Being a florist, Dean O’Banion was waked amid forests of chrysanthemums and roses and ribbon bows signed in the iconic style of a mobster, his other calling.
There were a couple of broken pillars, a plaster riff on Greek architecture, one from “His Pals” and some from “Max’s Boys.” Another card was signed, “Your Friend Al Brown” — Al Capone’s alias.
O’Banion was given a sendoff that was “a testimonial of the leadership he had attained in the realm where gunplay makes millionaires,” the Tribune wrote. Thousands came to pay their respects, or maybe just to gawk.
“Late yesterday the flowers for O’Banion began to arrive at the Sbarbaro Funeral Home,” the Tribune reported on Nov. 14, 1924. “So many came that wreaths and baskets were stored in back rooms after the walls of the golden lighted little room with its stained glass windows were lined, and only an aisle was left in the middle of the room.”
Many of the arrangements were delivered by William F. Schofield’s flower shop at 738 N. State St., just south of Chicago Avenue.