JOSEPH F. FANTA, 74, FORMER STATE LEGISLATOR (original) (raw)

Joseph F. Fanta, 74, a state legislator in the 1950s and 1960s, was a city inspector for 31 years and active in Chicago politics for more than 50 years.

Mass for Mr. Fanta, a resident of the North Center neighborhood, will be said at 9:30 a.m. Friday in St. Benedict Catholic Church, 2215 W. Irving Park Rd. He died Monday in Martha Washington Hospital.

”Joe was a protege of Aldermen Charlie Weber and Paddy Bauler,” said Ald. Richard Mell (33d), a friend. ”He was a cigar-smoker, dapper, with a pencil-thin mustache. He was also very gregarious and a really decent guy.”

Over the last dozen years, Mr. Fanta helped several thousand immigrants become citizens. On Monday and Thursday nights, he worked as a volunteer giving citizenship assistance and counsel to anyone who came into the ward office.

”He must have helped 4,000 people become citizens,” Mell said. ”It could have cost those individuals up to $1,400 each if they had gone to certain lawyers and they couldn`t have afforded that. He wanted to help.”

Mr. Fanta, a native of Calumet City, graduated from Lane Technical High School and attended Northwestern University and the Siebel Institute of Technology. During the Depression, he worked as a school janitor and then became a Municipal Court bailiff. From 1954 until 1985 he worked as a city inspector with the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

He was a precinct captain under colorful 45th Ward Ald. Charles Weber, who also served as ward committeeman and state legislator. In 1956, Weber selected Mr. Fanta to replace him as a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly.

Mr. Fanta served three terms before being defeated in 1962. He ran again and was elected in 1964.

Among the bills he sponsored and voted for were ones favoring bingo, banning switchblades and opposing the state income tax. He created

considerable consternation in his Northwest Side district in the early 1960s by voting in favor of open occupancy legislation.

Survivors include a son, Frank, and three grandchildren.

Originally Published: May 6, 1988 at 1:00 AM CST