Falling tree in Northfield kills Chicago actress

Editor's note: Story has been updated to correct the spelling of Joe Foust's name.

A veteran actress in TV shows and stage productions across the area, Molly Glynn died Saturday after being struck by a tree uprooted during Friday's violent storms.

"I couldn't save her. I couldn't save her. She's gone," read a Saturday morning Facebook post by her husband and fellow actor Joe Foust.

The Chicago couple were riding bicycles along a Cook County Forest Preserve trail near the Skokie Lagoons in Northfield Friday afternoon when the storm erupted and Glynn, 46, was hit by the fallen tree. She was transported to NorthShore Evanston Hospital in critical condition. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed her death.

Glynn had long been a favorite of Daily Herald theater critics.

"The real star of the show is Molly Glynn," read a review of her performance in "Strictly Dishonorable" from 2004. "Last seen as the brittle wife in Steppenwolf's 'Orange Flower Water,' Glynn is utterly disarming as the sweet steel magnolia at the center of this story. From the moment she enters you like her, and every step of the way through this crazy, twisting story you want her to get the man she deserves."

Daily Herald critic Barbara Vitello noted earlier this year that Glynn's character in the production of "Tom Jones" at the Northlight Theatre was "formidably played."

A teacher at Acting Studio Chicago, Glynn also performed with First Folio Theatre, based in Oak Brook, as well as Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Writers' Theatre, American Theatre Company, Next, First Folio Shakespeare Festival, Seanachai, 16th Street Theatre, Famous Door, Remy Bumppo, First Stage Children's Theatre and others.

She also appeared in TV episodes for "Chicago Fire," where she played an emergency room doctor, "Boss," and "Early Edition," and in the films "Something Better Somewhere Else," "No Sleep 'til Madison," "In America," and "And Then I Woke Up" for Project Greenlight, as well as many television commercials.

The death is the second in recent years from a tree falling in the forest preserve.

A Des Plaines man, Jerzey Szezepanek, 33, died April 10, 2010, after a forest preserve tree fell on the Chevrolet van he was driving on Cumberland Avenue near Addison Street on Chicago's Far Northwest Side.

Alison Vesely David Rice