CHICAGO — For most of their lives, 12-year-old best friends Alec Jankowski and Rudy Altenbach have strolled by a memorial to U.S. Marine Pfc. Gregory Kasper, who died in the Vietnam War, in their Edison Park neighborhood.
For nearly 50 years, Gail Kasper has kept her brother's memory alive by maintaining his memorial.
But Alec and Rudy — both seventh-graders at Ebinger Elementary — had never met Gail Kasper until June, when the two boys knocked on Kasper's door with a request. They wanted her to sign a petition that would allow the 7500 block of North Oketo Avenue to receive an honorary name change in Gregory Kasper's honor.
"I told them, 'Do you know who I am? I'm his sister,'" Gail Kasper said.
The boys, who are such good friends that their parents cut a hole in the fence between their homes so they wouldn't have to climb over it to see each other, got 75 signatures, enough for a petition to be submitted to the City Council.
In August, the petition was approved, and at 10 a.m. Saturday, an official ceremony will take place at Oketo and Birchwood avenues to rename the street. Representatives from Gregory Kasper's grade school — St. Juliana — and high school — Notre Dame College Prep — will attend, Gail Kasper said.
"He honored our country, so now we are honoring him,” Rudy said.
Added Alec: “I wish I could have met him.”
The ceremony comes nearly 49 years to the day Kasper died. The 20-year-old was killed by mortar fire in Vietnam on Sept. 25, 1967. Gail Kasper said her brother was leaving a foxhole to retrieve ammunition at the time of his death. She said her brother, who joined the Marines after graduating from high school, planned to marry his high school sweetheart and join the Fire Department, where her father, Melvin, worked.
The memorial always has been a part of the boys' walk to school or baseball practice, but they never knew the significance of it. Alec's father, Paul, was planning a summer trip to Washington, D.C., that included a visit to the Vietnam Memorial, and he thought learning more about the Kasper memorial would be a good project for his son. Alec enlisted Rudy's help, and after some research, the teens wanted to do something more by renaming the street in Kasper's honor.
"I wanted my son to understand that this man [Kasper] — he was just like my son, from the same neighborhood — and he gave his life for our country," Paul Jankowski said. "With all the stuff going on and people burning flags, I thought it was nice that they could do something patriotic."
Jankowski and the teens didn't know Gail Kasper lived a few houses down until she opened the door as they stood on the porch holding a list of signatures.
Kasper, who takes her American water spaniel, Lovie, past the memorial every day, said she always says a prayer when she passes her brother's monument. She said she "also makes sure the area is well-kept and clean."
"That war destroyed a lot of families, and it's something you never get over," she said. "But what those boys are doing, it's really meaningful to me and our neighborhood."
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