 113 and 157.
It would be incorrect to describe the Dietz family as a political dynasty with a mission and tradition of capturing public office. The siblings' rise to local stature is more a curious coincidence.
True, Evelyn Dietz's grandfather Claus Junge Jr. was the unofficial head of Round Lake Park before it was incorporated, and served many years as village clerk. And her grandmother headed the local Red Cross, distributing long underwear to the needy during the Depression.
Evelyn Dietz herself used to be an election judge, but her obligation to the Tuesday night bowling league ended that.
For the most part, though, they were a working-class family, with her late husband, Robert, running an oil and gas supply company and working at lumber yards and Evelyn doing data entry for various companies for 27 years before retiring in 1992.
Politics wasn't dinner table fodder. Evelyn said she never recognized any political bent in her children early on, although as a boy, James built a makeshift tripod as a possible precursor of his eventual trade as a land surveyor.
"I think it's wonderful they have the interest of the people of the village at heart," she said.
McCue and her brother both served on their respective village planning commissions. McCue dipped her toe in higher office first, when she was appointed village trustee in 1992. Dietz said he held off until this year on repeated requests to run for mayor.
Many people were unaware of the relationship between the two mayoral candidates, and they were reluctant to make it known, lest it become campaign fodder.
"My two children live on the same street but one's address is Route 134 and the other is Nippersink (Avenue). They're a block apart," Evelyn said.
Round Lake Park meets Tuesday nights, so until bowling ends, Evelyn won't be seeing her daughter on duty, so to speak. Round Lake meets on Mondays. Will she attend those meetings?
"I might, at least for the installation."
Evelyn Dietz says she really has only one piece of advice for her kids as they begin to occupy the highest seats of local power.
"Just be honest."