The only time I remember a serious accident on the Chicago Transit Area system was the accident on February 4, 1977. A CTA elevated train rear-ended another train on the northeast corner of the Loop at Wabash Avenue and Lake Street during the evening rush hour. The collision forced the first four cars of the rear train off the elevated tracks, killing 11 people and injuring at least 268 as the cars fell to the street below. In 1977, when the crash occurred, there were four lines operating on the Loop, each in a different direction. The current Brown Line operated counter-clockwise around the outer track, while the current Purple Line and Loop Shuttle operated clockwise. The current Green Line operated in both directions. Earlier in the day of the accident, a switching issue forced dispatchers to reroute the Purple Line to run counter-clockwise around the Loop instead of its normal clockwise route. This put it on the tracks normally used by the other two lines. Because of the congestion caused by this abnormal track sharing, the Brown Line would be required to stop short, waiting for the rerouted Purple Line to clear before proceeding. Additionally, this delay meant that the Purple Line was still in place when the Green Line train arrived on these tracks. At about 5:25 PM, a Brown Line train was waiting on the tracks, just past the northeast turn, waiting for the Purple Line to clear the State/Lake platform. However, the Green Line train did not stop as it approached the Brown Line train. This Green Line train proceeded against both the track and cab signals and struck the back of the Brown Line going 10 miles per hour. Passengers on the train reported the impact as nothing more than a “quiet thump.” However, after the impact, the motorman Stephan A. Martin continued to apply traction power. This resulted in the cars continuing to push forward, pinning the front of the train against the waiting Brown Line on the right-angle turn of the track. With the front train unable to move forward, the pressure from behind caused the coupling bar between the first two cars of the Green Line to bend and the coupled ends of those two cars to be pushed in the air. The first three cars were pushed further upwards, until they jackknifed and fell off the tracks. The second and third cars fell all the way to the street below, while the first car fell onto a track support structure. The fourth car, pulled forward by the third, was derailed and dangled between the track edge and surface street. The last four cars of the Green Line train remained on the track still in the Randolph/Wabash station. Subsequent investigation revealed that this driver of the Green Line train had a poor safety record and was responsible for an earlier derailment. He went through a restrictive cab signal caused by the train ahead. After the initial collision, panic or inertia caused him to move the controller forward resulting in the derailment. This driver was fired six months after the accident, with the official investigation later faulting him for the derailment. As a result of the accident, the CTA has forbidden motormen to proceed past a red signal “on sight” without first getting permission from the Control Center. Two cars were wrecked beyond repair and scrapped. All other trains involved were repaired and returned to service. Have you ever seen an accident on a train track?
Obituary of Georgiana Butcher Raygor (1918-2010)
I found this obituary of Georgiana L. Raygor. Mrs. Raygor was born Georgiana Butcher in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1918, and died in Belleville, Illinois in 2010. For many years, Georgiana Butcher Raygor and her husband Edwin Dare Raygor, whom she married in 1942, worked as the Owner/Operator of the Raygor Day School in Matteson, Illinois. She was a charter member of the Park Forest Unitarian Church in Park Forest, Illinois, and a current member of the Unitarian Church in Alton, Illinois, when she died at age 91. She was preceded in death by her husband, Edwin D. Raygor, her parents, Grover & Bessie Butcher, her sons, Robert E. Raygor and Roger E. Raygor, and her sister, Margery Butcher Thompson. Surviving were her two daughters, Dr. Diane Megahy of Belleville, Illinois, and GiGi Raygor of San Diego, California, along with 7 grandchildren as well as 14 great grandchildren. Memorials could be sent to the Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Park Forest, Illinois. A memorial Service would be held at 1:00 PM on Saturday, July 31, 2010 at Kurrus Funeral Home Belleville, Illinois. I always remember her as a nice old lady. She would have been about 50 years old when we knew her. See, I have a funny sense of age. Was some lady influential in your education?
