Dagmar E. Norgan, nee Widlund, a breast cancer survivor who remained optimistic and active past her 90th birthday, was born in Chicago on September 30, 1915. She died on Christmas Eve at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview of kidney failure. A 15-year resident of Covenant Village in Northbrook, Dagmar attended Budlong Elementary and Roosevelt High Schools. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Stockholm, Sweden before World War I. Dagmar and her cousin, Sonja, who lived in Stockholm, visited one another, the Christmas season a favorite time. During the Depression in the 1930’s, Dagmar worked as a private secretary for a LaSalle Street insurance firm in the Loop. Dagmar met her husband, George Norgan, on a blind date, and they married in 1939 with a reception at the old Edgewater Beach Hotel. George Norgan and his father, George Sr., owned Norgan Pontiac on Irving Park Road until the late 1950’s. When businessman and friend, Ray Kroc, began to look for investors in a new venture called McDonald’s, George and Dagmar decided to take a chance in the business. In 1958, just three years after Kroc started his quick-service restaurant business, the Norgans opened their first McDonald’s restaurants in Glenview and Libertyville – McDonald’s #101 and #119. Today, they number over 30,000 worldwide. Although her husband of 36 years died in 1975, Dagmar and her son Ken, have owned and operated 13 McDonald’s since 1958, including the currently owned Deerfield, Lincolnshire, Vernon Hills and Hawthorn Mall locations. While raising sons Ken and Bruce in the 1940’s and 1950’s in Lincolnwood, Dagmar was a member and officer of the Lincolnwood School Board of Education for 10 years. During that period of rapid growth, she became involved in the evolution of the 9-room country schoolhouse into a large three-school campus. She also brought the Lincoln tradition into the naming of the three schools – Lincoln Hall, Todd Hall and Rutledge Hall. She was president of the Lincolnwood School Parent-Teacher Association and was a long-time choir member and church secretary of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lincolnwood. Dagmar enjoyed time with her family, especially with granddaughter, Sarah. She also spent many hours in the crafts area at Covenant Village where the residents’ works are donated to the November Holly Fair which raises funds for the Northbrook Police and Fire Departments and the Northbrook Library. Her friends at Covenant Village and at the Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Northfield were very important to her and she was a member of several bridge and circle groups. Other interests included traveling, golf, fishing and boating at Loon Lake, IL where the Norgans spent summers. Survivors include sons, Ken of Chicago and William Bruce of Spokane, WA and granddaughter Sarah Jane. Visitation at N.H. Scott and Hanekamp Funeral Home, 1240 Waukegan Road, Glenview, from 3 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, December 28. Private burial to Memorial Park Cemetery from the funeral home on Thursday, December 29, 10:30 a.m. Info: 847-998-1020. Memorials to Ronald McDonald House Charities appreciated.
