submitted by Adrienne Inman, 2014

Dance lessons in Highwood are synonymous with Mary Mazzetta.  Whether you called her Mary or Miss Mary, dance class meant that Mary Mazzetta was your teacher.  If you lived in Highwood your mom sent you to dance class.  Mary taught us ballet, tap, and toe dancing.  No matter how inept we were she managed to bring out the best in us.  And who can ever forget those wonderful dance recitals.

 Mary was born in Highwood in 1924.  Her parents, Tony and Angelina Casorio, were married in Highwood as were their children.  Mary’s father purchased the home she was born in shortly after returning from World War I.  To this day it stands proudly at the corner of Prairie and Morgan Place.  Mary was one of six children, Jim, Frank, Eleanor, Delores and Eda.

Even as a teenager Mary loved dance.  She learned from Agnes Daley who lived in Highland Park and taught dance all over the North Shore and in Chicago.  Agnes made sure that Mary received free dance lessons so she could take over some of Agnes’s classes while Agnes taught elsewhere. 

Mary eventually started her own dance classes in Highwood.  Lessons were given in the basement of the old Recreation Center.  Classes cost $1-$2 a week. Jay Sesso-King played the piano during dance classes and eventually she was replaced by a boom box.  Mary had many nice things to say about Don Skrinar who ran the Rec Center for the city of Highwood.  And special thanks to her mother Angelina Casorio, Cherie Melchiorre, Mrs. Sidari and Mrs. Innocenzi who were her babysitters while she gave lessons.

Mom sent me to dance class when I was 5 and I continued right through 8th grade.  Why was I in dance in the first place?  According to my mother, I spent so much time tripping over my feet and had so many scars on my knees that it seemed like a good idea to give me dance lessons. Of course that also meant that my younger sister, Sheila, had to take lessons.  She was only three.  At our first recital she looked good in her pinafore and tap shoes but Mom said she spent the entire time on stage with her back to the audience.  She was busily popping the balloons pinned to the curtain.

Each year ended with the dance recital.  The room was packed and we had two to three different performances for each dance group.  We had wonderful costumes that were designed by Mary, some of the moms who sewed, and later Camille Catchpole.  Mary said that the costumes were a “labor of love” made by Evelyn Carani and Lenore Pasquesi.  They didn’t charge for making the costumes, just for the material.  Highwood was a tight knit community and people worked together to make the recital a success. 

Each year the Highland Park News would feature Mary’s Dancers on their cover. One year Mary’s daughter, Muffie, was on the cover with her now life-long best friend Sharon Persinger.

Camille Catchpole joined Mary a few years later and taught the ballet classes.  And yes, there were definitely boys who took part in the recital.  Mary made sure that her three sons, Tom, Peter and Jimmy, were included each year (willing or not).  She said that none of them knew dance steps and during one of the numbers her son Peter was leaning on a young man who knew what he was doing. The boy was unhappy that Mary’s son kept hanging onto him while he was trying to dance and the finale was both boys getting into a fight on the stage.  The audience thought it was part of the act since the boys were supposed to be sailors.  The other mom hopped onto the stage and broke up the fight.  What was Mary doing at the time, she was back stage doubled over with laughter.

Mary had tons of energy and she took special care of the youngest dancers.  While they were performing on stage she was at the side of the stage standing on a stool and going through the dance routine with them.  Everyone in Mary’s family helped out during the recital.  Her brother Frankie would show up and sing during half time.  Frankie is still singing and making audiences happy in Michigan City, Indiana.  Frankie’s 83 and sings at churches, parties, senior centers, retirement homes and schools.

Mary said that the absolute highlight of her life was when Danny Thomas attended one of the dance recitals.  He was promoting his charity, St. Jude Hospital, and thought that a well attended dance recital was a great opportunity for him to meet people and raise some funds.  He actually kissed one of the young dancers on her cheek and made himself an instant hero!

Some of Highwood’s male dancers were Scott Bertucci, Fred Gualandri, Butch Campagni, and several boys from Fort Sheridan.  When Mary and her husband moved to Florida sometime around 1976, she said that it was the hardest decision she’d ever made.  She missed her friends, her family and most of all the wonderful parents and children who were in her dance classes.  She’d hoped that someone would take over but unfortunately that didn’t happen. When Mary moved to Florida Highwood lost a central figure that bound this community together.

Mary made a new life in Florida and she didn’t just sit in the sun.  Mary is 90 and still teaching dance.  One of her pupils is 95 and the rest are in their 60’s and 70’s.  Mary’s dance troupe,  called The Coquettes, put on performances all over the Palm Beach area. They perform at senior centers, nursing homes and Veterans Associations, spreading Mary’s Joy!  They have 200 costumes that are stored in one of the women’s home.  And yes, they still need entertainment between costume changes so Father McCarthy’s brother, Michael, plays the piano midway through the recital.  Retire?????  I don’t think so.  What would this world be without Mary Mazzetta’s dance classes?

submitted by Adrienne Inman, 2016

I was born April 1924 in Los Angeles and when I was about 3 years old my parents moved back to Lake Forest where my dad was born and my sister Peggy was born. 

During WW2 I was in the Pacific.  The 21st of this month (July) in 1944 is the anniversary of our landing in Guam.  I was in the Pacific for 16 months.  I was 20 years old.  We had to serve because I was already 18 years old.  I graduated the 2nd of June from Lake Forest High School and had to report to the draft board on the 3rd of June.  My parents weren’t happy about this.  I was in training for one year in Florida at what is now the Patrick Air Base.  From there we boarded a troop ship to the Marshall Islands.  We were supposed to hit Guam on June 18, three days after the Second Marine Division hit Saipan, but the fighting was so bad on Saipan that they held us up in case we had to go into Saipan.  We didn’t get to Guam until July 21.  I was one of 14 guys that landed with our company for the Battle of Guam that wasn’t killed or wounded.  I kept in touch with a few of the guys.  One was from Waukegan.  I never wanted to go on a Freedom Flight.  I had enough of war.  I went for years never talking about it until I was much older.  It took 19 days of fighting to take Guam.  Someone once asked me if I had ever shot anyone and I said that I was shooting but I was more  worried about someone shooting me.  We stayed on Guam until the end of the war.

I met my wife Rena at a carnival in Highwood.  It was held in an empty lot next door to the bowling alley, sometime around September of 1947.  Rena was just out of high school.  I used to joke with her saying that while she was still running around in grade school having fun I was running around shooting at the enemy. A friend of mine, Floyd Swarthout, was going around with a girl from Highwood and that’s how I ended up at the carnival.  When I met Rena I’d been out of service since the end of the war and I was working as a plasterer.

Rena’s maiden name was Mattei. She came from a small    family. Her parents were divorced. There was just her mother and her brother, Leo.  She had a sister named Alice who died in 1933 at age 13 from an ear infection that went up to her brain.  It was very sad.  Her mother’s brother, Gino, came to this  country and lived here for 20 years, then returned to Italy after he retired.

After moving back from California my family stayed in Lake  Forest and later moved to Lake Bluff.  The Baldwin family was huge.  Family dinners were usually at our house or at my mother-in-law’s.  We’d go to Lake Forest and visit with my side of the family.

Rena was born in a garage apartment owned by the Benassi/Natalie family.  My daughter Barb used to play in that apartment when she was a child with her friend Shirley.  We were married at St. James Church by Father Douaire.  Our reception was at the Highwood Community Center.  Because Rena’s family was small, she asked me to  invite my Baldwin cousins to the wedding.  I said no, no. You don’t know how many there are!  We had a small luncheon with just the uncles and then the rest of my family came to the  reception.  Right after the wedding Rena and I took a train to New Orleans for our     honeymoon.  We went back for one of our  anniversaries, going by train.

