Services Held For Mille Cronin, Mother Of REO Speedwagon Frontman

OAK LAWN, IL — Longtime Oak Lawn resident Mille Cronin, mother of REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin, passed away Aug. 23 of Lewy body dementia. She was 93. Visitation and a funeral mass are set for Saturday (Aug. 31), at St. Linus Catholic Church in Oak Lawn.

Cronin was born Mildred Stanek on Aug. 10, 1926, where she grew up on Chicago’s South Side. She and her husband, Ted, who preceded her in death this past January, lived in the same home they purchased in 1957 on 53rd Avenue in Oak Lawn. The block where they lived and raised their four children would later be named “Honorary Ted and Mille Cronin Way.”

“Mille Cronin made the world a better place for having been here, and all of us better people for having known her,” Cronin’s obituary stated. “Any room she entered became a better place as a result of her presence.”

Music ran through the Cronin genes. According to Mille’s rocker son, his mother’s father could pick up any instrument and play it. Ted Cronin had a beautiful singing voice. Mille produced an annual revue -- “Way Off Broadway” -- to raise money for St. Linus School. She brought down the house every year with her rendition of “Ring Them Bells.”

“She was always playing records in the house, the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, and it kind of rubbed off on me,” Kevin Cronin told the Sun-Times.

In addition to her son, Kevin Jr., Mille leaves two daughters, Maura, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and a brother, Tom (late Dee) Stanek; and a dear aunt, sister-in-law, and friend to many. She was preceded in death by her son Sean.

Visitation is set for 10 a.m. followed by a noon mass at St. Linus Catholic Church, 10300 S. Lawler Ave., Oak Lawn. Entombment will be at Holy Sephulchre Cemetery in Alsip. Arrangements are entrusted to Curley Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Mille’s name be made to Cathoic Charities of Chicago or the Lewy Body Dementia Association.

Mille and Ted Cronin in a 1978 performance of "Way Off Broadway" at St. Linus (at 10:30).