'What a legacy'

Former Mayor Ossie Langfelder was remembered Monday as the patriarch of his large family, a leader of the adopted city he loved and someone whose honesty and sincerity marked his long life’s work.

“Dad was our inspiration,” said Jamie Cour, one of his 13 children, in a eulogy delivered at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, where hundreds of people came to pay their respects to the late mayor, who died Wednesday at his Springfield home at age 89.

“Dad was our rock, a best friend,” she said. “You could see the pride he had in each and every one of us. Even today, he is lovingly singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to our sister Jeanie from heaven.”

Jean Rockford, another of the Langfelder children, turned 48 on Monday.

Other Langfelder children participated in the ceremony. Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder and Sangamon County Recorder Josh Langfelder were among siblings that were pallbearers. Jacob, of New York, sang "Ave Maria." And later, in a duet with niece Karli Davis, daughter of sister Janice, he also sang "Edelweiss" – a song about Ossie Langfelder’s native Austria. On guitar for that song was Cour’s son Jonathan, and Andrew Shackelford, son of Langfelder sibling Judy.

The names of all 13 Langfelder children begin with the letter “J.”

In her eulogy, Cour spoke of how her father was forced to flee Europe from the Nazis, how he came to serve in the U.S. Army in Japan, study engineering at Purdue University, and meet Midge, “the love of his life.”

“He was ever so crazy for her,” she said.

Langfelder was Catholic but his father was Jewish, and Cour said her dad worried that his father “was sitting on a bench outside the gates of heaven.” Cour, who said, “I believe in signs,” said she assured her dad that his father had made it past those gates, and asked that he send a sign to let her know she was correct.

Early Wednesday, hours after her father died and just as she was talking about this with her husband, Jim, she said, “the lights of our house went out and we lost all power for the next 20 seconds or so, and then suddenly it returned.

“I jumped up and yelled, ‘Thank you, Dad. Thanks, Daddio.’ He always hated it if I was right and he was wrong.”

Langfelder had gone home from the hospital Tuesday, but on the way to that last hospitalization, Cour said, her father was “bound and determined” to get one last lunch at a favorite restaurant – Jungle Jim’s Cafe.

“It didn’t happen,” she said. But he was able to “fit a trip to the bank to know his balance. That’s my dad – always a class act.”

She said her father would sometimes sound like an opera singer in past years while working around the house. And about 3 a.m. on his third night in the hospital, she said, he “broke into song,” with words from “The Gambler,” – “know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”

“My dad was trying to tell us it was time,” she said. “And I think it was also a tribute to my mom, the ultimate bridge player.”

Cour said her father often wrote poems for special occasions, so she wrote one as part of the eulogy. It includes how he got the “political bug” at age 52.

“He established a name, a legacy began, so proud and so true, always serving,” she said.

Langfelder served two terms as Springfield streets commissioner under the old commission form of government and in 1987 won his first of two terms as mayor under the new mayor-aldermanic form. He left office in 1995, having lost a nonpartisan primary for a third term.

Even in loss, Cour said, her father showed strength. And though some might think him harsh at times, he was “just like a big teddy bear.”

“What a legacy he’s given to us,” she said. “Respect, honesty and service to all. ...”

Music in the service reflected not only Langfelder’s Catholic religion but his patriotism, with “America the Beautiful” among songs played.

The Rev. Jeff Grant, in his homily, compared Langfelder’s journey from Europe to America to his movement from life to eternal life with God – each a mix of sadness and joy. He noted a passage in Langfelder’s memoir, “My Incredible Journey,” where a young Langfelder was told he would be leaving England for the United States.

“I cried with one eye and laughed with the other,” Langfelder wrote in the prologue, “because on the one hand, I wanted to stay, and on the other, I wanted to travel.”

Grant said he thought Langfelder would be saying Monday: “I don’t want to leave my family behind; I don’t want to leave this community,” but “I’m happy, because I’m reaching my destiny.”

Kathy Cadagin of Springfield, a retired teacher at St. Agnes School, where she had worked with Midge, Cour, and Joanie Baker, another Langfelder sibling, was among those who attended the funeral service.

“He was such a wonderful public servant and was honest and showed integrity in all the offices he held, from street commissioner to mayor,” Cadagin said. “And he has wonderful kids.”

After the service, a funeral procession took the late mayor past what his family said were some places that were meaningful to him: the Statehouse, the Municipal Center complex, HSHS St. John’s Hospital, Lanphier High School and Jungle Jim’s Cafe, before going to his final resting place at Calvary Cemetery. Students gathered outside Lanphier for the procession, and the school band played.

— Contact Bernard Schoenburg: bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg.