Frank Victor Taus, 83, a resident of Riverside for more than half a century, died Jan. 12, 2013.
Mr. Taus was born in Berwyn to Frank and Anna Taus and lived in that city until he was 12 years old, when he moved to the family farm in Yorkville. After high school, however, he worked at the family business, a butcher shop near Pulaski Road on 26th Street in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago.
It was while he was making a delivery for the butcher shop that he met his future wife, Elizabeth. She was waiting with a friend for a streetcar on their way to a White Sox game at Comiskey Park, when Taus recognized Elizabeth’s companion. The two talked and Taus got Elizabeth’s phone number.
The two were married on Oct. 1, 1955 at Blessed Agnes Church in Chicago and they lived in a two-bedroom apartment above the butcher shop on 26th Street until 1959.
“I said I only wanted to move one time, so it better be a good place,” said Elizabeth.
The couple found a home in Riverside and never left.
While working as a butcher in the city, Mr. Taus also served in the Illinois National Guard for 14 years. But his days in the Guard and as a butcher were cut short at the age of 30, when Mr. Taus was diagnosed with, according to Elizabeth Taus, a malformation in his brain. The malformation triggered seizures, which could be incapacitating.
Leaving the butcher shop behind, Mr. Taus converted the 11-acre Yorkville family farm into a golf range. He ran the golf range for several years before he was offered a job as a butcher by Bill Jansky, who owned Bill’s Finer Foods on East Burlington Street in Riverside. He retired at the age of 62. According to his wife, Mr. Taus also used to love working on automobiles, taking them apart and putting them back together.
In addition to his wife, Elizabeth, Mr. Taus is survived by his children, Victoria (Darryl) Aquin, Christian (Judith) Taus and Nancy (Tim) Stanislawski, and his grandchildren Emily Taus, Anna Taus, Michael Taus and Jack Taus.
Cremation was private.