Afterwards we lived with Rena’s mother for a few months until we could find an apartment.  Then we moved over to Palmer Avenue across the street from Mary’s store.  From there we moved to Llewellyn Avenue, then we settled in the house we are still in on North avenue. The people in Highwood were always friendly to me, of course part of it was because of Rena.  She and her family were long-time Highwood      residents.

Rena was pregnant with our first child when I was called up during the Korean War.  I wrote a letter letting them know that my wife was    pregnant so they gave me a deferment until the baby was born and I then left in October, 1950 for North Carolina.  I was in the 2nd    Division of the 6th Marines. I served during the last few months of 1950 and got out in 1951.  I was away from home the entire time and stationed in North Carolina. When I came back from North Carolina, I asked Rena where she wanted to live.  I was a plasterer so we could live anywhere.  She said she wanted to stay in Highwood.  So we bought a house on the    corner of North Avenue and Grove and we’ve lived there for 58 years. 

Our closest friends were Floyd Swarthout and his wife, Vi.  He’s the one I went to the carnival with when I met Rena.  Rena and I didn’t hang out around town too much. Mostly we stayed at home or with her mother, we were home bodies.  Rena was working at the Savings and Loan in Highland Park so she walked to work every day.  I was working for the Cortesi family.  William and Otto were plasterers and Hugo was a laborer.  John Cortesi worked at the Blue Goose in Highland Park. I had to be an apprentice for 4 years and I worked for Ben Ginty who lived in Knollwood during my apprenticeship and then I quit that job and went to work for the Cortesi family.   

While I was in service during the Korean War,  Rena learned to drive a car.  She needed to get around town and she had a small child.  Her brother Leo taught her to drive.  He told quite a few jokes about that!  After being discharged I went back to being a plasterer.  I always worked for someone else but I did a lot of side jobs, on Saturday and Sundays, or days when construction work was slow.  It was hard work to be a plasterer.  During the slow times I also filled in at the post office, Central Tire in Highland Park (owned by the Peters family), and all kinds of odd jobs for quite some time.  I did painting, working for one of the Favelli’s.  There were a lot of brick layers in Highwood, plasterers, laborers. I remember “Steamboat,” aka   Virgilio Pedrucci.   He was a Highwood resident.  I think he got his nickname because you could pretty much hear him even if you were a few blocks away.  I met Steamboat when I was working on a job in Chicago.  I thought he was the boss because I could hear him from one side of the building to the other.

I knew Ted Benvenuti, Highwood’s Chief of Police, quite well.  He used to be at my house once a week because of my son, Mike, who would get into all kinds of minor kid trouble.  I thought Ted was a good guy.  Of course, since I saw him so often we became quite friendly.  When Mike was a little guy he had a real sweet tooth and he loved a certain torta that Rena made.  It was one of his favorite’s.  But he rarely got to eat it.  This was a dessert that my wife always made for the family of someone who died.  He could never understand why he couldn’t eat that cake!   After awhile he would see the cake and say, ok, who died now, Mom? 

We lived on Llewellyn in Highwood for a while before buying the house on North Avenue.  It was a little house next door to the current parking lot for St. James Church.  Ted Benvenuti, lived on Funston near St. James School.  The Cadamagnani’s lived next door; the Nerini’s lived across the street and next to them, going west, were the Natta and the Cabri families.  The Volpendestas lived on our side of Llewellyn. The Goodalls lived next to them. Mrs. Wing lived next to the Goodalls.  I remembered the kids would go to the    Bernardoni’s house that was across the street from Mrs. Wing and watch her walk upstairs carrying a candle because she didn’t have electricity in her home.  They would watch the candle going from room to room throughout the house wherever she went.  This was in the 50’s.  A few years later Ted Benvenuti bought the house and put in electricity.  

There were a lot of kids on our street.   The kids all played outside until dark.  Now, it’s so different.  The kids don’t play outside.  I put up all sorts of backyard games for the kids to play: swings, sandbox and a tether ball.  One time Rena counted 27 kids in our little yard on North Avenue.  And the funny thing was that the park was right down the street.  Rena made everyone feel welcome.  Grove Avenue was great for sliding down the hill when it snowed.  I was always telling all of the kids to watch out for the cars.  Back then there were no stop signs so cars drove pretty fast down the street. 

