Longtime Markham resident served city, its kids

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Gaunty

Updated: March 1, 2012 8:21AM

In 1955, back home from Korea after serving in the U.S. Army, William Gaunty Jr. got a call from the Chicago Cubs.

A first basemen in high school, he also played ball in the Army — the only black man on his team — where a Cubs scout got a glimpse and apparently liked what he saw. After a tryout with the team, he was offered a minor league contract, but the newly married Mr. Gaunty turned it down.

“He was just starting out with a family and needed money, so he gave up his dream to play ball,” one of his sons, Kenneth, said.

Mr. Gaunty, a Markham resident, died Jan. 17 at age 80 after a lengthy illness, his son said.

Mr. Gaunty founded the city’s 911 commission — Markham’s 911 command center is named for him — served a term as an alderman and was a longtime member of the library board, most recently serving as its vice president, Kenneth Gaunty said. One of Mr. Gaunty’s seven grandchildren, Xavier Menzies, is library director.

Born in August 1931 in Greenville, Miss., Mr. Gaunty and his family later moved to Memphis, where he attended high school and played baseball and football, his son said. He married his high school sweetheart and they moved to Chicago in the fall of 1955, shortly after his tryout with the Cubs.

Kenneth Gaunty said his father took a job with The Belt Railway, working as a switchman. He retired in 1993.

While living in the Englewood community of Chicago, Mr. Gaunty moved his family — which at that time included three sons and a daughter — to Markham in 1965.

He was a longtime youth baseball coach and manager, often reaching into his wallet to buy much-needed equipment for the boys, his son said, adding that to many young men he was simply “The Coach.”

“He was fantastic father, a fantastic grandfather,” Kenneth Gaunty said.

Mr. Gaunty’s wife, Lula, died in 2005. The couple were married 50 years.

Besides his son, Mr. Gaunty is survived by sons Steven and Patrick and a daughter, Deborah Jones. Funeral services were Saturday.