Chester Behrendt

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Biography

The Behrendt men came in either short or tall, and Chester leaned to the short side at 5'7 and 142 pounds in 1983. As the ninth of nine children, he has been described as a rascal in his youth, keeping a good natured sense of humor throughout his life.

Peter and Julia Behrendt had moved back to Chicago in 1910 after their two year farming adventure near Mauston, Wisconsin, and purchased a home at 3329 S. Hamilton in the McKinley Park neighborhood. On 6 November 1912, the baby of the family, Chester, was born into a family of his father, Peter (50), mother, Julia (41), and siblings Victor (18), Julian (14), Anna (12), Ignatius (9), Helen (7), and Elsie (3). Stella (16) had joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame three years earlier.

The family gathered for Czesiu's christening at SS. Peter and Paul Church when he was eleven days old, held by his sponsors John Balcer (friend or family?) and Regina Wenda (probably Peter's cousin).

The small house on Hamilton with large vegetable and flower gardens in front was a tight fit for 9 people until Victor left in 1916 to be married and Ann left in 1917 to enter the convent. Chester and Elsie sang in the choir at church, and all the younger Behrendts attended the parish school where they learned to read and write in English and Polish. Chester talked about attending English classes in the morning and repeating the same studies in Polish in the afternoon.

In 1923, Ches would have joined the entire family in mourning the loss of both Ann and Stella. Ann (Sister Mary Marceline) died in the order's mother house in May, as did Stella (Sr Theodosia) just three days before Christmas.

Some time in the 1920s, the family moved to St. Rita's Parish in the Marquette Park neighborhood at 6332 South Whipple. Chester graduated from St. Rita High School and spent some time in seminary considering the priesthood, possibly the two years of college referred to in the 1930 census. Sister Helen recalled that Ches was asked to leave; had he decided that the priesthood was not his calling or was this the beginning of his “rascally” stretch? Family would smile recounting young Chester's adventures. “What's wrong with Czesiu, he looks so sick this morning,” Julia would ask as her son nursed a hangover. “Someone gave him some bad strawberries, ma.”

Like his older brother, Victor, Chester worked for the post office, possibly as his first job. He worked in the special delivery department in downtown Chicago, and spoke of delivering mail mostly in the famous Manadnock building at Jackson and Dearborn. He worked as a messenger for at least ten years.

The year 1939 began terribly for the Behrendts with the sudden death of Victor, followed by the life threatening surgery for Helen. In March, Ches lost his best friend and brother, Bill. Their neice, Kay, said that Bill and Ches were a great pair; Bill kind of quiet and Ches kind of wild. If Ches was able to get a date for the weekend, he wouldn't keep if he couldn't find a date for Bill. Then Peter, struggling with dementia for some time now, finally succumbed to bladder cancer in April.

After this sobering year along with the onset of the war in Europe, life got serious. The day after Pearl Harbor, Ches enlisted in the navy and had two weeks to get matters in order. He had just begun working at Buick in Melrose Park, and went in the next day to give his two-week notice. By the end of the day he was called into the office and told his enlistment was deferred; he was more useful as an electrician at the North Avenue plant, which had begun manufacturing Pratt and Whitney engines for the B-24 Liberator bomber in September of 1941.

When he was still working at the post office, Ches had stopped in for a bite to eat at Pixley and Ehler's, a chain of fast service cafeteria style restaurants in the Loop, and saw Clara Findysz behind the counter, a young farm girl from Necedah, Wisconsin, who had come to the city in 1940. Clara and Chester later talked about a few dates they had: hopping on the streetcar to get to the roller derby; a day at the Museum of Science and Industry; and a trip to the the veteran's cemetery in Rock Island, Illinois, where Clara's nephews were buried. In 1947, Clara introduced Chester to her parents on their Necedah farm; Walter and Kate Findysz were impressed with Ches, especially the quality Polish he learned in school. And it was a plus that would help run electricity out to the farm from the road.

The couple were wed on 6 August 1949 at St. Leonard Church in Berwyn, Illinois, at one of the last wedding masses performed before the church was razed. Hmm. After a honeymoon in the Black Hills, they moved into a brick bungalow at 6916 29th Place. Like many homeowners in the area, they upgraded to a two-car garage and enclosed the back porch for more living area. Photos taken at birthday parties show the family gathering in the middle of renovation projects in the kitchen and dining room.

The first child of the union finally arrived in April of 1954, followed by two more boys in 1955 and 1957. Were three boys at home the reason Chester enrolled in a Dale Carnegie Course in Effective Speaking and Leadership Training? (The graduation was in December of 1958 in what looks like a Chinese Restaurant.) Chester was a founding member and first treasurer in the Berwyn council of the Knights of Columbus where he reached the highest Fourth Degree status, serving in the honor guard at wakes, confirmations, and special Catholic functions in full dress uniform (plumed hat, cape, sword).

In March of 1960, with Clara extremely pregnant, the Behrendts moved into their new home, a raised ranch at 2321 14th Avenue in neighboring North Riverside. Their fourth son was born on April 3, into a home with three bedrooms, a large, unfinished basement, and a nice size backyard. This would be Chester's last home, spending over thirty years there making memories and friendships. He was active in bowling leagues and the Holy Name Society of Mater Christi Parish, where he sang in the choir and was a eucharistic minister.

Chester starting showing early signs of dementia in the late 1980s; forgetting names of old acquaintances, general confusion, and the frustration that came with a frightening realization. Family and friends supported Clara in her decision to care for Ches at home until the end, which came on 23 August 1993. Clara with her four married sons and 6 grandchildren gathered with friends and family for a wake (with a Knights of Columbus honor guard), then a funeral mass at Mater Christi Church, followed by Chester's burial at Queen of Heaven Cemetery on 26 August 1993.