I’ve kept my sense of humor over the years.  My daughters tell me that if I don’t behave they are going to place me between my wife and my mother-in-law in the condo at Ascension Cemetery.  Don’t want to get between those two when they’re arguing.  I’m doing well.  Say hello to all of my friends in Highwood.

submitted by Cynthia Krol, 2018

I had a little bird, And its name was Enza, I opened the window, And in-flew-Enza

                - Playground song, 1918

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the frightening story of the Spanish Influenza.  It is difficult to determine exactly where the pandemic might have originated; however, the first recorded case of the Spanish influenza occurred at Fort Riley, Kansas. 

On March 9, 1918, a blinding dust storm hit the training base which was overcrowded with troops, cavalry horses, and support animals.  The storm created a huge hygiene problem with stagnant, putrid air causing the soldiers to cough and wheeze.  Within two days, soldiers came down with a “bad cold”.  Fever, sore-throat, headache and muscle pain followed.  However, new abnormalities appeared – gland issues, eye  aberrations, and most alarming, decreased heart action.  Of note, “influenza” literally translates to “influence” from the     Italian.  More than 500 cases appeared in one week, with forty-six deaths attributed to “pneumonia”.

In May, the training forces sailed for France on cramped troop ships, perfect breeding ground, and the fever was brought to the trenches and battlefields of World War I.  As French troops became sick with fever, it spread over the Pyrenees Mountains and into Spain, attacking an estimated eight million people in two months.   The nations fighting in WWI had censored reports of the flu among their troops, not wanting to give any information to the other side.  But because Spain was not    involved in the War and had no censorship, the rest of the world first learned of the epidemic in Spain, thereby establishing it as “Spanish influenza”. 

The influenza spread across the globe quickly, wherever truck, rail or ship lines could take it.  The spring wave of the flu was serious, but not disastrous.  The flu appeared to have died out by the middle of summer only to reappear in late August in a truly deadlier form. Hundreds of millions of people were infected and it is estimated that between 30 and 50 million died.  Doctors and researchers began to share their findings: this  second strain attacked the respiratory tract and filled the victim’s lungs with water to the point of dying as if they were drowning.  The lack of oxygen in the lungs caused cyanosis, whereas the victim’s skin turned a shade of blue.  Furthermore, doctors were baffled as to why the flu preferred young healthy adults.  In fact, in the U.S., men between the ages of 25 and 29 years old died at a rate much higher than men three times their age and death was usually quick, within 36 to 48 hours.

The Illinois Department of Health issued the following guidelines with failure to follow punishments of $200 and six months in jail for each offense:

1. Immediate reporting

2. Post recovery isolation for 3 days

3. Face masks

4. Burning of all clothing and bed linens

5. Visitation prohibited

6. Absolute quarantine and house placarding

7. No spitting, wheezing, or coughing in public spaces

8. No attendance at public gatherings for relatives

Local hospitals, including Great Lakes, were so overwhelmed that it was agreed upon by the hospital board to set up an emergency hospital at Exmoor Country Club.  At the time, the south porch and locker areas handled female patients and main dining room and dining porch handled males.  The old Hotel Moraine supplied beds, linens, and anything necessary to help with the conversion.  Exmoor was known as “a haven of refuge in these troubled times” for its 125 patients.  It was reported that all Exmoor staff remained on duty and “no one left the ship.”

1030 deaths were reported in Lake County in September and October, and Highwood was not spared.  A partial list of the deceased follows:  Mrs. Oline (Leo) Carlson (38), Sen Jupati (27), Mrs. Mary (John) Unbehan (47), Baby Bernardi (child of Mr. & Mrs. Steve Bernardi), Baby Nastri, Agidio Ori (6, son of Mr. & Mrs. Emil Ori), and Pete Ganitraris.   The influenza disappeared as quickly as it arrived.  New cases diminished by the end of November, 1918, with a brief resurgence in 1919.  

