Maryann Blake, 77, a beautician who also managed two west suburban apartment buildings while raising her family, died Sunday, March 17, of liver cancer in St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. She was born and raised in Summit, the youngest of four children. After graduating from Argo High School, she attended beautician and cosmetology school, receiving her license. Mrs. Blake operated a business she shared with her sister in Lemont. She married in 1949 and went to work managing the beauty salon at the Fair Store for six years, her daughter said. After the birth of her first daughter, she stayed home but opened a salon in her Glen Ellyn basement, where she did hair for 12 regular customers on a weekly basis. Mrs. Blake also managed and took care of two seven-unit apartment buildings the family owned in Lombard and North Riverside while her late husband concentrated on his West Chicago tool and die business “She also helped him out with the books. It was incredible the amount of work she did for her family,” said her daughter, Dee Dee Regalado. Mrs. Blake is also survived by another daughter, Deborah Krueger; a brother, John Poljack; and four grandchildren. A funeral mass will be held at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in St. James the Apostle Catholic Church, Glen Ellyn.
