Chicago-area deaths of 2015: Volkman, Spellman, Craven
Learn a little more about some prominent local people who died in 2015:
<h3 class="leadin">Cardinal Francis George
He followed one of the most popular cardinals in Chicago history, yet Cardinal Francis George carved his own niche in the history of the Chicago Archdiocese, a homegrown Catholic who was considered a man of simple faith and deep intellect.
Coming on the heels of the death of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, George was appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1997 to lead the nation's third largest archdiocese, putting him front and center to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal.
A vigorous defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy, George also didn't hesitate to speak his mind, even if it was unscripted and, at times, controversial.
At the height of the abuse crisis in 2002, George led a group of U.S. bishops who persuaded resistant Vatican officials to more quickly oust guilty priests - a policy at the core of reforms meant to restore trust in church leaders.
George, a native of the Northwest Side of Chicago, retired in 2014 as the treatment he was undergoing for kidney cancer had failed.
George died April 17 at age 78. He is buried in his family's plot at All Saints Cemetery in Des Plaines.
<h3 class="leadin">Doug Buffone
A former Bears linebacker whose passion on the field carried over into his second career as a radio personality. Doug Buffone retired after the 1979 season with 24 career interceptions, the most for any Bears linebacker. He also held the team's record for most games played with 186.
“Today is a sad day for Bears nation,” said former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, who, like Buffone, played his entire career with the team. “We lost one of our greats. Doug Buffone will be missed.”
Buffone, 70, died April 20.
<h3 class="leadin">Ernie Banks
Ernie Banks, aka Mr. Cub, was the greatest and most popular Cubs player in history. A native of Dallas, Banks broke the color line with the Cubs in 1953 and starred as a shortstop and first baseman, gaining admission to the Hall of Fame in 1977.
But what endeared Banks to Cubs fans worldwide was his perpetually sunny disposition. “Let's play two” was his catch phrase, and it's inscribed on the Banks statue that has stood outside Wrigley Field the last several years. His famed No. 14, retired by the Cubs in 1982, flies from one of the flagpoles at Wrigley Field. Banks was voted to Major League Baseball's All-Century Team and honored on the field at the All-Star Game in Fenway Park in 1999.
“Words cannot express how important Ernie Banks will always be to the Chicago Cubs, the city of Chicago and Major League Baseball,” Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement.
Banks, 83, died Jan. 23.
<h3 class="leadin">Minnie Minoso
White Sox legend Minnie Minoso hit a two-run home run in his first at-bat when he became major league baseball's first black player in Chicago in 1951. He played 12 of his 17 seasons in Chicago, hitting .304 with 135 homers and 808 RBIs for the White Sox. The White Sox retired his No. 9 in 1983 and there is a statue of Minoso at U.S. Cellular Field.
Minoso, regarded as baseball's first black Latino star, was a Havana native and one of only two players to appear in a major league game in five different decades.
Minoso, 92, died March 1.
<h3 class="leadin">Billy Pierce
A standout left-handed pitcher for the White Sox from 1949-61, Billy Pierce debuted on the Hall of Fame's Golden Era Committee ballot this year as one of 10 finalists but did not receive the necessary number of votes for induction.
The White Sox retired his uniform No. 19 in 1987, and a statue of Pierce was unveiled at U.S. Cellular Field in 2005.
“Just a class person,” Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “I've known him a long time. I know he did a lot with the Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities and that was the first time I met him. He did a lot of work with them. I know he was the president for a long time.
Pierce, 88, died July 31.
<h3 class="leadin">Dan Walker
A former Illinois governor described as both “brilliant” and “phony” by those who knew and watched him, Dan Walker bested the revered Paul Simon in the 1972 Democratic primary for governor, beat the incumbent Republican and, some believe with the benefit of a different direction, could have been the 1976 presidential nominee.
In 1987, he pleaded guilty to obtaining nearly $1.4 million in fraudulent bank loans through the First American Savings and Loan Association in Oak Brook, which he headed. He served 18 months in a federal prison.
Walker, 92, died April 29.
<h3 class="leadin">Wes Craven
“Movies are society's dreams,” film director Wes Craven told Daily Herald Film Critic Dann Gire in a 1994 interview. “People go into a theater, the lights come down, they slip into a dream of an altered reality. Horror films are a legitimate part of our psyches.”
Craven, who earned English and psychology degrees from Wheaton College, turned those dreams into nightmares - including one on Elm Street - in movies like “Last House on the Left,” “The Hills Have Eyes” and the “Scream franchise.
Craven, 76, died Aug. 30 of brain cancer.
<h3 class="leadin">Harry Volkman
People gave him boutonnieres and their trust
Harry Volkman thought once about being a teacher, and so when he became a meteorologist he made it a point to educate people about the weather. He began reporting weather on Oklahoma radio, then moved to TV in Tulsa. He broadcast the first tornado warning to the public in 1952, at a time when warnings only went to the military because it was thought the public would panic.
When he got to Chicago in 1959 he joined WNBQ, which became WMAQ. He moved to WGN-TV, back to WMAQ-TV, then back to WGN-TV, then to WBBM-TV before finishing his career at WFLD-TV, where he retired in 2004, after accumulating thousands of boutonnieres from the schools he visited on his days off. “If you really love something,” Volkman told the Daily Herald in 2007, “you don't get tired of it ever.”
Volkman, 89, died Aug. 20.
<h3 class="leadin">Eileen Quinn
A South-Sider by birth and mother to former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Eileen Quinn was a fixture in both of her son's campaigns for governor, speaking out unabashedly when she felt he was being unfairly criticized, be it by his opponents or members of the media.
“I just think that she knew that he needed that support,” youngest son John Quinn said. “She took the bullets - that was just her nature. She was very protective that way.”
Quinn, 98, died Nov. 21.
<h3 class="leadin">A. Alfred Taubman
When Woodfield opened in September 1971, co-developer A. Alfred Taubman and the village of Schaumburg had done it - created the first regional super-mall in the nation.
A self-made billionaire and philanthropist, Taubman, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to universities, hospitals and museums, died in April. He was chairman of the board of the Taubman Co., of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and as such is credited with making enclosed shopping malls part of the American culture.
To build Woodfield, Taubman Co. and the Homart Development Co., owned by Sears, Roebuck & Co., formed a joint venture.
Taubman, 91, died April 17.
<h3 class="leadin">Mike Spellman
One would assume that at age 50, Mike Spellman was just getting started. For 23 years, nearly half his life, Spellman had been covering sports, one way or another, for the Daily Herald. Most recently he was the Blackhawks beat writer, a job he assumed in 2014 after the death of longtime hockey writer Tim Sassone.
In the years prior to that he covered youth sports, horse racing, the PGA, the NFL and whatever his editors threw his way. He wrote the Bears Bites column after every game, and Spellman's Scorecard - random observations on all things sports. In both he managed to get to the heart of it without being mean. He was versatile, funny and kind, and he was good at his job.
He played football and baseball at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights. The Michael Spellman Scholarship Fund was set up at St. Viator, and contributions are taken at the school, 1213 E. Oakton St., Arlington Heights.
Spellman died Jan. 20.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.