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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING WAYNE ADAMS SR.
WHEREAS, Mr. Wayne Adams Sr. was born in St. Joseph, MO on April 15, 1919 and lived there until he graduated from high school; and
WHEREAS, after he graduated, he moved to Chicago to join his mother and stepfather and has lived in Cook County ever since; and
WHEREAS, the family lived a short distance from the 124th Field Artillery Armory, which served both as a military training complex, and as a venue for midget auto races something he had wanted to see since he was 10, and in the fall of 1936, he saw his first race at the armory; and
WHEREAS, soon, he and his parents were attending races throughout the Midwest including summer races at Riverview Stadium, just outside of Riverview Amusement Park at Western and Belmont avenues. They traveled to Rockville, In., Fort Wayne, In., Winchester, In., Dayton, Oh., and Greenville, Oh. Locally, they attended races at the new Hammond Raceway in Indiana and Raceway Park in Blue Island; and
WHEREAS, in 1939, Mr. Adams began photographing the races and selling the pictures at the tracks for 50 cents and would go on to became the scorer at Raceway Park, and, late in 1940, was approached by Illustrated Speedway News to cover racing for that publication; and
WHEREAS, his first story in that national paper was about an indoor midget race at the International Amphitheater with Wally Zale winning the 100-lap feature after being down two laps; and
WHEREAS, during this time Wayne met his wife Grace (Boots) Stevens, a romance that would last 76 years; Grace's father had told Wayne he needed to have $1,000 in the bank before they could wed so Wayne sold his car to get the money and they were married on Nov. 7, 1942; and
WHEREAS, the two first lived with Grace's parents in Englewood, but six weeks after the wedding, Wayne was inducted into the U.S. Army, reporting to Camp Grant in Northern Illinois then to Fort McLellan in Alabama for basic training; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Adams becam...
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