People

[caption id="attachment_18253" align="alignright" width="150" caption="John Olivero"][/caption] John Olivero, 86, of Peru, IL, a devoted family man, passed away quietly on March 1, 2011 at Illinois Valley Community Hospital, Peru, IL. Mr. Olivero was born on August 18, 1924 and was raised in Dalzell. He graduated from Hall Township High School, Spring Valley and then entered LaSalle-Peru-Oglesby Junior College. While attending college, John was drafted into military service during World War II. He served in General Patton’s 3rd Army during the historic race to Berlin in the 1944/45 Campaigns. He was a Sergeant and Heavy Machine Gun Operator in the 242nd Regiment of the 42nd Rainbow Division of the 3rd Army. His service lasted almost 4 years and included combat in France, Germany, Austria and Italy. He received decorations for his campaigns in France and Germany. His service ended as part of the U.S. occupational force in Austria after the fighting ended. Like most World War II Veterans, he rarely talked about his service but he participated in Veteran’s Day ceremonies with his son, John Paul, who is also a Veteran, at his granddaughter Shana’s grade school and also spoke to her class. After serving our country, John re-entered and graduated from L.P.O. Junior College. John then attended the University of Illinois-Champaign, where he graduated with a law degree on June 18, 1950 and became licensed as an attorney on November 29, 1950. For more than 55 years John was devoted to the practice of law in his offices in Peru and Tonica, where his daughter, Lisa, who is also an attorney, joined him in 1982. He was an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the LaSalle County Bar Association. John was honored by the Illinois State Bar Association in 2000 for 50 years of distinguished service as an attorney. John served on the Board of Directors of the Illini State Bank in Tonica, Lostant and Oglesby for 22 years, which he enjoyed immensely.

Benjamin C. Duster III, the grandson of legendary anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells, carried on his family’s activism by taking on the Chicago Machine, and by steering an education initiative now viewed as a precursor to the massive school reforms of the late 1980s. He was a lawyer, investment banker and venture capitalist — remarkable achievements in an era when a black man had to be many times as good as the next student or worker. Mr. Duster, 83, died last month of heart failure at Advocate Trinity Hospital. He grew up in Bronzeville during the Depression, and had a powerful role model in his mother, Alfreda, the youngest child of Ida B. Wells-Barnett. She had graduated from the University of Chicago in 3½ years. In addition to a top-notch education, Alfreda had a mimeograph machine — and, she could type. People often asked her to help them fill out legal documents. Even ministers sought her guidance. “They would come all hours of the day and night, and Mrs. Duster would help them,’’ said another son, Mr. Duster’s brother, Donald. Mr. Duster attended Wendell Phillips High School and graduated as valedictorian at 16, said his wife, Murrell Duster. He studied electrical engineering in the 1940s at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined Alpha Phi Alpha, a black fraternity. It was an important — and safe — place to socialize at a time when African Americans were not welcome at town malt shops and student hangouts. After his father died, he left school to help his mother and his four younger siblings. He worked as a bricklayer and ran an auto garage and a construction firm — while going to night classes at DePaul University to become a lawyer. Mr. Duster also served in the U.S.

[caption id="attachment_18116" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Kate Heitman"][/caption] Katharine "Kate" E. Heitman has joined Baker & Daniels LLP as an associate litigator in the law firm's product liability practice group. Before joining Baker & Daniels, Heitman was a litigator at Winston & Strawn LLP in Los Angeles and then Chicago. She graduated from the University of Southern California School of Law in 2008 after earning a bachelor's degree in economics from Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., in 2004. While in law school, Heitman served as executive senior editor of the Southern California Law Review and a judicial extern for the Honorable Stephen J. Hillman in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She also was a research assistant at the University of Southern California School of Law, collecting information on the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 to create recommendations for state governments to adopt voting regulations. In college, Heitman played on the Pomona women's varsity soccer team and spent a semester aboard in Freiburg, Germany. She is a Wisconsin native. Baker & Daniels LLP provides advice and counsel to regional, national and international clients with legal and business needs. With more than 370 attorneys and legal professionals, the full-service law firm has offices in Indiana, Chicago, Washington, D.C.

Caleb H. Canby III, J.D. Attorney at law, age 88, passed on December 31, 2010 at home. He was born in Chicago and was a lifelong resident of Barrington. He is survived by his wife Bonnie S. (Kunsky) Canby. He is also survived by his three children, Ellen C. Lynch, Sarah C. Jackson, and Caleb L. Canby, six grandchildren, Samuel H. Lynch, Jane E. Lynch, Rachel C. Jackson, Max C. Jackson, Beata M. Canby and Grace M. Canby and two great-grandchildren, Olivia J. Lynch and Chloe W. Lynch. He is survived by loving nieces, Heather (Clem) Schulte and Dawn (Drew) Gentsch and numerous great nieces, nephews and cousins. His parents Caleb Harlan Canby Jr. and Ruth Cudney Canby preceded him in death. He was Corporal in the Marine Corps and a WWII Veteran serving in the Pacific. He was a volunteer firefighter for Barrington Fire Department for 36 years. He was issued a Commission As A Justice Of The Piece on April 26, 1957 which expired in April of 1961. He was also a Special Prosecutor for the Village of Barrington in 1970. He was a 55 year member of the Illinois State Bar Ass. and served as the attorney for the Incorporation of the Village of Barrington Hills. For many years he was the attorney for the Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District. He was also the attorney for 1st Federal Savings and Loan of Barrington until it's merger with Bank One (Chase).