Vice President Pence Attends Family Funeral in Palos Heights

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL -- It was the talk of Joe Daniels Bar and Grill on Friday evening: St. Alexander’s Church crawling with Secret Service, barricades pushed to the side of 127th Street. Vice President Mike Pence, the grandson of a Chicago bus driver whose family has deep ties to the South Side, was coming to Palos Heights to attend a family funeral.

Pence recalled his parents’ roots on the South Side in a speech to the City Club of Chicago in June 2015, telling how his grandfather got off the boat at Ellis Island then took a bus to Chicago, where he lived for the next 40 years. His parents grew up near 55th Street and Honore. Raised in Indiana by his city-bred parents, Christmastime meant packing up and visiting the South Side, Michael Sneed recalled in a Sun-Times column.

Watch Mark Koz's video.

Mark Koz captured the vice president’s motorcade on Facebook speeding down 127th Street. The motorcade was on its way to St. Alexander’s for the Saturday morning funeral Mass of A. Raymond Schwaller. Schwalller, who founded the Schwaller Insurance Agency on Ascension Day 1954, was the brother-in-law of Ann Jane Pence, according to his obituary.

Schwaller showed up at his office every day until well into his eighties, tirelessly serving his clients. The insurance magnate’s obituary posted on Kerry Funeral Home notes that Schwaller was a proud 1945 graduate of Leo High School and a 1949 graduate of DePaul University. Schwaller also served his church and community, including the Knights of Columbus and a 55-year member of the Beverly Ridge Lions Club. He remained committed to Catholic universities, and was a one-time trustee of Mother McAuley High School.

Although the Secret Service tried to keep the vice president's visit a secret, it was the worst-kept secret in town.