Beloved Elgin businesswoman Keeney leaves legion of friends

People who best knew Patricia Keeney, whose family-owned store has been in Elgin for more than a century, say she didn't mind giving her opinion. She gave it to you straight.

“But she could do it in a way that gave her respect,” said friend Jennifer Almanza. “Sometimes she was a little crass in the way she delivered it, but she had passion.”

Keeney died from complications from cancer Monday at Provena St. Joseph Hospital, surrounded by friends she had gotten to know through her involvement in downtown Elgin. She suffered from multiple myeloma, a cancer that attacks blood plasma. She was 62.

Visitation for Keeney will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at O'Connor-Leetz Funeral Home, 364 Division St., and the funeral is set for 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 272 Division St., with interment to follow at Bluff City Cemetery.

Villa Verone restaurant, just doors down from Keeney's store, is planning a champagne toast Thursday night as it honors Keeney as its “Person of the Week.”

Since November, volunteers had been helping keep Keeney's Sporting Goods open while she was ill.

The store was Keeney's sole source of income, and she had no medical insurance. Keeney was also the primary caregiver for her 90-year-old mother, Kathryn.

A fundraising campaign organized by the Downtown Neighborhood Association, in addition to a vintage fashion show fundraiser held Dec. 11, raised $8,000 and helped Keeney pay for some medical expenses. Friends say the volunteer effort to keep the store open allowed Keeney to stay at home and hire a 24-hour caregiver.

“Pat was a special lady,” said Karin Jones, a close friend who was at Keeney's bedside in her final hours. “People were coming together here not only to help Pat, but people were coming in to help people that were helping Pat. It was a miracle how that all played out.”

Friend Karen Haseman described Keeney as a free spirit who loved rock 'n' roll, and left Elgin for California in her 20s. But she came back to help run the family business in the mid-1970s when her sister died of complications from juvenile diabetes.

“She gave up her dreams to come back and help run Keeney's Sporting Goods,” Haseman said. “But that became her new dream.”

Keeney expanded the shop to include antiques and vintage clothing in the lower level after taking over for her father, who died in 1993.

Her great-grandfather Earl Keeney Sr. and his father-in-law, Walter Gartland, opened the first store, a pharmacy, at 19 Grove Ave. in 1883. It was changed to a sporting goods store in 1934 and relocated to its present location at 19 Douglas Ave. in 1946.

The downtown staple perhaps has been best known as the place for local students to get letterman jackets and school apparel.

On Tuesday afternoon, volunteers were keeping the store open to serve a steady stream of customers, some hearing news of Keeney's death for the first time.

“People would come in here and say, ‘My dad or grandfather would bring me in here 50 years ago to get school clothes,'” said Gentry Jones, husband of Karin, who was the first volunteer to help Keeney run the store in her absence starting in September. That was before news of Keeney's illness became widely known in November and others began to volunteer.

He said volunteers will meet on Wednesday to set a schedule for the store, likely to be Thursday through Saturday and by appointment. The long-term future of the store is uncertain.

Kerry Kelly, who works in a law firm next door to the store and who handled Keeney's will and legal matters, said she's heard from some people who said they would be interested in buying the store.

Kelly said Keeney had a strong but gentle personality, and many came to her for advice.

“She had a stream of friends and Elginites that would come see her in the store,” Kelly said. “Everyone from councilmen to homeless people would stop in and talk with Patricia. She was kind and funny and always had a twist to something.

“She was just always there. I don't think she had taken a vacation. It's sort of the end of a legacy.”