It is important to place the Spanish Influenza pandemic in    historical perspective, showing how people’s attitudes and   actions have both changed and remained the same, and more importantly, how even the smallest of communities was        affected.

submitted by Rick Sachen, 2019

I don’t recall that my family members cared much about, or discussed our genealogy, our heritage or our ancestry.  Those aunts and uncles who “knew things” knew those things, but didn’t openly discuss them. Those aunts and uncles who didn’t know things had no option to discuss them.  We were from Highwood, Illinois, and that seemed to be the extent of our family history.  I knew very little about my grandfather’s family, except that maybe they were from Ohio, or “somewhere.” Over time, I have discovered much more about his family, many of whom lived in southern sections of Ohio, and in the area of West Virginia, before there even was a “West” Virginia, which was created as a “free state” in 1861.

My great-grandfather was Robert Green Smith, and he was born in Bampton, England (used more recently as the backdrop for television's "Downton Abbey") in 1864.   A couple of weeks ago, I  received a very faded copy (apparently a copy of a copy) of one page of my grandmother’s father’s military record from an uncle, who had come across it while going through some old paperwork. Because of the faded nature of the paper, along with the flourished penmanship often found on documents from the late 1800s, it was very difficult to decipher. It was written on the occasion of his appointment to the rank of Corporal of the 7th United States Cavalry, on May 2nd, 1893. Through diligent use of a magnifying glass, it was found, under the section labeled, “Battles, Engagements, Affairs or Skirmishes,” it listed “Battle against the hostile Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D. Dec. 29th, 1890,” and “Battle against the hostile Sioux Indians at White Clay Creek, S.D. Dec 30th,1890.”

He had emigrated to the United States in 1881, when he was 17 years of age.  Prior to that, he had been confined in servitude as a “stable servant,” and his sister, Alice Emma was a “domestic servant” at the vicarage of Black Bourton Parish, as I had discovered previously, in an early census record:

He had enlisted at “Fort Highwood” (later, Fort Sheridan) Illinois, which had been commissioned in 1887, I had thought for a long time, that, because of his time spent as a “stable servant” in his early teens, he was likely assigned to the care of the horses, more than the role as a “fighter.” However, following the recent discovery of this part of his military record, I decided to look into the matter it a bit further.

From the National Archives, I obtained his military pension card, indicating that his earliest service was with Troop “K” of the 7th Cavalry, followed by an assignment with Troop “M”; both assignments resulted in action in the “Indian Wars.”

The involvement of Troop “K” at the incident or “Battle at Wounded Knee Creek” was extraordinary, as I recently described to the Highwood Historical Society:

“Looking into the "Battle of Wounded Knee" on December 29th, 1890, it seems that Troop "K" was intimately involved.  It was that Troop that was charged with the discovery and seizure of all firearms from the Lakota Sioux encamped near Wounded Knee, South Dakota territory. After recovering at least 38 rifles, the Cavalrymen approached a group of young warriors, who were ordered to give up their rifles. One of the Indians, named "Black Coyote" (the following is somewhat in dispute, and has never been resolved) who was either deaf and did not hear the order, or was indignant and disobeyed the order, or did not speak any English and did not understand the order.  When two soldiers grabbed Black Coyote, his rifle went off, and almost immediately, at least five braves threw off their blanket coverings, and began       firing  their rifles at the soldiers of Troop "K".

A general "battle" ensued, and was lopsided in the Cavalry's favor by the fact that other Troops of the 7th Cavalry had already been positioned on a ridge above the encampment, and those troops were heavily armed with repeating rifles, and mountain guns (small cannons that could be quickly dismantled and transported by two mules in difficult landscapes, or pulled by a single horsed on flat terrain), both positioned and pointed at the Indian camp.

