Plano mother of 17 dies at 87
PLANO -- Marie McNelis had a simple answer Wednesday for how her mother, Esther McNelis, raised 17 children.
"A lot of faith and a lot of hard work," Marie said. "Mom was a good person. She never complained, she always had a smile on her face, even when we faced struggles."
Esther McNelis died this week at age 87, just five days short of her 88th birthday, at her home in Plano, surrounded by family. She was the matriarch of a well-known family in Plano and throughout Kendall County.
She and her husband, Francis, who died in 1985, had 17 children, all of whom grew up in the area after the family moved from Gibson City to Kendall County in 1963.
Most of her children still live in the area in Plano, Millbrook, Yorkville or Morris.
"We're pretty close, that's for sure," said Marie McNelis, herself once Little Rock Township assessor and a Kendall County Board member.
When the family moved to Kendall County, Francis was in the tree removal business. The business now is almost 60 years old. Esther, meanwhile, took care of the children.
She was active in community affairs and with St. Mary's Catholic Church in Plano, where she was a member. Her interests included quilting, playing euchre, doing crossword puzzles and enjoying nature.
She also loved to bake -- a good trait with all those mouths to feed -- and was known throughout Plano for the cookies and other treats she made at Christmas and gave away to friends and acquaintances.
"I still get people who say to me, 'Your mom made cookies and candy, and they were the best I ever had,'" Marie said.
In 1990, Plano honored Esther McNelis during Hometown Days. In an interview she did then, she told of how the family would go through two gallons of milk and four loaves of bread a day.
"When you tell people that you have that many kids, all they can see is a bunch of little ones running around in diapers," she said in 1990. "But they were all ages. It was a lot of work when they were small, but the older ones would help with the little ones."
It was during a cold winter in 1969 that the family faced one of its biggest struggles. Their house on Route 71 near Yorkville caught fire and burned to the ground. The community rallied, collecting clothing and furniture for the family, and they were given use of a three-bedroom house. The family eventually ended up on River Road in Plano.
A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. today at St. Mary's Catholic Church, 901 N. Center St., Plano, with the Rev. Diego Maximino officiating. Interment will follow in St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery in Bristol.
Memorials in Esther McNelis' name may be directed to VNA Hospice of Fox Valley, 400 N. Highland Ave., Aurora, or to St. Mary's Catholic Church, 901 N. Center St., Plano.
