Early Hanover Park resident dies

One of Hanover Park's earliest residents -- a former village trustee whose family played a prominent role in the 16-year fight against a proposed balefill in Bartlett -- has died. He was 72.

Larry Byrne died Sunday following a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He recovered from colon cancer in 1994. His recent diagnosis was unrelated to that illness.

Byrne, his wife, Mary, and the first two of their three children moved to what was then the tiny community of Hanover Park in 1961, only three years after the village's incorporation.

"The change has been overwhelming," Mary Byrne said of their time in Hanover Park. "There were no stores. Barrington Road was just a two-lane road. It was a few years before the first grocery store, Gorski's, opened on Barrington Road."

Because her husband was a tradesman and carpenter, he was soon called upon to advise the fledgling village on such things as the location of drainage tiles.

While his children were attending school in Elgin Area Unit District U-46, Larry Byrne served on the district's parent-teacher advisory committee from the late 1970s to early '80s, his wife said.

He served one term on the Hanover Park village board from 1983 to 1987. He ran for village president in 1985, losing to Sonya Crawshaw.

In 1991, Crawshaw appointed Byrne to the zoning board. After it was combined with the plan commission to become the development commission, Byrne continued to serve until illness prevented his attendance.

Though the Byrnes enjoyed life in Hanover Park, they had to fight to stay there as well as to protect the quality of life in the area, Mary Byrne said.

The original proposal for the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway went right through the family's second and current home in the village.

And when the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County bought 500 acres near Bartlett in 1985, partly to build a dump, the Byrnes took leadership roles in the group that successfully fought the plan for 16 years.

"We stayed together for 20 years to make sure we got the job done right," Mary Byrne said of Citizens Against the Balefill.

When the Byrnes met in Green Bay, Wis., in the 1950s, Larry was already a dedicated stockcar racer and lifelong Packers fan. But it wasn't until he moved to Hanover Park that he picked up the new hobby of skeet shooting.

"He just took to it like a dog takes to water," his wife said of this long-hidden skill. "He became a champion at it immediately."

Construction was more than a profession for him; it was another passion in itself, his wife said. He'd done much work in recent years for Baird & Warner, both for its offices and on the homes it sells.

Byrne's work in construction won him points that translated into trips to Rome, Spain, Mexico, Hawaii and the Bahamas that wouldn't have happened if he'd been in any other field, Mary Byrne said.

Other survivors include the couple's three children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Plans for a memorial service were pending Friday.