By Larry Finlay
Chicago Sun Times

CHICAGO — Frank Hattan was so proud of the cap given to him by his fellow Chicago firefighters that he almost never took it off for the last four years.

Mr. Hattan, 101, was the oldest retired Chicago firefighter at the time of his death on Nov. 11. He had been a member of the Chicago Fire Fighters Local No. 2 and its predecessor organization since 1929, the year he joined the department.

"He never took that cap off," said his daughter Margaret Jungblut. "He wore it in the house. He wore it in restaurants. It meant a lot to him. The Fire Department still meant a lot to him."

Mr. Hattan died in Holland, Mich., where he and his wife moved in 1974. He retired from the department in 1968.

Born in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1906, Mr. Hattan lived next to a fire house as a young boy and spent much of his time there. The pumpers were still drawn by horses back then, and the firemen let him help take care of the animals.

"He visited Fire Fighters Local No. 2 in Chicago in June of 2003," his daughter said. "They were very nice to him and honored him and gave him things to commemorate the visit, including that cap with the Fire Department insignia and Local No. 2 on it. The cap is sitting on his bed right now."

Mr. Hattan had a lot of stories about the days on the engines. In January of 1960, he crawled out on ladders on thin ice in Sherman Park to rescue three boys who had fallen through, Jungblut said. "He was the only one who would do it, and he couldn't swim a lick," she said.

Another time he went up a ladder and through a window to rescue a baby boy in a smoke-filled room, she said. He tucked the baby under his coat and only found the window by following the sound of other firefighters calling to him, she said.

'That baby would be about 60 right now," Jungblut said.

Mr. Hattan met and married Mary Agnes Reilly 76 years ago. She died at the age of 97 Aug. 26.

Before she passed away, Mr. Hattan was staring out a window one day when his daughter asked what he was thinking.

"I want your mother to go first, and when I know she's safely in heaven, I want to go right after her," Mr. Hattan told his daughter.

When they had been married about 65 years, they got her wedding ring replaced because it had worn down to "the thinnest silver wire," Jungblut said. The jeweler told them: "You know I've been in this business for many years. I've sold rings for first weddings and second weddings and for people who have lost them down a drain. I've sold them to people who wanted something nicer. But I've never sold one to a couple that wore out the first one."

The couple stayed together so long "because they really were each other's best friends," said granddaughter Joanne Murphy. "They shared everything and discussed everything. My grandfather always called her 'Queenie.' "

Other survivors include another daughter, Maureen Murphy; six grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.

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