Column: Attorney for presidents Bob Barnett kept Waukegan ties

There’s something in the DNA of Waukeganites who make it big in life. They remember their roots, and where they came from.

Perhaps it’s growing up in the once-small town along the shores of Lake Michigan, about equidistance from the major metropolitan areas of Chicago and Milwaukee. This microcosm of the bigger cities has instilled a loyalty to old friends, neighbors and the community itself. Over the years, the connections have run deep.

Radio, film and television entertainer Jack Benny, who grew up in a house on Clayton Street, a few blocks west of his statue at the corner of Genesee and Clayton streets, would return to Waukegan often. Many times his appearances were for fundraisers to benefit city school music programs, which he had a special fondness for since a junior high school wa