Young Joy went to Raygor pre-school
At first, I took care of Joy on my day off, Thursday. Then my mother took a day or two. Finally, Sue Fleming, our neighbor, took care of Joy during the day. That ended abruptly when Margaret heard Joy refer to Sue Fleming as “Mom.” We both decided that Joy should go to pre-school. However, St. Lawrence O’Toole only started with kindergarten, so that we had to find a pre-school that was close to our house. We first thought about a Montesorri School in Flossmoor, on Western Avenue. When we went to look at it, the kids seemed like zombies. They did not seem to be enjoying themselves. Margaret and I both agreed that this was not a place for our daughter. Instead, we went to the Raygor Day School, located in Matteson, Illinois, where the kids seemed to be happy and playing with each other. I wanted school to be a good experience for my daughter. The only pre-requisite was that Joy had to be potty trained. That was no problem, since she was three and a half years old. This Raygor pre-school was on the way to O’Toole in downtown Matteson, at 21342 Main St, Matteson, IL 60443. Thus, Joy went to Raygor Day School, a private school founded by Georgiana (Butcher) Raygor in 1959, that catered to students from preschool to 3rd grade. This school operated for several years. Unfortunately, I do not have further details about the exact duration of operation beyond that. Georgiana Raygor’s legacy extended beyond the school, as she was a dedicated educator and community member. Her impact on education and her commitment to the Unitarian community were noteworthy. We were happy with our choice. I could take Joy out of school on Thursdays and we could visit my mother at Thornwood House in University Park. They were very flexible. Margaret would drop Joy at Raygor school in the morning on the way to St. Lawrence, and pick her up on her way home from school. It worked out very well. Neither Margaret or I had gone to pre-school. However, I loved kindergarten. Did you go to a pre-school before kindergarten?
Margaret began teaching at St. Lawrence O’Toole school
In 1977, after I had stopped going to school, my wife Margaret and my daughter Joy began their long-time careers in school. Margaret started out volunteering as a teacher’s aide at St. Lawrence O’Toole elementary school in Matteson. At first, Margaret was helping Patty King, who was a teacher there. Patty was from Ohio and expecting her first baby, named CJ. Her husband was an engineer involved with a nuclear plant in Joliet. They lived in the Cricket Hill subdivision of Matteson that was south of us. As her pregnancy went on, she had the child eventually. Thus, Margaret got the job as a teacher at St. Lawrence O’Toole school, first as a substitute, and then as a full-time teacher. Her thirty-year long teaching career at our parish church began in 1977. We now had a new circle of friends, the faculty members of St. Lawrence O’Toole school and their families. Added to our neighborhood friends, Margaret had some new friends like Barb Rook, Karen Nair, Linda Jaworoski, Carol Sueriglia, Diane Seiler, Cheryl Joyce, Barb Hanifin, Rosemary Ditchie, and Jill Carlson, with their families. At that time, there were a couple of Dominican nuns also teaching at the school. Margaret taught in the lower grades, but finally ended up in junior high teaching science for nearly twenty-years, where she was involved in many science fairs. In fact, she had another new set of friends, her science teacher friends, from other Catholic grade schools in the area. What do you know about elementary Catholic grade school teachers?
The TV series “Roots” in 1977
The TV series “Roots” first aired on ABC in January 1977 over eight consecutive nights. I am not sure that I saw all the episodes, but I remember the first few. I was surprised at the brutality. It made a big impression on most Americans. “Roots” was a 1977 American television mini-series based on Alex Haley’s (1921-1992) 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, set during and after the era of slavery in the United States. Haley’s first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, that I had read. “Roots” received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, but won only 9, as it also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. In 2023, Variety ranked “Roots” among the 10 greatest TV shows of all time. “Roots” was also a ratings success, watched by an estimated 130 million viewers, more than half of the U.S. 1977 population of 221 million, the largest viewership ever for any type of television series in US history. The final episode was watched by 100 million viewers. 58% of all television homes saw all or part of this series. All episodes rank within the top-100-rated TV shows of all time. It still holds the record as the third-highest-rated episode for any type of television series, and the second-most-watched overall series finale in U.S. television history. Many familiar white TV actors, such as Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Chuck Connors (The Rifleman), Lorne Greene (Bonanza), Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch), and Ralph Waite (The Waltons), were cast against type as slave holders and traders. ABC television executives “got cold feet” after seeing the brutality depicted in the series and attempted to cut the network’s predicted losses by airing the series over eight consecutive nights in January in one fell swoop. The white actors were featured disproportionately in network previews. For the first episode, the writers created a conscience-stricken slave captain (Ed Asner), a figure who did not appear in Haley’s novel, but was intended to make white audiences feel better about their historical role in the slave trade. Even the show’s consecutive-night format allegedly resulted from network apprehensions. ABC programming chief Fred Silverman hoped that this unusual schedule would cut his network’s imminent losses. The soundtrack was by Quincy Jones. There have been many sequels but none like the original. This story was about Kunta Kinta, born in 1750, and raised as a Muslim in Gambia, West Africa. “Roots” traced his family descendants from African capture, a slave trade boat trip to America, and the various people who bought and sold him and his family through the Civil War in 1865. However, the brutality was very strong in many episodes, especially showing the cruelty to these African slaves, who somehow wanted to retain their African heritage. There were a lot of twists and turns so that I liked the first few episodes in Africa with LaVar Burton as Kunta Kinta. This story showed how the various descendants had their family life disrupted as they passed from one slave owner to another. Are you familiar with “Roots”?
