Grace Mueller, 88, of West Chicago, who helped build airplanes during World War II, died Saturday in Delnor Community Hospital, Geneva. Mrs. Mueller was a welder and then an inspector for Howard Aircraft in the western suburbs. Her certified inspector’s badge is still displayed by family members, Mrs. Mueller’s son, Daniel, said. A native of Lombard and a lifelong resident of the West Chicago/Winfield area, Mrs. Mueller worked at a Florida hotel in the 1920s and, in later years, helped cook and run her husband’s Wheaton restaurant, the Paddock Club, on Gary and North Avenues. For 10 years, she was a teller for West Chicago State Bank. Other survivors include four sons, Clement, Kenneth R., William and Thomas; a sister; 12 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. Services will begin with a service at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Williams-Woodward Funeral Home, Illinois Highway 59 and Pine Street, West Chicago, and continue with a 10:30 a.m. mass at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Sunnyside and Church Streets, Winfield.
