John Ellis

John P. Ellis, devoted son to Peter and Sophia, loving brother to Chris and Nicholas, beloved uncle to Peter, Nick, Ted, John, Maggie, and Annie, and committed partner of over 50 years to Kathy Flynn, passed away on Saturday, March 30, at 87 years old.

You needed only meet John once to remember him forever. Whether it was his piano playing, his love of outrageous outfits, his stories and jokes, his collector cars, his wild imagination, or any combination of the above, John unfailingly made an indelible impression on those he met. John possessed a brilliant and chaotic mind: graduating at the top of his class in law school, possessing the ability to remember names and phone numbers from seventy years ago, and managing to balance a successful career in retail with the endless pursuit of increasingly insane ways to propel the human body at accelerated speeds. Hovercraft research played a much larger role in John's life than would normally be expected of an adult man.

John's love of history and politics was outpaced only by his love of vitamins and organic beets. His shelves overflowed with books, his refrigerators were filled to bursting with cottage cheese, and his conversations were saturated with tips on how to live a long life during the never-ending battle against communism. No man saw John's face and lived without hearing about the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga.

John lived by his own rules, loved his family dearly, and brought amusement and joy to those around him. Today the world is a bit dimmer, a bit quieter, and vastly less interesting without him in it. We can only imagine that our beloved John is writing a musical with Walt Disney, playing dueling piano with Victor Borge, designing the perfect car with Henry Ford, and regaling Marilyn Monroe with funny stories in the afterlife.

A visitation will take place on Sunday, April 7th, 2024 from 2 - 6 P.M. at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home, 4727 West 103rd Street, Oak Lawn, Illinois. A funeral service will be held on Monday, April 8th, 2024 at 10 A.M. at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 10301 Kolmar Avenue, Oak Lawn, Illinois. Interment at Evergreen Cemetery in Evergreen Park, Illinois.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.BlakeLambOakLawn.com for the Ellis family.