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Remembering A Beloved Resident Of Chicago’s Rogers Park

Remembering A Beloved Resident Of Chicago’s Rogers Park

He was a local legend in Chicago’s Rogers Park.

For 40 years, you could count on Croslene Kettle being at the Pratt Avenue Pier. Last week, Kettle, 64, went for a swim off the pier in Lake Michigan and didn’t resurface. He was found and pulled from the water.

Kettle was rushed to Presence Saint Francis Hospital where he was pronounced dead, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Police don’t believe there was foul play involved in Kettle’s death, but an autopsy is pending.

He will be deeply missed, locals say. Kettle “could usually be found sitting in his chair on the pier with three Bud Lights and his fishing poles. The Jamaica native — a Rogers Park resident for decades — loved the water and would often go for long swims in Lake Michigan to keep cool on a hot day,” Book Club Chicago reported.

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“He was a Rogers Park institution,” park fisher Ace Ujimori said. “Kettle taught half the fishermen here how to fish and what to use.”

“It will be forever known as Kettle’s Pier in my book,” a friend said following the beloved man’s drowning.

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Rogers Park, Chicago By James Willamor

According to Ujimori, Kettle was “relatively quiet if he didn’t know you,” but once he opened up he could be loud and friendly, with a bright smile that drew people in.

Kettle was often among a group of regulars who fish the pier, who “are like family,” Philip Jones, a friend of Kettle, said. 

The southeast end of the pier was known as “Kettle’s Corner,” and Kettle fished there.

“No one has caught more fish on this pier than Kettle,” Jones said.

Many neighborhood residents have proposed renaming the pier after Kettle, or perhaps adding a plaque in his memory near the spot where Kettle liked to fish.