Constance C. Young, 80, of Whittier, Calif., and formerly of Chicago, died Sunday, Oct. 1, in a Santa Fe Springs, Calif., hospital of complications from emphysema. Mrs. Young was a retired railroad and airline worker who devoted years researching President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. She was a longtime member of the Surratt Society, whose members specialize in the Lincoln assassination. During her research, she discovered a codicil of Lafayette Baker, who was a Civil War colonel and head of the national detective police, said her son, William Baldree. She also wrote a paper on John Conness, a Civil War-era California senator, which is on file in a library in Conness’ native Abbey, County Galway, Ireland. Mrs. Young was raised on Chicago’s Near West Side. She worked in the reservations departments of the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads in the 1940s and early 1950s. In the late 1950s, she took a similar position with American Airlines, from which she retired in 1980. Mrs. Young is also survived by her husband, Charles; two sisters, Harriet Brewster and Bernadine McClanahan; and four grandchildren. Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Lawrence Funeral Home, 4800 N. Austin Ave., Chicago. Services will start at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the funeral home with mass to be said at 10 a.m. at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church, 4646 N. Austin Ave., Chicago.
