Ridge Historical Society
Post 4: Alec Todd Hetherington for Memorial Day
By Carol Flynn
The Ridge Historical Society (RHS) recognizes Memorial Day with a story from the current exhibit on the Hetherington Dynasty of Architects.
John Todd Hetherington designed the Graver-Driscoll House, RHS’s headquarters, in 1921. Two of his children, Murray and Jean, entered the architecture and drafting professions, and two more generations have followed them. But architecture was not for everyone in the family. Son Alec followed a different path, which included a term of U. S. military service.
While the focus of the RHS exhibit is the contributions to architecture made by the Hetheringtons, “honorable mention” covering what is known about Alec is shared in this post.
Alec Todd Hetherington was born to Jane and John Todd Hetherington on July 13, 1890, in Chicago. Their firstborn, Grace, had died the year before at the age of eight months, so Alec became the oldest child. He was followed by brother Murray in 1891 and sister Jean in 1895.
At the age of 20, he was employed as an electrician with a city railway company. At the time he registered for the draft for World War I, he was a superintendent of building construction in his father’s firm.
Alec also had an interest that varied from architecture and electrical engineering. For a while, he became a fruit farmer and moved to southern Illinois.
But first, the war intervened. Alec served in the U.S. Army in 1918-1919. He shipped out on the Matsonia from Hoboken, New Jersey, as a corporal in the 270th Squadron Air Service, and returned as a sergeant.
The Air Service, or “Aero Squadrons,” were the first aviation units, the forerunners of the U.S. Air Force. The squadrons provided combat flying and ground support, as well as training. The 270th Squadron was sent to northeastern France to serve at the First Air Depot, the largest U.S. facility on the Western Front. The 270th Squadron was part of the Services of Supply Advance Section.
Upon his return to the U.S. after the war, Alec established a farm in New Burnside in Johnson County in far southern Illinois. The area was known for its fruit-growing properties.
In 1924, Alec married Jeanette Ballance. She was from a well-known historic family in New Burnside. Her family owned one of the early newspapers and were founding members of the Burnside Methodist Episcopal Church. Her grandfather was a teacher-turned-lawyer, and her grandmother was a charter member of the women’s club. Her father, Thomas Ballance, was a prominent farmer, a county commissioner, and the town’s federal food administrator during World War I. Her mother Winifred’s family, the Lauderdales, were also early settlers, known for their popular singing quartet that showed up for community events.
A daughter, Elizabeth, was born to Jeanette and Alec on June 1, 1925, in New Burnside. Tragically, Jeanette died a few weeks later on June 26 at the age of 22. The cause of death was given as peritonitis due to childbirth. Peritonitis is an infection of the lining of the abdominal cavity.
Elizabeth was raised by her maternal grandparents on their farm. After high school, she did live in Chicago for a few years in the mid-1940s to attend secretarial school. She returned to New Burnside where she married Robert Mowery in 1948. They had two daughters and lived in Ohio. She died in 2008.
Alec stayed in New Burnside for a few more years after Jeanette’s death. He was listed as attending the Illinois Agricultural Association’s meeting in Urbana in 1926, and being named to the board of the Ozark Growers Association in a nearby town in 1927.
By 1930, however, he was back in Chicago, living in the family home in Beverly, and working as an airplane mechanic in a factory. It’s possible that Alec trained in airplane mechanics while he was in the U.S. Army Air Service.
In 1931, Alec married Winifred M. Toomey in Cook County. She was an Irish Catholic immigrant, born about 1897. In 1934, they had a daughter Winifred, born in Chicago.
Alec’s occupation took them to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he was listed in 1937 as a foreman for United Air Lines.
And then tragedy struck again. Alec died at the age of 48 on January 6, 1939, in Cheyenne. The cause of death was attributed to an appendectomy. A ruptured appendix often causes peritonitis, the same infection that took his first wife Jeanette’s life.
Alec’s remains were returned to southern Illinois and buried in the New Burnside Cemetery, where Jeanette was buried.
Winifred and their daughter Winifred moved to San Francisco, where mother Winifred died in 1964. Daughter Winifred married William Medin in 1958. They had a daughter and two sons. “Winnie” was an active volunteer who received the First Lady of California Volunteer Award in 1995. She died in 2018.
Photo of Alec Todd Hetherington from family submission on Ancestry.com.
The Hetherington exhibit will be on display at RHS through 2022. Arrangements to view the exhibit may be made by contacting RHS at 773/881-1675 or ridgehistory@hotmail.com. RHS is located at 10621 South Seeley Avenue, Chicago.
Next post: Meet the RHS exhibit team.