Notes and Anecdotes

Czesiu was the Polish diminutive form of Chester that the family used, pronounced something like CHEH shoo.

A large part of the Behrendt diet in the twenties and thirties was vegetables from the garden and chicken that Julia would buy cheap from a street vendor (and usually boil for dinner). Later in life, Chester was not wild about vegetables and had a total aversion to chicken, explaining that that was all he ate when he was little. An admittedly dubious bright spot in Chester's years of dementia was that he ate healthier; he would gobble down a serving of Chinese food with chicken and broccoli without a complaint.

A letter from Catherine Riehl dated 29 March 1993 sheds some light on both Chester's postal duties and his character.

“All I know about your father is that he worked under my husband at the main P.O. in downtown Chicago and your dad was a messenger in the Special Delivery department of which my husband was superintendent for some thirty years. Your father was a very kind man and he would get the young messengers to contribute toward buying “Between the Acts” cigars that my husband smoked while in Passavant Hospital. He also presented my husband with a beautiful bathrobe. He was there eight months paralyzed from the waist down. . . . The Special Delivery boys were the pall bearers at his funeral and it was a very hot day – they were all perspiring.”

Everyone helped out watching Peter as his dementia worsened and he began to wander out of the home. Bill and Ches would spend time playing pinochle with Peter to keep him occupied. When dementia affected Chester in his seventies, his son (who had tagged along with Ches as he helped friends and relatives with electrical rewiring projects) wired both front and back doors with buzzers that would sound when Ches would wander out of the house at all hours. Call it good karma or paying it forward.

Chester was an electrical maintenance engineer, troubleshooting problems at the large plant on North Avenue and Mannheim Road, in all its incarnations: Buick; a federal war plant; and International Harvester. He was promoted to management and led a team of electricians in maintaining the premises. Chester retired on 1 May 1974, returning for a short time when management asked him to fill a temporary vacant position.

Ches led a family of impressive bowlers, maintaining an impressive average for years in various leagues: Knights of Columbus and North Riverside Recreation among them. To his credit, he also stayed home Monday nights with four boys to allow Clara her night out bowling.

Not to beat this “four boys” reference to death, but it was a thing (as was “Ches, The Good Neighbor”). Families on both sides of the Behrendts in North Riverside had many a window replaced quickly and quietly by Ches. Many windows. Neighbors to the north had their garage re-sided and had the good sense to run the aluminum siding right across the windows.

After all his jokes or recurring puns, Ches had an unmistakable laugh. In a vaguely old country accent, he'd say, “Too soon you get too old, too late you get too smart.” Then the laugh. “How do you catch a polar bear? First, cut a hole in the ice. Then carefully place a line of green peas around the hole. When the bear comes to take a pea, you kick him in the ice hole.” Then the laugh. Not all the jokes were rote. My Aunt Helen once visited us on her birthday, so I wanted to wish her a happy birthday in Polish. When she slipped into the bathroom for a moment, I asked Ches, “How do I say happy birthday to Aunt Helen in Polish?” Didn't miss a beat. “Oh, that's easy. Idz do pie kła.” [Something like eej doh pyeh kwah.] I waited outside the bathroom door, proudly practicing my Polish. The door opened, and I greeted my aunt with, “Ciocia Helena, idz do pie kła!” Her face darkened and she glared. “Idz do pie kła?” “Yeah, happy birthday. In Polish.” “Really. And where do you learn this Polish.” She knew. “Ches terrrr!” she called, and then, from the other room, the laugh. Chester taught me, “Aunt Helen, go to hell!” Always the rascal.

Sources

1912 Birth/1993 Death of Chester "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6KQS-TFTM : 10 February 2023), Chester L Behrendt, .

U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 https://www.flickr.com/photos/72849319@N05/6575876115/in/photolist-b265ac-b265Sp-b26516-b265w4-b265pD-b265Ek/

"Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DTXS-RPP?cc=1452409&wc=M66L-6NL%3A39624201%2C39691301 : 20 May 2014), Ss Peter & Paul Parish (Chicago: Paulina St) > Baptisms 1908-1914 > image 208 of 324; Catholic Church parishes, Chicago Diocese, Chicago.

1920 Census "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJS2-6FF : accessed 13 January 2020), Peter Behrendt, Chicago Ward 5, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing ED 254, sheet 9B, line 66, family 199, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 308; FHL microfilm 1,820,308.

1930 Census "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSLJ-GTS : accessed 13 January 2020), Peter Behrendt, Chicago (Districts 0501-0750), Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 589, sheet 6A, line 34, family 121, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 441; FHL microfilm 2,340,176.

1940 Census Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00952; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 103-1038

1942 U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 under license C5F2032F-871B-4F10-8FEA-09C31CFF3BFF File Number2095222

1950 Census "United States 1950 Census", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6X1D-RNHK : Thu Oct 05 06:50:43 UTC 2023), Entry for Chester Behrendt and Clara Behrendt, 6 April 1950.

Riehl, Catherine. Personal Recollection in letter dated 29 March 1993. In possession of Clyde Behrendt.

Chicago Tribune; Publication Date: 25/ Aug/ 1993; Publication Place: Chicago, Illinois, United States of America; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/418334264/?article=c5671f97-14e8-4d9a-b1d8-0b65ce864fd6&focus=0.028971598,0.45826906,0.19152503,0.520140Chester