Brimming with energy and driven by a long-standing desire to contribute to her community, Frances T. Vestuto helped reshape the DuPage County Historical Society over more than 2 1/2 decades, serving three times as the president of the society’s board.
Mrs. Vestuto became known for organizing the society’s annual bus tours. She also was appreciated for handling a variety of administrative tasks and maintaining ties with other historical organizations around the county.
“I really thought she was the mortar of the society, both in terms of being the connecting link between the historical society and other organizations, and also because she was a real anchor,” said Wheaton author Glennette Tilley Turner, a board member of the society. “She was a very detail-oriented person, and she always had her antenna up for things that would be of interest or related to the field of local history.”
A resident of Wheaton since 1969, Mrs. Vestuto, 79, died Thursday, May 13, at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer.
Born in Chicago, Mrs. Vestuto graduated in 1948 from Hirsch High School on the city’s South Side. While working in the claims department of Carson Pirie Scott in Chicago, Mrs. Vestuto met a co-worker, Michael Vestuto. The couple married in 1950.
In 1969, the Vestutos moved from the city’s Austin neighborhood to Wheaton to buy the White Hen Pantry convenience store on Liberty Drive in downtown Wheaton. They sold the business in 1977, and Mrs. Vestuto returned to school, getting a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northern Illinois University in 1981.
In 1983, Mrs. Vestuto joined the board of the historical society, serving as its president three separate times. About a month ago, Mrs. Vestuto ended her most recent run as president, becoming the board’s treasurer.
“Fran was just the heart and soul of the society,” said Margaret Pruter, co-president of the society’s board. “She had one of those take-charge types of personalities, and she was willing to do any kind of work that needed to be done. She was filled with all kinds of ideas and loved history and knew almost everybody in Wheaton.”
Mrs. Vestuto began organizing annual bus tours for the society in the early 1990s, Pruter said. Each year, participants would visit historic sites in Chicago, on the North Shore or along the old Route 66.
“She was always very involved in the negotiations for what historical sites we would visit each year, and she was the person on the bus who would take the microphone and tell the people on the bus what we were going to do,” Pruter said.
Mrs. Vestuto also served on the Wheaton Housing Commission from 1982 to 2007, including a term as chair of the agency, which provides monthly financial aid to low-income seniors in Wheaton.
“She did a heck of a lot of good for the community when she was on the housing commission, including helping to get people into senior housing for cheaper rent,” her husband said. “She also would drive impoverished people to the People’s Resource Center in Wheaton, where they could get food and clothing.”
Mrs. Vestuto also was a longtime election judge and a Meals on Wheels deliverer.
“She was just a one-of-a-kind person,” Pruter said.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Vestuto is survived by two daughters, Laura Brady and Suzanne; two sons, Michael and Paul; six grandchildren; and one great-grandson.
Services have been held.
