Ralph "Jack" Dilday

Ralph Dilday -- BradleyRalph E. "Jack" Dilday, 87, of Bradley, died Sunday (Jan. 13, 2008) at the University of Chicago Hospital. Memorial visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday with a brief memorial at 6:30 p.m. at the Clancy-Gernon-Hertz Funeral Home, west Kankakee, where cremation rites have been accorded. The Rev. H.C. Sheets of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Kankakee, will officiate. Interment will be in Buchanan Cemetery, Rockwood. Memorials may be made to the University of Chicago Hospital.Mr. Dilday was born Jan. 4, 1921, the oldest of nine children of George "Cal" Dilday and Mary Marjorie "Marge" Krug in Jackson County. As a young man, he worked for the Historical Records Survey of the WPA at Southern Illinois University Library at Carbondale, before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1942. His battles and campaigns include Tunisian, Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno, and the Northern Appenines. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the European African Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with four Bronze Battle Stars, five Overseas Service bars, one Service Stripe, and a Bronze Service Arrowhead. Mr. Dilday served until Aug. 31, 1945.Mr. Dilday worked as a mechanic for Triangle Construction in Kankakee for many years before his retirement. He then continued in a consultant capacity for Douglas Crane and Acevedo Brothers Guns and Restoration.Mr. Dilday married the former Juanita M. Bousey, Aug. 25, 1945, at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Kankakee. She died in October 2000. He is survived by children, Marjorie (Michael) Legris of Bradley, Russell (Shari) Dilday of St. Anne, Stanley (Elizabeth) Dilday of Marissa, George of Bradley; brothers, Woodrow (June) Dilday of Granite City and George (Charlotte) Dilday of Venice; 10 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren; special friend, Dorothy Boykin. He was predeceased by an infant daughter, Jeanne; both parents; brothers, Calvin, Russell, and Bill Dilday; and sisters, Marie Jeanquenant, Noni Wall, and Opel Kaiser; and by five brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.He loved hunting, fishing, gardening, gunsmithing and the St. Louis Cardinals. He believed in a strict work ethic, telling the truth, staying out of debt, paying your bills promptly, helping those with less, buying American, wearing good shoes, and the benefits of laughter. His measure of success was not how many things he could accumulate but how little he would be burdened with at the end. He knew how to be a good friend, an obedient son, a devoted brother and a dad who was always there. He belonged to no clubs, lodges, fraternal organizations or community associations except the Teamsters, and he liked it that way.He belonged to a very rare and dying breed of men, and we are not likely to see his kind again.

Ralph "Jack" Dilday

January 4, 1921 - January 13, 2008