Nancy Marion Doyle

The Doyle siblings are sad to announce our matriarch, Nancy Doyle (née Punicki), died Friday, Aug. 15, at the age of 89. She leaves behind 7 children and 19 grandchildren and their spouses, 13 great-grandchildren, numerous friends, several unwatched Hallmark movies and piles of important papers she needs to go through someday.

She grew up in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, attended Academy of Our Lady High School and graduated from Marquette University, magna cum laude, with a degree in psychology. She proudly leaned on that degree during her children’s teen and college years, which spanned the ‘70s and ‘80s. When asked how she managed, she claims to remember nothing. We’re not sure which school of psychology teaches that.

She married our dad, Tom Doyle (aka Uncle Bud), in November of 1958 at St. John Fisher in Beverly. None of their parents were crazy about the match, and legend has it that the only thing Nancy’s father said to Tom at the wedding was, “One of yours is passed out on the bar.” Nonetheless, they enjoyed 35 years of a happy marriage until Tom’s death in 1994.

Our mom possessed an intelligent and naturally curious mind and applied herself to learning everything from Cub Scout Den Mother Crowd Control to Microsoft Visual Basic and Quick Books — all done to keep her busy, help put food on the table and keep us kids out of jail. Her jobs outside the house were as varied as her interests, starting with working evenings in the housewares department at True Value Hardware. She dabbled in real estate at Direct By Owner and Remax. She worked for many years at Countryside Flower Shop, where she made wonderful friends and relished getting the skinny on all the births, deaths, who was taking whom to prom, etc., in our small town. She eventually landed at St. Mary’s Church in Woodstock, where she was the bookkeeper until her retirement.

After more than 40 years, she sold the infamous Doyle home on Lake Avenue in Crystal Lake and spent many enjoyable years living at The Fountains, leading Bible Study, playing cards and making new friends.

As a city kid growing up during the War, she was sent to the family farm in Southern Illinois each summer. Her stories of those summers revealed her joy of reading, love of family and her discovery of rural life and nature. This probably inspired her love of gardening. Her garden on Lake Avenue was wild and amazing. At the farm, she went on daily walks with her blind grandmother, once bringing home some beautiful colored leaves that turned out to be poison oak. After that, she was no longer allowed to take Grandma out unaccompanied. This incident is believed to have spawned the phrase “the blind leading the blind.”

She loved to travel and was always up for a new adventure. And she would inevitably step off the plane or train remarking, “I met the most interesting person…”

She was not a great cook or housekeeper. No one “in the know” would dare eat anything questionable or undated from her fridge or freezer, but she made an excellent Sunday roast and always cooked our favorite meal on our birthdays. And she could always be counted on to stop what she was doing to hear about your life with an offer to make a root beer float or a nice piece of fish. 

She was an excellent listener. She opened her heart and home to anyone who needed a friend or family, and our friends who didn’t have a mom like her often sought refuge in our home. It may have taken a while for her to notice the extra body sleeping on the basement couch, but it didn’t diminish her acceptance of them.

Her faith in God and, more importantly, in people, especially us, was often tested but never wavered. She was our best critic and our biggest fan.

She will be missed by her children, Thomas (Susan) Doyle, John (Gina) Doyle, Christopher (Claudia) Doyle, Joe (Nancy) Doyle, Kate (John) Siebert, Michael Doyle, Jeanne (Ken) Kwarta and bonus daughter Tracy Harding; grandchildren, Thomas (aka Bud) and Molly Doyle, Emily (TJ) Buckley, Jessica (Jake) Ellegood, Katherine Doyle (Eric) Rogers, Christopher (Caitlin) Doyle, Jesus Arellano, Katherine (Jose) Ross, Gabrielle Arellano, Delaney and Shannon Doyle, Jack and Maggie Siebert, Janae (Sam) Dick, Hannah (Cody) Blunt, Isabelle Doyle, Zach (Lyuda) Kwarta, Jake (Leah) Kwarta and Hannah (Mike) Liesch; great-grandchildren Thomas and Theo Buckley, Emery and Hudson Ellegood, Henry and Wesley Doyle, Sullivan Doyle, Noah Blunt, Charlotte Dick, Fallon Kwarta, and Keira, Brooks and Keaton Liesch.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Tom Doyle, her beloved grandson Kyle Doyle, her parents John and Martha Punicki, bonus son Steven Harding and numerous beloved family and friends.

Having been raised an only child, she was used to having things done her way, so she planned her own funeral, and all who knew her and loved her or us are invited to attend.

A visitation will be held on Thursday, August 21, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Davenport Funeral Home, 419 E. Terra Cotta Ave., Crystal Lake.

A funeral mass will be at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 451 W. Terra Cotta Ave., Crystal Lake. Burial will be at Crystal Lake Memorial Park, followed by a lunch reception.

Our Mom supported numerous charities and organizations in her lifetime, her favorites being St. Anthony Zuni Mission, the St. Kateri Center and Marquette University. If you would like to honor her, please consider making a donation in her name. She would love that.