WILENSKY-WILLENS, Samuel (Chicago IL)

 

"Sam Wilensky"

 IDENTIFICATION ON PHOTO: Sam Wilensky

PHOTO TAKEN: illegible studio signature, dated 1942

PHOTO ACQUIRED: 2023 March, Palm Beach County Fairgrounds Antiques Fair

 

This is Samuel Donald WILENSKY, who around the time of his service in WWII, changed his surname to WILLENS.

 He is a son of Solomon Wilensky (1893-1973) and Bessie Lieberman (1895-1987) of Chicago Illinois.

 

1930 Census > Illinois > Cook > Chicago

• WILENSKY, Sol, head, 35, born in Lithuania, immigrated 1910, presser at Tailor shop
• WILENSKY, Bessie, wife, 34, born in Russia, imm. 1915
• WILENSKY, Sam, son, 12, born in Illinois, at school
• WILENSKY, Herman, son, 6, born in Illinois, at school
• WILENSKY, Nathan, son, 1y 6mo, born in Illinois

 

Sam attended Harrison Technical High School where he played in the band and orchestra (clarinet and saxophone). This class photo of him taken in 1935 (and located on someone’s Ancestry tree) shows this is clearly the correct individual. (I do not possess that photo, and only include it here for sake of comparison.)

 

After High School, he received his medical degree from University of Illinois (1941).

 

Sam married Vila Weaver, a nurse he met while doing his residency at Cook County Hospital. They had two sons and two daughters.

Sam died in September of 1990 and this obituary pay tribute to a man who was not only an excellent doctor, but also a kind and caring human being.