Cecile Enright

Visitation for Cecile Enright, 86, of Kankakee, will be from 10 a.m. Monday until the 11 a.m. funeral Mass at Maternity BVM Catholic Church in Bourbonnais. Father Richard Pighini will officiate. Burial will be in Maternity BVM Cemetery in Bourbonnais. Memorials may be made to Bishop McNamara Catholic High School. She died Sunday (Sept. 25, 2011) at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital. Arrangements are by the Clancy-Gernon Funeral Home in Bourbonnais. Mrs. Enright was retired after working 30 years for American Airlines. She was born March 20, 1925, in Bourbonnais, the daughter of Amedee and Bernadette Messier LaMarre. Her husband, Edmund “Ned” Enright, died in 1975. She was a fan of singer Ed Ames (of Ames Brothers fame), and with her engaging personality and organizational talent, parlayed that into a position as his personal secretary. Her skills as an events organizer grew into a 30-year career with American Airlines, where she distinguished herself until her retirement. A highlight of Cecile’s career with American Airlines was setting up (Hollywood) celebrity tennis matches in Monaco, “where she met such notables as Prince Rainier, Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) and Prince Albert” and was on a first name basis with Secret Service agents, fashionable hoteliers and a host of support entities for the highly publicized annual events. In her retirement, she continued to keep in contact with some of the operatives from the tennis match years, who became friends and visited her in California and Bourbonnais, up until the time of her death. John Butler, of Cannes, etc., most notably, and Ed Ames, etc. After retiring, Cecile returned to the area and became an active volunteer: curatorial position at Bourbonnais Grove Historical Society, advisory committee for the Bourbonnais Township Park District/Perry Farm and volunteer at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital for a period. She also funded a scholarship with the French Department at Bishop McNamara Catholic High School that continues to this day. In 1997 she was named honorary chairman of the annual auction fundraiser at Bishop McNamara Catholic High School. Her memberships included: The Societe de ile d’Oleron in France, the point of her family’s record of departure from France to the New World; member of the Navy League of the United States; a Congregation of Notre Dame associate; supporter of Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, and the Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States of America (through which she sponsored a Catholic seminarian); lifetime member of Bourbonnais Grove Historical Society; and a member of the Kankakee Valley Genealogical Society. Surviving are her cousins, Francis “Zip” and Pat LaMarre, of Kankakee and many other cousins, including Helen Lee, of Bradley, Mary Evelyn LaMarre Otterly, of Bourbonnais, Monica LaMarre, of Meekland, Calif., Louis LaMarre, of Manteno, and Jeanne LaMarre and Joe LaMarre, both of Bradley; and special friends, Elmira and Lowell Wilkey, of Bourbonnais. She was preceded in death by her brother, Bernard LaMarre; and her sister and brother-in-law, Florence and Frank Schleper.

Cecile Enright

March 20, 1925 - September 25, 2011