DuPage historian Jean Moore dies at age 89

For more than 50 years, Jean Moore lived and breathed Carol Stream history. In fact, she literally wrote the book.

On Monday, the 89-year-old resident, who counted village founder Jay Stream among her friends, died of natural causes.

The journalist-turned-author often took up historically significant causes, offering her input on renovation of the 19th century-era St. Stephen Cemetery and helping save the Gretna Station Museum in Armstrong Park.

"She was the instrument that got it all going," said Barbara O'Rahilly, treasurer for the Carol Stream Historical Society. "We followed her lead. She is a great loss. The person who really knew the history of Carol Stream is gone."

Moore and her husband, Ace, settled in Carol Stream in 1959, right around the time the village was founded. She wrote for the Wheaton Daily Journal until the 1970s and served as president of the DuPage County Press Association. She also was a founding member of the Suburban Press Club of Chicago and the Carol Stream Historical Society.

She was a mother of two and her son, Jim Moore, said her career path came naturally.

"She was really into the written word and read and wrote a lot," he said. "She liked music and liked cultural stuff. But she was really impressed with the power of writing."

Jim said he loved the fact his mother's work will be around for ages. He said that, even in life, Jean appreciated that.

"She had the idea that history is something that is a way for people to extend their life," he said. "The things she wrote people will be reading for a long time now."

For the past two years she was at the DuPage County Convalescent Center. Her books included "The Carol Stream Story" as well as historical books on Wheaton and DuPage County.

"To some extent, she was the historian to the county, as well," said Greg Bielawski, who served as Carol Stream village manager from 1980 to 2002 and served on several committees with Moore. "She always had this abiding interest in DuPage County and Carol Stream partly driven by the fact that it was growing so rapidly. She wanted to make sure that people understood the history."

Bielawski said losing someone like Moore is a heavy blow to the community.

"Any time you lose one of those individuals who helped shape the town and helps remind people of the roots of a community, it's a loss to the institutional memory of the community," he said. "She would remind us and persuade us at how important it would be to not forget where we came from."

When Trustee Rick Gieser was put in charge of the village's 50th anniversary celebration last year, he did not have to look any further than Moore's tale to get material for his historical presentations at board meetings.

"I never thought about, until that book, how local history was as important as the history of the country and the big cities," he said. "There are important stories to be told just about the community you lived in. Her words are going to go down for years and years as the definitive story of Carol Stream."

Visitation will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday at Brust Funeral Home, 415 N. Gary Ave., in Carol Stream. She will be buried in Wayne Township Cemetery in West Chicago.