Eleanor Muszynski Root, 93, formerly of Chicago and Olympia Fields, spent her life creating beauty, through piano playing, gardening and sculpting bronze busts of celebrities. Among her subjects was Pope John Paul II, to whom she presented a bust when he visited Chicago two decades ago,the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and his wife, Eleanor, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra. Mrs. Root died Monday, Dec. 29, of congestive heart failure at Heartland Health Care Center in Henry, about 30 miles northeast of Peoria, where she had been living for four years. A Chicago native, Mrs. Root worked as a bookkeeper, as a model for print ads and as amusician, said her daughter, Joan Root Ericksen. In the mid-1960s, after her children were grown, the self-taught painter taught herself how to sculpt bronze busts. All her bronze sculptures were sold, and the money donated to organizations such as the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation, the American Heart Association and the Glenwood School for Boys. Other survivors include a son, Randy; a brother, Eugene Muszynski; and three grandsons. Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Skyline Memorial Park, near Dralle Road and Illinois Highway 50, Monee.
