Chicago Area

The Illinois Bar Foundation will host the annual Lawyers Rock Legends on Thursday, Feb. 27. This evening of Rock, Motown, Jazz & Blues will take place beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Buddy Guy's Legends, 700 S. Wabash.

Proceeds from this event benefit the charitable programs of the IBF.

Tickets and sponsorship packages are now available!

Learn more and register at www.illinoisbarfoundation.org or by calling the Illinois Bar Foundation at 312.726.6072.

Special accommodations will be granted to those with disabilities, please call ahead.

William Leo Morrison lost his long and valiant battle with cancer on the evening of Dec. 4, 2013. William Leo Morrison died peacefully in the home he had made for 59 years with his loving and beloved wife, Kate.

The immediate cause of death may be linked to the crushing defeat of the Chicago Bears the Sunday before, which he weathered with his son.

Bill was born January 19, 1931, in Nampa, Idaho, and raised in the (then) small town of Aberdeen, SD, by James and May Morrison. He played high school football, worked in his father's grocery store, fished with his brother and father, but avoided hunting. He forged friendships and memories that sustained him to his final days.

He left Aberdeen to attend Harvard College, where he encountered Kate, close friends, and a world of literature - all of which, he felt, shaped the man that he became. After law school, he and Kate moved to Chicago, where they raised their family and he practiced law at the firm of Gardner, Carton and Douglas.

He was a man of great intelligence, integrity, and humor. He was generous in the extreme. He was a voracious reader - fiction, non-fiction, history, mystery and the news of the day. On the table beside his bed at the time of his death were the collected short stories of William Trevor, Alice Munro's "Dear Life", and "Bloodlands" by Timothy Snyder. His stoicism as a 50-year supporter of the Bears approached the quiet hope and resignation of a private religion. He loved advice columns, Scrabble and the Word of the Week.

The Hon. Vincent E. Bentivenga, Jr., 77, passed away on January 2, 2014. He was a graduate of St. Thomas the Apostle grammar school, Mt. Carmel High School, Loyola University, and DePaul Law School. Highly respected Judge of the Cook County Criminal Court for more than 20 years.

Beloved father of Mark (Rachelle - deceased) Bentivenga and Scott (Barbara) Bentivenga; loving grandfather ("Papa Vince") to Rachel, Rick, Jake and Rocco Bentivenga; dear brother of Guy (Bobbie) Bentivenga; loving uncle to Michael, Jimmy, Karen and Steve Bentivenga.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Paul of the Cross Church, 320 S. Washington Street, Park Ridge, Illinois 60068 or Mt. Carmel High School, 6410 S. Dante Ave., Chicago, IL 60637. Visit Vincent's memorial at www.smithcorcoran.com.

Please join us at the 7th Annual Bean Bag Tournament and show your support for the IBF/ YLD Children’s Assistance Fund. Initially created to assist with the opening of children’s waiting rooms in courthouses across the State of Illinois, the IBF/YLD Children’s Assistance Fund has since grown to provide funding to organizations across the State of Illinois that provide legal assistance to children, maintain children’s waiting rooms in courthouses, work to reduce recidivism of juveniles, and/or work to reduce the incidents of domestic violence in families with children. The Children’s Assistance Fund has distributed grants in excess of $285,000 over the past fifteen years, due to the widespread support of our donors and participation in events like the Bean Bag Tournament.