Willow Springs Trustee Ernie Moon is being remembered as a good neighbor and someone who loved the village.
Moon, 78. died Dec, 22 from complications after undergoing surgery Nov. 21 to remove a tumor from his liver.
Purple and black bunting is draped in mourning at the entrance of the village hall, where the American flag flies at half-staff.
Moon was first elected to the village board in 2019. He won re-election 2023. He was chairman of the board’s license and franchise committees.
While there was no answer at the Moon residence when a reporter visited last week, neighbors had plenty to say about their departed friend.
Mike and Susan Dudek lived next door to Moon and his late wife Gloria for 33 years.
“He was a good neighbor. Very involved,” Mike said.
Susan recalled she was “very pregnant with my second (child)” the day she met Moon.
“I put my oldest down for a nap. My mother had opened the door and let this guy in. I came downstairs and there was this man. It was Ernie. He was checking out the neighborhood. Really sweet,” Susan said.
Moon and his wife had moved to Willow Springs from Stickney, Susan said.
“He was really friendly and outgoing,” she said.
As next-door neighbors, they’d keep an eye on each other’s homes during vacations and pick up the other’s mail.
Their youngest, Louie Dudek, wrote a story about Moon for an eighth-grade project in 2007 at Pleasant Dale Middle School. Louie interviewed Moon about his life.
According to Louie’s report, Moon was from Wisconsin and his first job was in the logging industry and it paid “about $4.50 an hour.”
“When he was younger, he played baseball a lot,” Louie wrote, and “was scouted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.”
When Louie died from leukemia at 18, Susan said Moon was there to lend a helping hand.
“Ernie went around the neighborhood and got a collection from all the neighbors when our son died,” she said Tuesday.
At a recent village board meeting, Moon expressed displeasure with the sound system, saying it was tough to hear clearly.
That made Susan smile.
“He was not afraid of confrontation. He would always speak up for what he thought was right,” Susan said.
She exchanged texts with Moon the day before his surgery.
Moon was optimistic, she said. He texted Susan that he expected to spend five days in the hospital and two weeks in rehab.
Mike recalled that Moon ran as a write-in candidate for village president years ago. He also recalled Moon’s kindness.
“There was a homeless person in the village. He used to take him food all the time,” Mike said.
Carol McMurray, who lives three doors from the Moon home, said “we are all shocked on the cul-de-sac and we will miss him.”
McMurray said she and Moon served together on the Pleasant Dale Park District board before he became a village trustee.
Susan said residents “loved it when he was on the park board because he was the person who asked ‘why are we spending money on that’ or ‘that’s too much money for that.’ He was fiscally responsible and not afraid to say ‘I don’t agree with this’.”
At village board meetings, Moon sat beside Trustee Fred Posch.
During the board’s most recent meeting on Dec. 12, Posch asked “everyone out there to say a prayer for my sidekick, Trustee Moon.”
“He’s battling some health problems and he really needs our help,” Posch said.
After that meeting, Posch said a five-pound tumor was removed from Moon’s liver during surgery at a hospital in Arlington Heights.
Village Administrator Ryan Grace on Dec. 12 said he heard that Moon’s surgery “went well.”
According to the Integrity Party’s website, Moon also served on the Justice Willow Springs Water Commission and the Willow Springs Police Commission.
He started the Willow Springs Benefit Car Show. He was a longtime member of the Willow Springs Lions Club.
Moon’s wife passed away in 2020, the website said.
Moon worked in the corrugated box industry, had a degree in business management and a master’s degree from the American Management Association, the site said.
Visitation for Moon will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Zarzycki Manor Chapels, 8999 Archer Ave., Willow Springs. The funeral service begins at 2:30 p.m., an employee said.