TV in 1976
After eight years on NBC, the movie The Wizard of Oz returned to CBS, where it remained until 1999, setting a record at that time for the most telecasts of a Hollywood film on a commercial television network. That record was broken by The Ten Commandments in 1996, which began its annual network telecasts on ABC in 1973, continuing to be telecast until the present day. In 1976, the movie The Sound of Music was televised for the first time, on ABC. The film Gone with the Wind also made its broadcast television debut on NBC, the highest-rated program ever aired on a single network, only to be surpassed by “Roots,” the following January. The “Muppet Show” was broadcast in the United Kingdom for the first time, on ITV. Barbara Walters joined Harry Reasoner as co-anchor of the ABC Evening News. Jane Pauley made her debut on NBC’s “Today Show.” CBS’ “Match Game” was the number one rated game show on daytime television for the fourth consecutive year. The Olympics, broadcast from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, drew an estimated one billion viewers worldwide. Matsushita introduced the VHS home video cassette recorder to compete with Sony’s Betamax system. The pay TV network Showtime made its debut, appearing only on a Dublin, California, cable system, that would expand nationally in 1978. The top two shows were about Milwaukee, “Happy Days” with Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and the Fonz (Henry Winkler), as well as “Laverne & Shirley” with Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall. Other popular shows that I watched were “M*A*S*H,” “One Day at a Time,” “Three’s Company,” “All in the Family,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “The Waltons,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “Barney Miller,” “60 Minutes,” “Monday Night Football,” “Eight Is Enough,” “The Jeffersons, “Sanford and Son,” and “Good Times.” Only a couple of my favorite detective shows “Cannon” (1971-1976), “The Rookies” (1972-1976), and “Harry O” (1974-1976) went off the air. However, one of my favorites, “Marcus Welby, M.D.” (1969-1975) also stopped telecasting. “Family Feud” debuted and became the number one game show for many years. There were some interesting new shows, “Alice,” “The Gong Show,” “What’s Happening!” and “Charlie’s Angels.” Did you watch much TV in 1976?
Movies in 1976
The big hit of 1976 was Rocky with Sylvester Stallone (1946-). I loved this movie when I saw it in early 1977. In the film, Rocky Balboa (Stallone), “The Italian Stallion,” a poor small-time club fighter from Philadelphia, got an unlikely shot at the world heavyweight championship held by Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers (1948-2004)). Stallone wrote the screenplay in three days, but he wanted the lead role, so no studio would produce it. With an estimated production budget of under $1 million, Rocky popularized the rags to riches of the American Dream within a sports drama in the gritty city of Philadelphia. Rocky became the highest-grossing film of 1976, earning approximately $225 million worldwide. It received ten Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Picture. Rocky has been ranked by numerous publications as one of the greatest films of all time, as well as one of the most iconic sports films ever. Rocky and its theme song by Bill Conti, “Gonna Fly Now,” became a 1970s American pop-cultural phenomenon. In 2006, the Library of Congress selected Rocky for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. There were many sequels, but none as good as the first one. I also saw A Star Is Born, an American musical romantic drama starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson as an established rock and roll star who falls in love, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline. This movie was the second highest-grossing film, as this film won Best Original Song for its love theme song “Evergreen.” This was a remake of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, as well as the 1954 musical, starring Judy Garland and James Mason. In 2018, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper also did a remake. The singing in this movie was good. I also saw Silver Streak a thriller comedy film, about a murder on a Los Angeles-to-Chicago train journey, with Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, and Richard Pryor, with a score by Henry Mancini. Wilder and Pryor were hilarious. I liked the ending at Union Station in Chicago. I also saw All the President’s Men, an American biographical political thriller film about the Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon, based on the book of the same name. The film stared Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, that made the story more personal. Jason Robards won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Ben Bradlee. In 2010, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. I also saw The Eagle has Landed starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, and Robert Duvall, based on the 1975 novel The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. This film was about a fictional German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill in the middle of the Second World War. I thought that it would be better. The 1976 remake of the 1933 King Kong film, starring Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges, was a big hit, but I did not see it. Also, I did not see The Omen, The Enforcer, Midway, The Bad News Bears, Taxi Driver, and Carrie. What do you remember about 1976 movies?
