Elaine Sterling, 73, a mother of five whose curiosity about places and cultures took her around the world, died Wednesday, Jan. 31, of congestive heart failure in her Wood Dale home. Mrs. Sterling, a talkative, animated woman, had an infectious laugh and strongly held opinions about saving money and the best places to visit in Spain and Portugal. “She loved to see different cultures and how different people in the world live,” said her daughter Corky Sterling, an executive secretary in Tribune Co. “I think it was more curiosity, wanting to see the world.” Raised on the West Side, the former Elaine Moffett graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1945. While Mrs. Sterling was a clerk at an insurance company downtown after graduation, a friend introduced her to a then-bank auditor on the train on the way to work. In 1948, she married Jack Sterling, the onetime banker who retired in 1989 as a Chicago Fire Department district chief. Together, they raised their five children on the Northwest Side. “She was tough, but very loving,” her daughter said. Mrs. Sterling threw herself into parenting, volunteered as a leader in her daughter’s Brownie troops, and served for six years as president of the Schorsch Village Improvement Association on the Northwest Side in the 1970s. In addition to her husband and daughter, Mrs. Sterling is survived by two sons, Timothy and John; two other daughters, Kathleen Whitkanack and Eileen Kampwirth; two sisters, Dorothea Bartlett and Wynette Khalar; and 11 grandchildren. Visitation for Mrs. Sterling will be held from 2 to 9 p.m. Friday in Geils Funeral Home, 260 W. Irving Park Rd., Wood Dale. A mass will be said at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Alexis Catholic Church, 400 W. Wood Ave., Bensenville.
