Frank Chlumsky, 88, Horses were a big part of his life
Matthew Kruk
Frank Chlumsky: Horses were a big part of his life
1921-2009 | Actress' grandfather worked as cop, butcher, but once ran
stable, had role at racetracks
December 31, 2009
BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL Staff Reporter/modo...@suntimes.com
Frank Chlumsky could get an old nag to do maneuvers like a Lipizzaner
stallion.
He became one with the horses he rode. Once, during a cold snap, he
nursed a pneumonia-stricken horse by taking it into the warmth of his
family's living room.
Later, the animal didn't want to leave.
Mr. Chlumsky, a longtime Stickney resident who is the grandfather of
actress Anna Chlumsky, died earlier this month at the Texas home of his
daughter Jayme Lawhon. He was 88.
His death came a few months after Joan, his wife of 68 years, died on
the couple's wedding anniversary.
Though Mr. Chlumsky had jobs as a cop and a custodian and a butcher,
relatives said they will always remember his riding.
In horse-jumping photos, "Grandpa just looks so comfortable, almost like
a centaur," Anna Chlumsky said.
Mr. Chlumsky attended Riverside Brookfield High School, where he founded
a saddle club, according to his son Frank.
He had a compact build, like a jockey, according to his daughter, and
"could ride like nobody's business."
He made it to the Olympic trials for steeplechase, a hell-for-leather
race where horses gallop and jump over obstacles, his children said.
He was among those picked from a nationwide pool of students to crew a
round-the-world cruise with actor-sailor Sterling Hayden, but Depression
finances meant he had to say no, relatives said.
After high school, he operated a farm and riding stable in Westchester.
Then, World War II broke out. Drafted into the Army Air Forces, he
trained as a B-24 belly gunner, though the war ended before he saw
action.
He met the love of his life when he rode his horse to a restaurant on
31st Street in Brookfield that later became Buresh's Lobster House. He
tied up his horse and saw Joan Zitek, who called herself a "gypsy
princess." She'd been raised in a Romani camp on 39th Street, her
daughter said.
Her father, vaudevillian Jim Nelson, had a dancing bear and performed
with Jimmy Durante and the Three Stooges. When there was no money for
her prom dress, her father wrote to actress Mae Clarke, who sent her a
frock from her classic film "Frankenstein," said Anna Chlumsky.
The couple married and settled in Stickney, where Mr. Chlumsky was a
police officer and school custodian.
He also exercised horses at Arlington Park, Hawthorne and Sportsman's
Park tracks.
When people began buying freezers in a big way in the 1950s, he learned
to butcher as a side job.
He worked as a greeter at his son Frank's restaurant in Burlington,
Wis., where his charm earned him the nickname the Silver Fox.
Later in life, he co-owned a racehorse, Calistoga, that made it to the
Breeders' Cup, his children said.
Every summer, Mr. Chlumsky and his family held gatherings on Canada's
White River that featured fish fries and bounties of Bohemian roast
pork, sauerkraut and peach dumplings.
The family decided to build a cabin there. One time, family members
said, Mr. Chlumsky was ferrying lumber for it when his 14-foot boat
sank. But he emerged smiling. "He comes to shore in his boots and boxer
shorts and his hat," his daughter said.
He is also survived by daughters Donna Cerny and Tammy Gomez; another
son, Thomas; a sister, Lavergne Galligani; eight other grandchildren and
two great-grandchildren.
Services have been held.