GAGE PARK — If you ever had the pleasure of meeting Isaac Hopgood, you likely never saw him wearing jeans, his daughter said.
A classic gentleman, Hopgood, 68, prided himself on wearing pressed slacks, classy suits and polished shoes, said his daughter Yolanda Horton.
Some of those items were missing from his Marquette Park home when he was found dead March 29 — strangled to death inside him apartment.
Hopgood was strangled to death, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Though no one has been charged with his murder, Hopgood’s family suspects it was a robbery gone bad. A son found Hopgood dead in his home.
“It looked like there was a fight,” Horton said. “He was fighting for his life.”
The father of five, grandfather of 15 and great-grandfather of seven was known for his barbequing skills, especially the whole pig he was fond of cooking, his daughter said.
Hopgood was born in Jackson, Tenn., and was raised in Blytheville, Ark. He ended up in Milwaukee and then followed his new bride to Chicago.
The family lived at the Robert Taylor homes, then moved to Englewood and then Marquette Park. Hopgood spent most of his life working as a roofer, Horton said.
He was good with his hands and was able to fix everything, she said.
“Whatever you needed help with, he could do it,” Horton said. “’I can’t’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.”
