Carolyn Deanne Collins

It saddens me to announce the death of Carolyn Collins. Carolyn was 85 years old and she lived a truly fantastic and wonderful life full of travel and adventure. Carolyn died from complications surrounding Congestive Heart Failure, she passed away peacefully of natural causes on August 6, 2023 in Crystal Lake, IL where she resided for 60+ years.

Carolyn was born in Rockford, Illinois on September 2, 1937. After graduating High School, she went on to attend University of Chicago, and was able to study abroad in Italy for some time in the 1950’s. She was fortunate to return to Italy many years later in 2016 and spent much time there vacationing and visiting old friends and family.

She is survived by her children, Son Aaron, 61 of Arlington Heights, IL and Daughter Rachel, 59 of Union Pier, MI. She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Lucille Martinetti of Crystal Lake, IL. Carolyn was an only child, she had no other siblings. She had a large extended family of relatives, cousins, uncles and aunts that mostly were from the Rockford and Central Illinois regions of the state.

Carolyn was married to Donald K. Collins of Sioux City, IA in 1961, divorced in 1972. Her two children, Aaron and Rachel came from that marriage. She was then married to Robert J. Dubi of Lake City, FL in 1973, divorced in 1975. Carolyn then remained single and happy for the rest of her life.

Carolyn’s parents were Frank and Lucille Martinetti. Frank and Lucille grew up in Central Illinois, in the tiny town of Mark. Frank worked in the local Coal Mines and Steel Foundries in the area there. Eventually, they moved from that area to live along with other relatives in Rockford, IL, where they established a local small Grocery store there. In 1947 they moved to Crystal Lake, IL, into a former restaurant there called “Fritzel’s Fiesta”. They bought and renamed the restaurant to “Martinetti’s Fiesta Room”, with the motto “Good Food Served Right” and it featured a 25-room Hotel. The “Fiesta Room” unfortunately burned down in 1955, so Frank and Lucille went to Las Vegas and ran a local Grocery store similar to the old one in Rockford. After a year, they decided to return to the Crystal Lake area in Illinois. They built the “Martinetti’s Restaurant and Motel” in 1956, and they had decided to make it a large, luxurious restaurant and motel for travellers. The restaurant was indeed large, with 3 dining rooms each seating 100. It had a unique horseshoe shaped bar, with a Pipe Organ that was built by Carolyn’s first husband, Donald K. Collins. They had an indoor waterfall, and goldfish and Live Lobster tanks. The restaurant was extremely popular, and became very famous for its Pipe Organ, which people came to see from many states away. Several high profile musicians and organists such as Al Morgan of WGN were hired to play for customers each evening. The bar was arranged so that patrons could watch the organist play from nearly any point in the room.

Frank and Lucille eventually added more Motel room units, until they had about 60 guest rooms as well as the large restaurant, pipe organ cocktail bar, and finally a newly-added 24 Hour Coffee Shop in 1966. Frank and Lucille also were also locally credited as being the first in the area to have a Salad Bar, and their famous “All You Can Eat Friday Fish Fry”, for which they used to charge the tiny sum of $3.50 back in the 1960-1970’s. This became so very popular it was not uncommon for them to go through more than 1 ton of Perch Fillets and French Fries in a given Friday evening. Frank and Lucille decided to sell the restaurant and retire in 1976. Several others tried to keep the place running for the next few years, but and eventually it closed and was replaced by a car dealership in 1996. Carolyn learned the food service and restaurant industries inside and out while working at the restaurant, from the people running one of the most successful businesses in the area, her parents.

Carolyn had an extensive and long working career as well as being a full-time mother to 2 children and housewife to a husband and family. In the 1960’s she was the band manager for the Marie Smith Trio, a very popular local nightclub entertainment and popular music act that used to play local venues such as the now defunct Pheasant Run, Milk Pail and Chateau Louise resorts in Illinois. That career led her to meet Agnes Belushi, mother of John Belushi, who turned out to be a big fan of the Marie Smith Trio! Agnes and Carolyn remained close friends until Agnes’ death in 1989.

In 1974, Carolyn spent her time helping with publishing and editing a popular local Chicago area travelogue, a local North Suburban business directory magazine called “Outside The Loop” magazine. The magazine was run by Nancy Erickson, and was based in Barrington, IL. Carolyn and Nancy remained friends until her death in 2013.

