Thaddeus Lenard, a lifelong Northwest Side resident who ran Lenard’s Little Poland with his family, died of leukemia Monday in Grant Hospital. He was 82. Mr. Lenard’s father founded the restaurant-bakery business in 1915, and all six of his children were involved in running it. “It was a part of Polonia, a gathering spot for Poles living in Chicago,” Mr. Lenard’s daughter, Barbara Rapacz, said of the Milwaukee Avenue establishment. Another family-operated business, Lenard’s Casino, began in 1941 in Beverly Shores, Ind. After both were sold in the late 1960s, Mr. Lenard worked for the City of Chicago as a stationary engineer. He was educated at a Jesuit university in Poland and later at DePaul University in Chicago. During World War II, he was part of the U.S. Army Intelligence unit in Europe and North Africa. Mr. Lenard is also survived by three other daughters, Michaelene Jaskiewicz, Christine Cassidy and Carol Gregory; two sons, Gregory and Matthew; two brothers, Casimir and Edmund; and 12 grandchildren. Services were held Thursday in Chicago.
