W E D N E S D A Y
SAY Connects Page 15
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Locals hopeful new West Sub owners plan to stay put
I N
July 25, 2018 Vol. 38, No. 53 ONE DOLLAR
@oakpark @wednesdayjournal
M E M O R I A M
Friend of Barack Obama is president of company in partnership By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
Tenet Healthcare announced it has entered into an agreement to sell West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, along with two other hospitals to a company jointly owned by TWG Partners and Pipeline Health. The partnership is notable because TWG Partners is founded and run by Dr. Eric Whitaker, a close friend of Barack Obama, according to news reports. West Suburban Chief Executive Officer Joseph Ottolino in a letter to West Sub’s community governing board obtained by Wednesday Journal said that the proposed sale also includes Chicago-based Weiss Memorial Hospital and Melrose Park-based Westlake Hospital, and other operations connected to the two facilities. TWG is a Chicago-based health care firm and Pipeline is a national hospital operator. Pipeline, which purchased a hospital from Tenet in Dallas earlier this year, will manage the three hospitals, See WEST SUB on page 13
File photo
UNFORGETTABLE: That’s what she was.
Val Camilletti sold us the soundtrack of our lives By KEN TRAINOR Staff Writer
Though she lived in Cicero, for many people Val Camilletti, 78, was the most recognized face in Oak Park. An institution and vibrant presence in the village for the past 50 years, she died on July 24, 2018 at the end of a two-year battle with breast cancer. More than anything else, she was associated with music, beginning in the
late 1960s when she ran record stores on Ridgeland near Lake Street, 723½ South Blvd. (near Oak Park Avenue), and finally 239 Harrison St. in the Oak Park Arts District. She started in vinyl and ended in vinyl, the majority of her sales reverting to used records by the end, as a new generation rediscovered LPs. Her store, Val’s halla Records was a play on Valhalla from Norse mythology — as were the names of her dog, Halla, her cat,
Woden, and Halla’s successor, Loki, who were omnipresent. For many customers, it was indeed a kind of mythical paradise, especially during rock ’n’ roll’s heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. It was the place to go, and kids flocked there. As those baby boomers grew older, they stayed loyal even though the music industry changed dramatically with digital technology — including the late John Mahoney, who See VAL on page 13