The children of Irene Ervin consider themselves blessed, not only because she was their mother, but also because she was the first to see past their wheelchairs and discount any notion that their muscular dystrophy needed to be a personal barrier. “She believed we should have a life just like other kids and put it in our heads that there was no reason for that not to be true,” said her son, Michael, a Chicago disability activist. “It just made sense to her that children are to have fun, find what they are good at and flourish. Why should her children be any different?” Mrs. Ervin, 77, of Chicago, former secretary with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board’s central region office, died of leukemia Wednesday, Jan. 14, in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “This was the 1960s and the world was a vastly different place for someone with disabilities,” said her son. “There was very little access and no curb cuts.” Nevertheless, Mrs. Ervin, who became separated from her husband, James, in 1966, loaded up her children and their wheelchairs into her station wagon and later a van, and she took them everywhere in the city. She found alternative entrances to stores and turned to others to help her hoist their chairs up the steps of museums and other attractions. She worked as a waitress until getting her GED and began working as a secretary in 1970 for the Defense Contract Audit Agency. When the agency moved to Texas in the mid-1980s, she took a job with the board. “She was a terrific employee who showed such dignity and patience and had a wonderful influence on the rest of staff with her cheerful demeanor,” said Martin Baumgaertner, the regional office’s director. She retired in 2000. Her oldest son, Steven, who also had muscular dystrophy, died in 1954. Other survivors include a daughter, Cris Matthews; and sister, Geraldine Ziak. A mass will be said at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Joseph’s Church, 7240 W. 57th St., Summit.
