Story posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Gayle Bantner: Opened First Business In Elk Grove
Long-time Elk Grove Village resident Gayle Bantner passed away at Alexian Brothers Medical Center this week surrounded by family.
Bantner was born on October 22, 1922 in Assumption, Illinois, and died on Sunday, Sept. 27 in Elk Grove Village. He was 86-years-old.
An Elk Grove Village Police Honor Guard will be on hand at Bantner’s funeral this Friday. Prayers will be said at Grove Memorial Chapel Friday at 10:15 a.m. Services will then proceed to Queen of the Rosary Church where a Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Interment follows at St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery in Palatine. Visitation will take place from 3 to 9 p.m. at Grove Memorial.
Bantner helped lay groundwork for the village by opening its first business, Elk Grove Drugs, in 1959, running the business until 1983. He spent almost half a century serving on various village boards and commissions.
“It’s a level of involvement no one will ever match,” said Mayor Craig Johnson. “The sacrifice from his family for the time spent at meetings is greatly appreciated.”
Johnson said he has known Bantner all his life. Bantner was a close friend of Johnson’s father.
Bantner had the largest impact on the village’s police force and fire service overseeing the hiring of 221 police officers and 139 firefighters serving for over 41 years as police and fire commission chairman from 1963 to 2004.
Johnson said the police and fire commission has the heaviest workload of any board or commission and is the least well known.
“The fire and police commission has come up with an excellent list of personnel that are working forward, those personnel are why we are an excellent fire department,” said Fire Chief David Miller.
While on the police and fire commission he also served eight years on the village plan commission during Elk Grove’s largest period of growth from 1964 until 1972 and started his service to the community on the board of health from 1961 to 1963.
Bantner spent 50 years as a charter member of the Elk Grove Lions Club and was also a member of the Queen of the Rosary Men’s Club.
Before his service to Elk Grove Village, Bantner served his country earning the rank of Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army.
Bantner was the husband of the late Jane (nee Gardner), who passed away in 2006.
He is survived by his children; John G. (Vivian) and Gayle H. (Sandra) Bantner, Kathleen (Gerald) Walsh, Brenda (Allen) Carroll and Sharon Brown, grandchildren; Wayne, Chad (Julia) and John (Monika) Bantner, Nellie (Dana) Corning, Emma, Gerald (Vanessa) and Sean Walsh, Jenna (Robert) Hamrick, Amber (Jason) Linnerud, Justin Carroll, Grant (Joann) Miller, Dustyn Miller, Jake (Randi) Stephenson, and Bradley and Lauren Bantner, great-grandchildren; Margaret, Bridget, Paige, Annelise, Aidan, Brooklyn, Garret, Madison, Gavin, Amanda, Schendel and Jean-Patrick and brother Robert (Della) Bantner.
He was preceded in death by his parents John A. Bantner and Emma (nee Keating) Bantner and sisters Carlisle (Jean) Bantner and Zelma (the late Joseph) Wing.
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