Elmo Quinn, the former owner of Quinn’s Shell station along Route 66 in Bloomington, Illinois, died Wednesday. He was 82.
Quinn was so beloved for his kindness, he was known as the “Mayor of Main Street,” according to a story in the Bloomington Pantagraph.
Quinn’s welcoming personality and community insight helped establish his mayoral nickname, Brady said. “Elmo had a knack for knowing tomorrow’s news today,” he said.
Beyond a service station and a place to get sweets, Quinn’s gas station always offered a safe harbor, especially after school.
“When the lights went out at Central Catholic High School, you could always go to Elmo’s and wait for mom and dad to pick you up,” Brady said.
He said when after-school practices were over, especially in the winter, “Elmo’s light was always on” and students could stop in to warm up.
Finlen said he has been speaking with other former students as well.
“Boy, they’ve just been crushed in the last 24 hours to learn of his passing,” Finlen said.
Quinn’s Shell and the Quinn family were inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame in 2012.
Quinn also was an usher for nearly 40 years during Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity Church, located across from his station at Main and Chestnut streets.
The service station originally was opened as a Texaco by his father and uncle in 1941. Elmo Quinn began working there in the 1950s and bought the station in 1978. His was one of the last full-service stations in the area.
He retired in 2013, and the station closed. Quinn’s church purchased the property with plans to tear it down for parking. The church, however, plans to install a plaque dedicating the site as “Quinn’s Corner.”
Quinn’s funeral with full military rites will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Holy Trinity, according to his obituary.
(Screen-capture image from Bloomington Pantagraph video of Elmo Quinn at his Quinn Shell station in Bloomington, Illinois)