Music in 1976
American singer Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life dominated 1976. Frampton Comes Alive! the multi-platinum selling live album by English rock musician Peter Frampton hit #1 in the Billboard 200 and remained there for 10 weeks, becoming the best-selling album of the year. Other notable albums were released by Queen, Genesis, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, Kiss, and Thin Lizzy. Disco and funk were also new popular genres. The music of 1976 captured the essence of the time, with catchy pop hits like ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and timeless classics like The Eagles’ “Hotel California.” Former Tower of Power vocalist Rick Stevens was arrested in the United States for murdering three men during a botched drug deal, ultimately serving 36 years of a life sentence. The Eurovision Song Contest of 1976 was won by the Brotherhood of Man, representing the United Kingdom, with their song “Save Your Kisses for Me.” Punk rock group the Ramones released their first album. The semi-legendary 100 Club Punk Special festival in London ignited the careers of several influential punk and post-punk bands, arguably sparking the punk movement’s introduction into mainstream culture. The Damned released their debut single “New Rose,” making them the first British punk band to release a single, beating the Sex Pistols by a month. Jethro Tull released their album, Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die! There was an attempted assassination of Bob Marley in a shooting at his home in Kingston, Jamaica. The Sex Pistols achieved public notoriety, as they unleashed several four-letter words live on an early evening television show in the United Kingdom. In San Francisco, The Band held its farewell concert, “The Last Waltz.” At the 1976 Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA Telethon in Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra brought Jerry Lewis’s former partner Dean Martin onstage, unannounced, reuniting the comedy team for the first and only time in over 20 years. Irish rock band U2 was formed after drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a note seeking members for a band on the notice board of his Dublin school. Some of my favorite songs from 1976 were “Silly Love Songs” by the Wings, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John, “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” by The Four Seasons, “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry, “Kiss and Say Goodbye” by The Manhattans, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon, “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band, “I Write the Songs” by Barry Manilow, “Love Hangover” by Diana Ross, “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” by England Dan & John Ford Coley, “Take It to the Limit” by the Eagles, “Sweet Love” by the Commodores, “Right Back Where We Started From” by Maxine Nightingale, “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” by Lou Rawls, “Lonely Night (Angel Face)” by Captain & Tennille, “All by Myself” by Eric Carmen, “Love to Love You Baby” by Donna Summer, “Deep Purple” by Donny & Marie Osmond, “Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” by Diana Ross, “That’s the Way (I Like It)” by KC and the Sunshine Band, “A Little Bit More” by Dr. Hook, “If You Leave Me Now” by Chicago, “Times of Your Life” by Paul Anka, “Shop Around” by Captain & Tennille, “Let’s Do It Again” by The Staple Singers, “With Your Love” by Jefferson Starship, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” by Neil Sedaka, “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again” by Barry Manilow, and “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)” by Glen Campbell. What is your favorite song from 1976?
