Daniel S. Martino, 73, who built his father’s small car lot into one of the most enduring auto-sales businesses in the Chicago area, died of cancer Saturday, Feb. 17, in the Alden Prairie Village nursing home in Orland Park. Mr. Martino was a linebacker of a man in a sport coat and tie, his arm thrown over the shoulders of longtime customers who came calling. “Once he knew you, you were his friend. He had a fantastic memory,” his son Michael said. “We found that through the relationships he made, the loyalty of his customers was unbelievable. We had people come back from Arizona to buy a car from us.” Mr. Martino graduated from Bowen High School on the South Side in 1943 and went on to earn a pre-medical degree from Loyola University in the late 1940s. He remained in the family car business in which he started working as a teen. Mr. Martino’s father and oldest brother founded the original lot at 85th Street and Commercial Avenue in 1929. Mr. Martino took it over with another brother when their father died in 1961 and became the sole owner in 1988. He moved the business to a larger location in Lansing three years ago and continued coming into the dealership every week although he was semi-retired. Mr. Martino married the former Betty Ann Lawler in 1949. The couple had lived in Orland Park since 1972. In addition to his son and wife, Mr. Martino is survived by two other sons, Daniel T. and Larry; two daughters, Janice Bouril and Valerie Herbst; and 11 grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 2 until 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Lawn Funeral Home, 7732 W. 159th St., Orland Park. A funeral mass will be said at 10 a.m. Wednesday in St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church, 7399 W. 159th St., Tinley Park.
