Longtime Oak Park resident Marianne “Pat” Reinhofer (nee Lyons), 88, died in her sleep on Dec. 8, 2020. She was known to many in the community due to her 16-year tenure working at the parish office of St. Edmund Church on Oak Park Avenue.
Born on July 11, 1932, in Chicago’s Andersonville community, she attended grade school and high school at St. Gregory the Great Parish on Paulina Street. In 1953, she married and began raising a family, first in the city, then in River Grove, beginning in 1968. While a member of St. Cyprian Parish in River Grove, she became a minister of care and was active in the choir. As her children grew older, she wanted to do more based on her faith heritage and attended college, earning a degree in pastoral studies. Most of the time while attending school, she was employed at Lutheran Social Services as an executive secretary. She worked there because she believed in serving people of all faiths and all walks of life in the Alcohol and Drug Treatment program, helping them on their journey to recovery. After she earned her advanced degree, she became a hospital chaplain at St. Alexius Hospital and Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.
In the 1990s she moved to Oak Park with her beloved dachshund, Chloe. She probably knew every dog in the neighborhood by name from her daily walks while she lived at The Mews building at Lake Street and Euclid Avenue.
Pat is survived by her children, Lynn (James) Grogan, Christine (Kenneth) Kuehn, James (Kathy) Reinhofer, Ralph (Sue) Reinhofer, and Peter (Rachel) Reinhofer. She is the grandmother of 12, great-grandmother of five, sister of the late Edward (Nancy, the late Dolly) Lyons, Karen (Hal) Mortensen, and the late Donald (Rochelle) Lyons, and the aunt of five nieces and two nephews.
A funeral mass in her honor was held at St. Edmund Church on Dec. 11, Rev. John McGivern presiding.
In her memory, donations may be made to the Sierra Club, 70 E. Lake St., Suite 1500, Chicago, IL 60601.
