John J. Darcy, 77, a Dubliner who joined the British Royal Army at 16 to fight in World War II and later immigrated to Chicago, died Saturday, May 18, of cancer in his North Side home. Mr. Darcy was the only son in a family of five daughters. A day before he turned 19, the Royal Army transferred him toan elite paratrooper battalion. While fighting in North Africa in July 1943, he was captured by the German Army and spent two years in a prisoner of war camp in Italy until the country was liberated by Allied forces. After the war, Mr. Darcy moved to London and Toronto before settling permanently on Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s. He first worked in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, loading beef onto trucks. In the mid-1950s, Mr. Darcy met and married Anza Frances, to whom he was married for more than 40 years. Not long after he met his wife, Mr. Darcy joined the Teamsters and worked as a mover with several firms including Joyce Brothers Storage and Van Co. He worked into his 70s. Mr. Darcy was a regular at Memories Tavern on North Clark Street. He said a fancy funeral wouldn’t do for him and instead asked that some night when the bar is full, his sons buy a round on him. Mr. Darcy is survived by three sons, John, William and Charles; four grandsons; and three great-grandchildren. Services are private.
