EDGEWATER — If you’re walking in the 6300 block of North Lakewood Avenue, you’ll have to look quickly to spot D'Elia Playlot Park snuggled between hearty residential two-flats and large trees.
The little-known park hides an even lesser-known past: It was named for Aileen D'Elia, a longtime Edgewater resident and volunteer who was abducted and murdered in 1992.
Now, as the park undergoes a $125,000 upgrade that is scheduled to be finished this spring, her family is hoping to shine a light on D'Elia's life as well as her tragic death.
"It's kind of a shocking story,” said Aileen Heidkamp, D'Elia's granddaughter. “And it is horrible.”
D'Elia, 79, was abducted in an alley outside her home as she unloaded groceries. The perpetrator, Oasby Gilliam, of 6341 N. Magnolia Ave., was fleeing after attacking an employee at a nearby liquor store when he encountered D’Elia near her car.
D’Elia’s body was later discovered in a Mt. Vernon soybean field, roughly 278 miles from her home. Gilliam was later convicted of her murder and sentenced to death, although his sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
In 1993, the park was renamed for D'Elia, who had worked as a nurse at Edgewater Hospital before retiring and dedicating herself to volunteer work and involvement in her church and community.
“She was a person who walked the neighborhood, she had a dog, she enjoyed these blocks,” Heidkamp said.
It was during her time as a volunteer at her local parish school that D’Elia befriended a young man, struggling to read, said her youngest granddaughter, Patricia Godfrey.
Through this interaction, Godfrey said, “The boy's reading improved immensely. They really formed a nice bond and when they would see each other in the neighborhood, even years later, they would stop and chat.”
Another granddaughter, Tracey Heidkamp Joya, said her grandmother was a vivacious and loving woman, still sharp and vibrant even in her golden years.
“She’d probably still be alive, she would run circles around people,” Joya said with a laugh, noting her 101st birthday would have been last week.
Over the years, the family has participated in keeping the park updated in other ways, like organizing neighborhood cleanups. But the park had been in distress for several years, Heidkamp said. Over time, new woodchips were occasionally laid, but that effort became moot as more residents began to use the gated lot as a dog park.
Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) and his assistant, Ginger Williams, had also noticed the park was in need of repair. Both grew up in the neighborhood and remember the story of D'Elia's death.
“We would have helped renovate the park in any circumstance,” Williams said. “But the fact that I was around the neighborhood when Mrs. D’Elia was killed, I remember going over to that block before they knew what happened to her to say prayers every evening for her safe return. So there’s a lot of personal connections, which makes it especially gratifying for me.”
Osterman also "cares about all of the communal spaces, but this one I think he was happy do it because they kind of remember the trauma of that story, so if there can be any sort of redemption in that, it’s really great,” Heidkamp said.
In 2012 Heidkamp, along with neighbor Cara Falk and other community members, formed a Park Advisory Council with the support from Osterman’s office. Shortly thereafter, much to Heidkamp and the council’s surprise, Osterman called the family to let them know he’d secured the funds to include D’Elia Playlot in the park district’s ongoing remodeling project, Chicago Plays!
Come this spring, the park will get a brand-new swing set, two slide towers with jungle gyms with interactive musical toys on the outer walls. The park will target kids between the ages of 4-8, per the wishes of the family. The park will also include a climbable pirate ship and soft rubber surface.
Heidkamp hopes new generations of D’Elia’s family, as well as Edgewater residents, can glean something positive from a horrific story once the playlot is finished.
“My grandmother’s great-great-granddaughter will be of the age this spring to play at the park,” Heidkamp said. “And I think that there’s some sort of like, redeeming reward in that.”
D’Elia would have loved the park, she said.
“My family still lives in the neighborhood, and I think the park being a place that can be enjoyed by people and have that feeling of neighbors knowing one another, coming together and using common space,” Heidkamp said. “That’s a great tribute to her. I think she would be happy with that.”
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