Tears were shed and smiles were shared on a Hyde Park corner earlier this week as dozens of family and friends celebrated the legacy of the late Yolanda Travis Mack, a one-time franchisee of four McDonald’s South Side locations.
All were on hand to witness the unveiling of an honorary street sign, renaming South Lake Park Avenue, between East 52nd and East 53rd Street, Yolanda Travis Mack Way. Hugs and pictures were plentiful as Travis Mack’s colleagues — Black owners and operators of McDonald’s — remembered how impactful her presence was on the communities where she served.
For Shannon Travis-Hawk, the moment was a huge one. She received flowers and her own honorary sign bearing her mom’s name, as did Travis Mack’s husband, Darryl Mack.
Travis-Hawk, a mother of three and, like her mother, an entrepreneur, couldn’t ask for a better mom, she said. For years, she worked as a supervisor alongside her mom at her locations. Her water broke at a McDonald’s, Travis-Hawk said. “McDonald’s runs through our blood,” she said. “Driving past here, her grandkids know that’s my Nonni’s store. They call her Nonni, not Grandma. I loved my mom. She was giving, she was kind. She was the best.”
Travis Mack passed in 2023. Her daughter said she owned four South Side McDonald’s restaurants at the height of her involvement with the brand — including the historic eatery near 65th Street and Stony Island Avenue.
The restaurant was originally franchised to McDonald’s first-ever African American owner/operator, Herman Petty, in 1968. Travis Mack became the owner/operator of the location in 2007, remodeling the space to feature photos of Petty and other Black McDonald’s franchisees. Travis Mack attended the unveiling of Herman Petty Way in 2022 when a section of Marquette Road between Stony Island Avenue and Dorchester Avenue was renamed for the Black McDonald’s Operators Association founder.
Travis Mack was about community and service, which is why the street sign dedication is so befitting, according to Tonnette “Toni” Williams, an owner/operator of five McDonald’s locations around the city. “Yolanda was a trailblazer, a woman of substance. I’m so blessed that she was my friend.”
As a businesswoman, Travis Mack poured herself into the communities in which she did business. She led a vaccination drive at the 47th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue location to get people vaccinated during the pandemic, Williams said. She mentored Williams and neighborhood youth. And Travis Mack was a second mom to many youth — supplying them with their first jobs at McDonald’s, according to Whitney Pryor, a neighbor of the Travis family.
“She was a guider, protective, made sure everything was decent and in order,” Pryor said. “I’m thankful to have known her and Shannon, and that her legacy remains.”
Darryl Mack recalls his wife holding fashion shows, jazz on the patios, and circus performers at her Hyde Park restaurant — all efforts to enrich the residents of her community. Mack used words like “outstanding” and “omnipotence” when referring to his wife, who has been gone for 38 months and five days. “She never saw any limits,” he said.
While Travis Mack took time to find joy in the little things, giving to her neighbors and being of service was her life’s work, according to Williams. “That’s impact,” she said. “As McDonald’s owner/operators, it’s what we do every day, but her vision, her drive, her determination was amazing.”
Travis Mack took care of first responders and veterans and was an organ donor, according to Derrick Taylor, president of the Black McDonald’s Operators Association of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. “She gave freely, and thought about other people than herself,” he said. “She was the real deal.”
Ald. Lamont Robinson, 4th, suggested the idea of an honorary street naming to the BMOA. Having met Travis Mack in 2008, she was a friend and mentor who understood money had to recirculate in their communities to make them better, he said.
Robinson plans to honor Travis Mack with a Trailblazer Award in February to ensure her legacy never fades in the 4th Ward. “She was a woman of service, that’s why this was such a momentous occasion to honor her … not only in the 4th Ward, but in the city of Chicago,” he said.
Chicago designated its first honorary street name in 1964, declaring the section of LaSalle Street between Wacker Drive and Jackson Boulevard the “Golden Mile” to honor the city’s financial clout. Visit Honorary Chicago to learn more about what it takes to rename a street in the city.