Sports in 1976
Besides the Summer Olympics in Montreal that I attended, the 1976 Winter Olympics were in Innsbruck, Austria. American middleweight boxer Rubin Carter was retried in New Jersey for murder, but that was overturned in 1985. The Hurricane was a 1999 American biographical sports drama film starring Denzel Washington as Rubin “The Hurricane” Carter, based on his autobiography The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender To 45472. The Toronto Blue Jays became a MLB team. The New York Yankees signed free agent Reggie Jackson to a five-year $3 million contract, setting the precedent for lucrative multi-year contracts for MLB players in years to come. I remember that Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four consecutive home runs in a game against the Chicago Cubs and Cubs outfielder Rick Monday rescued an American flag just as two protesters were about to burn it in the outfield during a game at Dodger Stadium. Sparky Lyle of the New York Yankees broke Hoyt Wilhelm’s American League record of 154 career saves. In the World Series, the Cincinnati Reds “Big Red Machine” sweep the New York Yankees, 4 games to 0, to win their second straight championship. Mark Fidrych, the Detroit Tigers pitcher phenome, won the 1976 Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award. Pittsburgh Pirates baseball pitcher Bob Moose was killed in a car crash in Ohio on his 29th birthday. The Montreal Canadiens sweep the Philadelphia Flyers in four games to win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey. Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens was the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer during the regular season. Bobby Clarke of the Philadelphia Flyers was the Hart Memorial Trophy Most Valuable Player. Flyers forward Reggie Leach became the only non-goaltender from a losing team to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs after scoring a record 19 goals in 16 playoff games. The Boston Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns in six games in the NBA finals, as the ABA and the NBA merged. The Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played their first NFL games as new franchises. In Super Bowl X, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Dallas Cowboys 21−17, as Lynn Swann, the wide receiver for Pittsburgh, won the MVP award at the Miami Orange Bowl. At the same Orange Bowl, on January 1, the Oklahoma Sooners beat the Michigan Wolverines 14-6 to win the college football national championship. Tony Dorsett of the University of Pittsburgh won the Heisman Trophy. The following year he won the Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys. In golf, Jack Nicklaus was the big money winner with $266,000, while the grand slam was split four ways, Masters Tournament to Raymond Floyd, U.S. Open to Jerry Pate, British Open to Johnny Miller, and PGA Championship to Dave Stockton. James Hunt won the Formula One World Championship by just 1 point driving a McLaren M23-D as rival Niki Lauda retired from the Japanese Grand Prix due to heavy rain. In the Indianapolis 500 automobile race, Johnny Rutherford won the rain-shortened shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or just 254 miles. What is your favorite sport?
Prominent people who died in 1976
Besides Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley (1902-1976), there were the following deaths in 1976, Agatha Christie, an English detective fiction writer (1890-1975), Paul Robeson, a black American actor, singer, writer, and activist (1898-1976), Howlin’ Wolf, an American blues singer (1910-1976), Ernesto Miranda, an American criminal and namesake of the Miranda rights (1941-1976), Percy Faith, Canadian bandleader, orchestrator, composer, and conductor (1908-1976), Lee J. Cobb, American actor (1911-1976), Sal Mineo, American actor (1939-1976), one of my favorite actors, who was the same age as me, Lily Pons, French-American operatic soprano singer, and actress (1898-1976), Florence Ballard, American singer of the Supremes (1943-1976), Maxie Rosenbloom, American boxer, and actor (1907-1976), Busby Berkeley, American choreographer, and director (1895-1976), Bernard Montgomery, British field marshal (1887-1976), Max Ernst, German artist (1891-1976), Alfred Lennon, father of musician John Lennon (1912-1976), Harry Nyquist, American information theory pioneer (1889-1976), Howard Hughes, American aviation pioneer, film director, and millionaire recluse (1905-1976), Phil Ochs, American singer-songwriter (1940-1976), Miriam Cooper, American actress (1891-1976), Keith Relf, British rock musician of the Yardbirds (1943-1976), Samuel Eliot Morison, American historian (1887-1976), Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (1889-1976), J. Paul Getty, American industrialist, founder of Getty Oil (1892-1976), Bobby Hackett, American jazz musician (1915-1976), Jimmy Dykes, American baseball player and manager (1896-1976), Paul Gallico, American novelist, short story and sports writer (1897-1976), Mickey Cohen, American gangster (1913-1976), Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian (1884-1976), Fritz Lang, Austrian-German-American filmmaker, and screenwriter (1890-1976), Jimmy Reed, American blues musician (1925-1976), Dalton Trumbo, American screenwriter and novelist (1905-1976), Barbara Nichols, American actress (1928-1976), Dame Edith Evans, British actress (1888-1976), Alexander Calder, American sculptor (1898-1976), André Malraux, French novelist (1901-1976), Rosalind Russell, American actress (1907-1976), Godfrey Cambridge, American comedian and actor (1933-1976), Danny Murtaugh, Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player and manager (1917-1976), Tommy Bolin, American guitarist (1951-1976), Benjamin Britten, English composer (1913-1976), Jack Cassidy, American actor (1927-1976), Ned Washington, American lyricist (1901-1976), and Freddie King, American rock guitarist (1934-1976), actress Anissa Jones (1958-1976), famous for playing Buffy Davis in the television series “Family Affair,” was found dead of an accidental overdose. Oscar Bonavena (1942-1976), an Argentinian heavyweight, died in a shooting in Reno, Nevada. Do you know anyone who died in 1976?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 