Joseph Burke (March 2, 1888 – January 31, 1990) was the longest-tenured judge in the history of the

Illinois Appellate Court The Illinois Appellate Court is the court of first appeal for civil and criminal cases rising in the Illinois Circuit Courts. Three Illinois Appellate Court judges hear each case and the concurrence of two is necessary to render a decision. The ...

.Chicago Sun-Times Article, February 1, 1990, pg. 70, Section: News Judge Burke was born in Claremorris,

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in 1888, son of Patrick Burke. His family emigrated to America in 1895, going through

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

and then on to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

where they settled on the Near West Side. Burke worked as a newsboy, selling the

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

for eight years. He graduated from DePaul Law School in 1909 and began practicing law in 1911. In 1917 he enlisted in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. After the war, he organized the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

's Blackhawk Post and was its first commander. Burke was elected to the municipal court in 1922. In 1930 he was appointed a circuit judge, and was permanently assigned to the Illinois Appellate Court in 1939. He served on the Appellate Court until 1976, retiring as chief justice for the 1st District Appellate Court. His last public appearance was in April 1988 at age one hundred when he threw out the first pitch at the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

game on Opening Day. Joseph was a lifelong fan of the White Sox. He and his spouse Catherine Ryan Burke had five children named Edmund, Francis, Richard, Jerome and Shirley. He had 18 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren when he died.

References

1888 births 1990 deaths American centenarians DePaul University College of Law alumni United States Army personnel of World War I Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) Judges of the Illinois Appellate Court Men centenarians 20th-century American judges {{US-judge-stub