Funeral Details

Martin Joseph Feeney of Chicago passed away peacefully at the age of 85, surrounded by the love of family members. He was one of eight children born to Alice and Charles Feeney. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years Gloria, his eight children Kathy (Danilo) Herrera, Eileen (Barry) McMillan, Dan (Linda) Feeney, Patrick (Julianne) Feeney, Kevin (Angela) Feeney, Maureen Feeney, Mary (Don) Ross, and Brian Feeney, his twelve beloved grandchildren Nick, Josue, Cathie, Marc, Will, Kate, Greta, Amelia, Peighton, Teagan, Noah, and Joseph, his two great grandkids Acacia and Ivan, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and his seven siblings.

Martin was born at Lewis Memorial Maternity Hospital on South Michigan Avenue and spent his childhood in Villa Park, Illinois. He attended St. Procopius Academy and St. Procopius College (now Benet Academy and Illinois Benedictine College) in Lisle. As a college freshman he had his first date with Gloria Kure, a pretty nursing student he took dancing at the Willowbrook Ballroom on Archer Avenue. Apparently Martin’s dancing was good enough to earn a second date. The couple finished college and were married in 1963, settling in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s west side. Martin worked in the Loop as a bookkeeper for Bennet Brothers catalog and merchandising company.

As the family grew they moved to Lombard, and Martin took a position as a production engineer at the Chicago Sun Times. It was in Lombard that Martin and Gloria connected with a community of Franciscan priests, monks, and laity living in and serving the (then) low-income neighborhood between DePaul and Cabrini Green. Martin’s relationship with this Franciscan community, which continued for the duration of his life, changed the focus and depth of his faith.

In 1975 Martin and Gloria moved with their now five children from the west suburbs to a small 18-acre farm outside Albany, Wisconsin. They were joined by a few members of that Franciscan community, including another young and growing family led by Tom and Carol LaPointe. Gloria continued in nursing and Martin worked odd jobs, while growing organic produce and learning how to raise a couple of milk cows, some pigs, and a flock of chickens. More importantly, their home served as a welcoming refuge for down-on-their luck Chicagoans the Franciscan brothers decided needed a couple of weeks (or a few months) away from the streets of the city.

During the following years, as kids 6, 7, and 8 arrived, Martin worked a number of jobs to feed and support the family, including factory labor, security at Wisconsin Badger football games, running his own business delivering LP gas to farmers, and (ultimately) back in engineering drafting the specifications for the heating elements produced at the Ogden Manufacturing plant in Albany.

After Martin and Gloria retired they moved back to Chicago, buying a small condo at Argyle and the lake. They found a new community in the St. Thomas of Canterbury parish on Kenmore and for years spent 20-30 hours a week volunteering at the church’s soup kitchen and food pantry. They also spent several weeks in 2005 on the gulf coast volunteering with the Red Cross to assist those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In their spare time they (mostly Gloria) developed a taste for the great Vietnamese food in their new neighborhood, attended their fair share of “Half-Price Monday” White Sox games – including, on a lark, Mark Buhrle’s July 2009 perfect game – spent time with their Chicago-based kids and grandkids, and enjoyed long road trips each winter that included time with their warm-weather kids and grandkids (and a few times revisiting that gulf-coast town in Mississippi). In a favorite annual event for Martin (and his local grandkids), he and Gloria would rent several large condo units in the Wisconsin Dells where three generations would gather for a long autumn weekend of water slides, home-cooked meals, games, and canoeing on Mirror Lake.

Although raised in the west suburbs, and having raised his own kids predominantly in Wisconsin, Mart was at heart a Chicagoan. He took his first breath and his last breath in the city he loved. For all 85 years he followed the White Sox and Bears religiously, suffering the many downs and enjoying the sporadic ups, even during the 30 years he spent in Packer Country. He was a big fan of the CTA, especially after Governor Blagojevich’s pandering move to allow seniors to ride free.

But most of all, Martin was devoted to his family and to his faith. He will be deeply missed by the former and continues to be well-served by the latter.

The family will be receiving visitors at Midtown Funeral Home at 3918 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago on Friday, April 17 from 3:30 to 8:00 p.m. for a memorial gathering to celebrate Martin’s life. A funeral mass will be held on April 18, 2026, at 11:00 AM at St. Thomas of Canterbury in Uptown, 4827 North Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Martin’s name to the St. Thomas of Canterbury Soup Kitchen/Food Pantry, at www.givecentral.org/customizable-online-giving/1340/event/36780, or to the Pope Leo Village Habitat for Humanity project in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood, at my.habitatchicago.org/PopeLeoVillage/Donate.

Arrangements under the direction of Midtown Funeral Home and Cremation Options. For information: 773.654.3744.