Later in the 1970’s, Carolyn was regularly invited by several friends to come along on their Lake Michigan Coho and Brown Trout fishing trips. These are the nearest thing to a deep-sea fishing expedition one can experience in the Great Lakes region.

During one of the trips, she noticed the boat captains would clean the day’s catch on the docks after they returned with their customers, and they would throw away the precious Roe (eggs) along with the other offal. She was thunderstruck – this was an incredible waste of what is considered a premium food delicacy in many cultures! Carolyn did some research, and a lot of experimentation in her very own kitchen in Crystal Lake, and eventually in the 1980’s she started the “Carolyn Collins Caviar Company” based on a new and unique product - American Fresh-Water Caviar. She envisioned very low salt content and many interesting and exotic flavors, such as Absolut Pepar Vodka and Passion Fruit Liquor flavor infused Caviars as well as many others. She made deals with many of the charter fishing boat captains for them to save and freeze the Roe when they cleaned their catch which they in turn sold to Carolyn as her business grew. Carolyn soon taught Rachel, her daughter, the details of managing and running the business and producing the Caviar. Eventually she took over running the company for many years after. Carolyn’s long time in the food service industry led her to all sorts of interesting speaking and cooking events, and eventually to meet and become friends with many interesting and famous people in the industry. She met and became close personal friends with Julia Child until her death in 2004, as well as many other leading chefs and restaurateurs in the industry.

Carolyn had several hobbies, notably maintaining her large garden at her home in Crystal Lake with skills taught to her by her Father, Frank Martinetti. Frank was a tireless businessman and restaurateur, but he and his wife, her Mother Lucille, took the time to raise her very well. She had all the best in care and education, and she wanted for very little growing up. Since she and her parents had lived in the shadow of the national Great Depression in the 1930’s, they very much appreciated all they had achieved and worked for throughout their lives – they were determined that Carolyn would have all that they did not.

Frank, her father, was an avid gardener and taught his gardening skills to Carolyn. Carolyn had a large home garden featuring Peony, Rose, Iris and Chrysanthemum flowers, among others such as Concord Grapes and Chinese Cherries. She used to make her own homemade Grape Jelly from them, as well as some of her own recipe infused Cordial liquors with Damson Plums and other natural fruit flavorings.

Another hobby Carolyn enjoyed was aviation. She earned her private pilot’s license back in the 1970’s, and received commercial and multi-engine ratings. That hobby included flying small craft for pleasure and sight-seeing, she loved to attend local air shows with her first husband, Donald K. Collins. Carolyn and Donald owned their own private aircraft, a Beechcraft D-18 (Twin Beech), which seated 7. They took many family vacations in that airplane and the family enjoyed travelling back in the 1960-1970’s. That hobby led her to meet many long-time friends, several of which she then had for life.

Carolyn’s other interest in life was music. She was a band manger as mentioned earlier, plus she had the skills to play several musical instruments, notably keyboards such as the piano and organ, and several wind instruments such as the recorder. Her first husband, Donald K. Collins, who originally came from the Pipe Organ industry, designed and built her a 2 rank Pipe Organ which she had installed at her home in Crystal Lake, as well as a beautiful Grand Piano. In the 1960-1970’s, Carolyn was a member of a group of like-minded people in the Crystal Lake area who were very interested in playing vintage instruments from the Elizabethan period such as recorders, crumhorns, and sackbuts. Later in the 2000’s, Carolyn produced two CDs of popular Pipe Organ music featuring the famous organist Johnny Seng with some technical assistance from her son Aaron. Johnny and Carolyn had been close friends since the early 1960’s until his passing and Aaron used to repair his electronic organs, computers and various other electronic instruments around his home and studio.

Carolyn has generously donated her body to Anatomical Science, so there are no planned Funeral or Wake services. Her surviving children hope to organize a Life Celebration for Carolyn in the near future. Please register at the Dignity Memorial website at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/11398245 for future announcements and further information. In lieu of flowers, please donate to one of her favorite charities, such as The National Wildlife Federation at https://support.nwf.org or Save The Whales at https://savethewhales.org. Or, if you prefer, please plant a tree or donate to a charity of your own choosing.