Vol. VI No. 19 Meet Maywood’s ‘Pop Up Queen’, PAGE 9
State education agency moving to Maywood
MAY 11, 2022
vfpress.news
County celebrates 1M vaccines, PAGE 2
‘He remembered our names’
West 40 Intermediate Service Center, currently based in Hillside, has purchased the former Lexington Elementary School in Maywood By MICHAEL ROMAIN
Art Boonma, the general manger of Al’s Drive In in Maywood, holds a cell phone photo of Chokchai “Chuck” Suwannasri, the popular Al’s employee who died last week.
Editor
An empty elementary school in Maywood has been purchased by one of the largest educational support agencies in the state. The West 40 Intermediate Service Center — one of the state’s network of regional education agencies that provide “support to public schools and districts” in the west suburbs, according to the agency’s LinkedIn description — closed its purchase of the former Lexington Elementary School, 415 W. Lexington St. in Maywood, last week. Dr. Mark Klaisner, West 40’s executive director, said the agency purchased the empty school building from Mawood-Melrose Park-Broadview School District 89 for around $330,000. Lexington closed in 2015, when the district implemented a reconfiguration plan. Since then, the school has hosted church services and a COVID-19 testing site, among othSee WEST 40 on page 7
Michael Romain
Proviso East alum, community members mourn Chokchai ‘Chuck’ Suwannasri, the popular Al’s Drive In worker who died May 4 By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
While he waited in line at Al’s Drive In, 80 Madison St. in Maywood, on Thursday afternoon, Arian Wade couldn’t help but notice the difference. “It’s not the same,” Wade lamented to
another customer who was waiting in line. As soon as he walked to the window to order, Darrell Stevens asked about the man whom Wade called “the face of this window.” “How’s Chuck? Where’s Chuck at?” Stevens asked the worker taking his order. Art Boonma, the venerable restaurant’s general manager, said he’s fielded the question so much that he had to tape a poster notifying the public about Chuck’s memorial to the takeout window. Chokchai “Chuck” Suwannasri, 63, died on May 4 from cancer. For decades, his gregarious, sincere personality and warmth was what made Al’s so special for so many community members, particularly the students of Proviso East High
School, located right across the street. Wade, who graduated from East in 1989, spoke about Suwannasri as if he were a relative or a close neighbor. “Chuck would already know your order,” Wade said. “You didn’t even have to say nothing. He’d say things like, ‘Where’s your father at?’ He had a good memory.” Stevens, who graduated in 1983, echoed the sentiment. “He was a great guy, man,” Stevens said. “Fun, entertaining — didn’t ever forget your name.” Born in Thailand in 1958, Suwannasri moved to the United States at 14 years old. “We stayed in Baltimore before we moved to Chicago in 1977,” said Boonma, whose sister, Sue Rapanavanich, owns See CHUCK on page 4