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https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-carol-stream-obituary-20200127-t5ooigtwmja2rjjommzd2fssnq-story.htmlCarol Stream, whose father developed DuPage County town that bears her name, dies at 77Carol Stream was the namesake of the DuPage County village developed by her father, Jay.
A Wheaton native who spent all of her adult life in Arizona, she returned periodically to Carol Stream, which today has a population of 40,000.
“When I go back, I’m so proud that people have taken such good care of the town,” Stream told the Tribune in 1991. “It’s like they’re taking good care of me.”
Stream, 77, died of respiratory failure Jan. 18 at HonorHealth Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, said her cousin, Debra Campbell. A longtime resident of nearby Paradise Valley, Stream had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and pneumonia.
Carol Jayne Stream grew up on the north side of Wheaton, along Geneva Road. Her father, Jay, was a developer in DuPage County during the 1950s, building homes in Wheaton and Naperville through his company, Durable Construction.
At one point, Jay Stream was frustrated by the red tape and required infrastructure improvements related to a 350- to 400-home subdivision he had been proposing in Naperville. According to the 1984 history of Carol Stream, “Build Your Own Town, the Carol Stream Story,” written by historian Jean Moore, an employee at Naperville’s City Hall reportedly told Stream, “Why don’t you go build your own town?”
Stream started to buy large plots of unincorporated farmland north of Wheaton and proceed to do just that, complete with large, industrial employers in areas served by rail spurs extending south from the Illinois Central Railroad and north from what then was the Chicago Great Western Railway.
Stream’s marriage to his wife, Dorothy, came undone in 1957, prompting Dorothy Stream to move with her two children, Carol and Jim, to Arizona. They returned to spend the summer at the family’s vacation home in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
In August 1957, Carol Stream was traveling in a 1949 Studebaker with other teenagers on U.S. Highway 45, about 15 miles west of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The car’s brakes failed, and it collided with another car. A 15-year-old boy in Stream’s car was killed, while all other passengers were injured, including Stream, who was critically hurt.
“The other car hit us in the right rear fender,” Stream told the Tribune in 1991. “The boy in the back was crushed to death instantly. The other two in the front seat had minor injuries, and I was thrown out through the windshield and would have been fine except I ended up hitting the telephone pole. The whole area, and I had to hit the telephone pole.”
Stream eventually emerged from a coma, and initially she communicated by blinking her eyes. The accident required more than a dozen corrective operations, and years later, Stream remained weak on her right side. As an adult, she could walk short distances, such as inside her home, but she required a wheelchair for traveling any distance.
Stream lived with her mother, who died in 2010, and later with her brother, who died in 2018. Jay Stream died in California in 2006.
Carol Stream — the village — was incorporated in January 1959, but Stream’s father first had used the name in 1958 for a subdivision that formed the nucleus of the village.
“It seemed very odd and silly, especially on those advertising signs that said, ‘Have you seen Carol Stream?’ Of course I had. Dad just liked good copy,” she told the Tribune in 1991.
Stream’s final visit to the suburb was in 2010.
“In 2008, my family had a chance to visit her and her mother and brother at their house in Paradise Valley, and she was warm, funny and clever, and she was very interested in what happened in Carol Stream,” said Carol Stream village trustee Rick Gieser. “She was very, very proud of the fact that the town was named after her. She was disappointed that Glenbard North High School (in Carol Stream) was not named for her, and I reminded her that an elementary school also is named after her and she said, ‘I want both.’”
Retired Carol Stream Park District Director Barb O’Rahilly, who is on the board of the Carol Stream Historical Society, met Stream several times, including during the village’s 25th anniversary celebration in 1984 and also in 2010.
“She was just a lovely lady,” O’Rahilly said. “She had an endearing smile and considering that she had health issues and a hard time getting around, it just never seemed to deter her. She was interested in how nice the school and parks were and how her town was doing. She was very proud of being Carol Stream in Carol Stream.”
Sherry Kuhn attended junior high school in Wheaton with Stream and kept in touch with her over the years. Kuhn, who lives in California, visited Stream in Arizona four or five times a year.
“Carol was the most positive person I’ve ever seen,” Kuhn said. “When you think about living like she lived, ever since her accident, I never heard her say, ‘Poor me.’ She made light of everything and could laugh at everything, including at herself. She was just a special human being.”
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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George
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