When the "battle" as over, 25 soldiers were dead (many from Troop "K"), and 39 were wounded (six subsequently died of their wounds).  Some amount of Indians were also dead, in a number  between 150 and 300, counting men, women and children, some of whom were found slain as far as three miles away, apparently shot while running away from "the battle." Additionally, 51 Indians were wounded (4 men and 47 women and children), and, some of those also died later, of their wounds. (Many historical photographs are available, taken the following day, showing the corpses still present, and frozen to the ground in the active poses of death, before being identified, and buried, if your personal constitution can deal with them.)

I do not know -- and probably will never know -- if my relative was one of the two Cavalry soldiers who grabbed Black Coyote, setting off the entire episode, but he most certainly was present, when it happened.

This is only a follow-up of the information I presented at a meeting of the Historical Society, and in no way is it meant as a critique of the "Battle of Wounded Knee."

Whether it's "famous" or "infamous," be assured that at least one early Highwood resident took part in that military action on that frozen and brutal December day so long ago.”

The day following the incident at Wounded Knee, the 7th Cavalry (including Troop "K") was attacked and pinned down in a small valley by combined forces of Lakota Sioux and Brule' Indians at White Clay Creek, South Dakota territory. A battalion of soldiers from the 9th Cavalry made up of enlisted blacks, and dubbed "Buffalo Soldiers” by the Indians, responded to calls for help from the 7th, and the        combined forces were able to dislodge the Indians from their        commanding positions above the trapped 7th Cavalry. The incident is sometimes called the "Drexel Mission Fight."

After his service in the Dakota territory in the “Indian Wars,” Robert Smith was transferred to Troop "M" and reassigned to the area of Fort Huachuca, in the Arizona territory where, although Geronimo had already surrendered, remaining remnants of his warriors continued to wreak havoc. While there, he was again promoted, this time to the rank of Sergeant. He was injured in some manner in the Arizona territory, and was discharged from service at Fort Huachuca on December 4th, 1896. He then returned to Highwood, where he built a large family, and five or six houses in the Northwestern part of the city.

I would recommend to everyone, talk to your family elders, listen to their stories, pay attention to details, and enjoy what you can learn about your heritage. Each of us have heroes in our families, and each of us have dastardly scoundrels in our family's pasts. Enjoy them both.  If you or your family have ties to Highwood, Illinois, I would suggest you contact the Highwood Historical Society since they may already have the information that you seek, and you may be able to assist them in their quest for local historical knowledge and artifacts.

submitted by Diane LoPresti, July 2026

At twelve noon every day the Fire Department siren would go off.  All stores in Highwood were closed on Wednesday afternoons at noon.  Most stores and businesses were closed on Sundays.  Only Sherony’s opened on Sunday from 10:00 till noon.

Fort Sheridan’s bugle played reveille at 6:00am and taps at 10:00pm; and all soldiers would stand at attention and salute our flag.

For a town of 5,000, Highwood had at least 8 gas stations, 6 grocery stores, 2 jewelry stores, 3 clothing stores, plus an Army Surplus Store, and 2 shoe stores (one where you would put on your new shoes and step onto a machine that would X-ray your feet to see if the shoes fit properly).

Taverns, yes, we had a few (a lot).  Mainly in the 50’s and 60’s, they were mostly meeting places where our parents would meet other friends and relatives and dance, have raffles and a good time.

Highwood had 3 churches, 2 drug stores, a movie theater, and a recreation center that was open to all kids (thank God for Don Skrinar) for summer outdoor movies, winter skating, and Friday dances.  I even remember making tissue paper flowers for the floats for the Highwood Day parades, (thank you Beverly Campagni and Madreen Fiocchi).  We even had a Woolworths’s 5&10 cent store and of course Yoli’s Gift Nook.  The Fuller Brush man would come to our house to sell his goods.  The insurance man (Mazzetta) came to collect payments for life insurance.  Milk was delivered to the house, and probably most of all, doctors even made home visits when you were too sick to make it to the office.

Most of all we had the best restaurants on the North Shore.  People came from all around for authentic Italian cooking.

I am sure that there are a lot more that I can’t remember because the older I get, the more I miss a world that no longer exists.