By Lauren FitzPatrick
Staff writer
Edward Rave kept moving with the times.
In his 91 years on Earth, he not only witnessed a lot of history — he was part of it.
The streetcars Mr. Rave drove through the city evolved into buses he drove in good and bad weather; his beloved Cubs, listened to faithfully on the radio, suddenly could be seen on TV; and World War II was a fight he witnessed from the ground.
He did it all in his own contented way.
“He just had this quiet way about him,” daughter Jeanne Golf said.
Mr. Rave died Nov. 29 of complications from emphysema. He was 91.
Born April 13, 1913, in Chicago, Mr. Rave was one of six children who grew up in apartments in the Englewood community.
He attended Parker High School and went on to a few years of junior college, Golf said.
Mr. Rave met his wife in a tavern he frequented on 87th Street a few blocks west of Sangamon Street, said his brother-in-law and friend of 75 years, Ray Hammerschmidt Sr.
Mr. Rave married in October 1941 and was drafted into the military after the Dec. 7, 1941, attacks on Pearl Harbor.
He entered the Army Air Corps and served in Normandy, the Rhineland and in the Central Europe air offensive.
Mostly, he worked as a flight coordinator, Golf said. He made up and regulated the schedules for the bombers.
Mr. Rave received a number of medals and ribbons for his service, including a silver star and a bronze star, although his daughter said he rarely talked about his war service.
His friend Hammerschmidt, who also was drafted and worked nearly 40 years for the CTA, recalled more carefree days.
“During the Depression, we had a good time there,” Hammerschmidt said. “We just hung around the corners and played cars for matches and toothpicks just to pass the time away.”
Avid sports fans, they also played a lot of baseball together for a neighborhood team around 87th and Morgan streets called the Tigers. They also played for a tougher American Legion team, too.
“He used to do the pitching and I did the catching,” Hammerschmidt said.
After the war, Mr. Rave tried to get a job as a pipefitter, but his daughter said he lacked the necessary clout to break into the union.
The Chicago Transit Authority needed drivers as the city entered a postwar growth spurt, and he needed a job, so he began driving streetcars, better known at the time as Green Hornets for their green and cream color scheme. They were the cars the CTA ran on Chicago’s rails before transitioning completely to buses.
So Mr. Rave modernized with them, taking his passengers here and there until he had logged 32 years.
“We laugh because he said when he was a little boy, he had a crystal radio,” his daughter said. “Then the radio evolved into the TV.”
He also was the family boss, ruling over his two daughters with his quiet way, she said.
“You just knew he meant business,” she said. “I never wanted to disrespect him or make him mad. When my father said ‘no,’ it was ‘no.’ “
His good looks and fine dress were aptly described as dapper when dapper was the thing to be. It wasn’t that he was a fashionista, but he did like to look nice, with his hair cut, clothes neat and his face shaved, Golf said.
Mr. Rave also was mechanically inclined and meticulous, and he was known to be able to fix anything, wielding a soldering iron and tiny screwdrivers.
“Little necklaces, a clock,” his daughter listed. “He had the patience of Job, and I always knew when I brought him stuff it would be fixed.”
His precision translated in other ways, Golf remembered.
“At Christmas time, they used to make leaded tinsel. He would put it on strand by strand,” she said
“Money wasn’t easy in those days — he was a bus driver,” she continued. So after Christmas, he would take the tinsel off a piece at a time to save for the next year.
“It was an amazing Christmas memory,” she said.
Mr. Rave liked making memories for his children and grandchildren. He constructed ice skating rinks in the backyard, packing the snow in just the right way before using the hose to fill it with ice. He set up swimming pools and played badminton and flew kites well into his 60s.
“He had a good sense of humor,” Golf said. “He was quick-witted up until the end.”
Mr. Rave also is survived by his daughter, Joan Juris; two grandchildren; and many other relatives and friends.
Arrangements were by Becvar & Son Funeral Home (708) 824-9000.
