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Article: OFF THE WALL // Chicago family portrait: the stories behind the colorful mural at the Old Town Ale House
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- June 30, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Maureen Munson liked to paint in the daylight.
Since 1971, the afternoon sun has peeked through the windows of
the Old Town Ale House, wondering if anyone is home.
Munson was there to answer. With her brush.
No stranger to hard knocks, the painter was an Ale House
fixture when the tavern moved to North Avenue and Wieland Street a
quarter-century ago. The sun offered a warmth that eluded her at
night.
Munson was a well-known North Side artist in the early '70s.
Her day job was in free-lance commercial work, but the night was a
wild streak of jazz, booze, smoke and all that other jazz. Munson,
then in her mid-30s, was a fan of the jazz group Ears. She would
watch their sets at the ...