Centenarian Marilyn Ozinga Istel was one of the matriarchs of the family that owns and controls Ozinga, the Mokena-based ready-mix concrete supplier.
“She was just a very pleasant girl,” said Dolores Lewandowski Wasylik, 102, a longtime friend who met Istel at the Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort. “She was very sweet, very matter-of-fact and she was very religious.”
Istel, 100, died of natural causes on Aug. 30, said her son, Richard. She had been a longtime Frankfort resident.
Born Marilyn Seils in Chicago, Istel was the daughter of a Chicago policeman, Otto Seils. She grew up in Evergreen Park during most of grammar school, but then, after an edict requiring that Chicago police officers live in the city, she moved with her family to a house at 8315 S. Wood St., in the nearby Southwest Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
Istel attended Calumet High School, where she met her future husband, Richard Ozinga, whose father, Martin Ozinga Sr. of Evergreen Park, founded Ozinga in 1920 as a coal company.
Istel’s husband was a World War II veteran who served as a fighter pilot in the Army Air Corps in Europe and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he joined the family business, which after World War II expanded to provide fuel oil. The firm expanded further into ready-mix concrete in the 1950s.
Istel and her husband settled in Evergreen Park until about 1970, when they bought a lot in the Prestwick area of Frankfort and built a home there.
While her husband worked at Ozinga, Istel managed the home, and she was very active in her church, the now-shuttered Evergreen Park Christian Reformed Church, and a related school, Evergreen Park Christian School. She later attended Faith Christian Reformed Church in Tinley Park and then, starting in the mid-1990s, she was a part of Trinity Lutheran Church in Tinley Park.
“The Ozingas always did a great deal with the Christian school,” Wasylik said. “She taught many new people in her church about religion.”
A proficient golfer, Istel met Wasylik while playing golf at Prestwick. The two went on to play bridge together. Istel was an avid bridge player who played competitive bridge up to her 100th birthday, her son said.
“She and I loved to play bridge together, and so at the club we had a group of 16 players and she was, out of all of us, a very good player,” Wasylik said. “So she played it until the end. We also were on committees together and she worked to better the club. I am going to miss her a great deal.”
Intel’s first husband died in 1994. She then remarried a family friend, retired Inland Steel executive Larry Istel, in 1996. He died in 1999.
In addition to her son, Istel is survived by two other sons, James and David; eight grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; a stepdaughter, Linda Klier; and a stepson, Ed Istel. A sister, Lorraine Michael of Orland Park, died on Aug. 9 at age 95.
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.