Jim Tuohy, Chicago writer, raconteur, author of Greylord book, has died at 85

Jim Tuohy. | Vicki Quade

To understand the devil-may-care way writer Jim Tuohy embraced his existence, consider this one evening in his 82-year-old life.

At an hour when people half a century younger might have curled up on their couches, Mr. Tuohy hopped on a bus and headed downtown to hear a favorite jazz combo.

But he got there early and had just $10. He ordered a drink — and wondered how he’d make his money last all night.

Providence arrived with a lawyer who plopped down on the next stool. When the attorney found out he was sitting next to the Jim Tuohy who co-wrote “Greylord: Justice, Chicago Style,” he ordered drinks for the author and kept them coming. He wanted to hear all about Operation Greylord, the 1980s bribery probe of Chicago courts that resulted in the convictions of scores of judges, cops and lawyers.

When the jazz group finished at 1 a.m., Mr. Tuohy got on a bus to go home. But the driver was new. Mr. Tuohy guided him through a tricky turn or two. The driver, grateful, went out of his way to drop him at the Old Town Ale House, a favorite watering hole.

“Well, it’s open till 4 a.m., and my dad’s got a tab there — he can drink,” said his daughter Michaela Tuohy. “And then somebody gives him a lift home.

“This was just a Tuesday night for my father,” said his daughter, a 56-year-old police officer. “He’s 82 years old at that time. That is more social activity in one day than I get in a week.”

Mr. Tuohy, 85, of Lincoln Park, died Wednesday at St. Joseph Hospital. He developed pneumonia, battled flu, couldn’t fight it off and died of kidney failure, according to his daughter and his son Don Tuohy.

He was of a generation of Chicago writers who made the rounds of the Old Town Ale House, the Billy Goat, O’Rourke’s and Riccardo’s, among other bars. He hung out with Pulitzer Prize-winners Mike Royko, Tom Fitzpatrick and Roger Ebert, who once wrote of him on Facebook: “Jim Tuohy is a great Chicago writer.”

Even in his 85th year, he was organizing quarterly reunions of friends.

“The Jim Tuohy fan club was huge,” said writer Vicki Quade, co-creator of the theater comedy “Late Nite Catechism.”

Jim Tuohy was at the center of a large group of Chicago journalists who regularly met at taverns including the Old Town Ale House, Riccardo’s, O’Rourke’s and the Billy Goat.

“He was a great storyteller, the kind you don’t see anymore,” said his son John, a reporter for The Indianapolis Star, who said people “told him things they hadn’t told anyone in a long time.”

“He was just one of the warmest, funniest and really smart guys,” said Chicago political consultant Don Rose. “He was a magnificent writer and one of the great drinking companions of all time.”

And Mr. Tuohy was one of maybe three people immortalized in more than one of the many paintings on the walls of the Old Town Ale House, according to artist Bruce Elliott, who called him “the gold standard of geriatric barroom drinkers.”

“He was extremely talented,” said Rob Warden, co-author of the “Greylord” book and former editor and publisher of Chicago Lawyer, where he ran Mr. Tuohy’s articles. “If he’d been in New York, he might have been as famous as Jimmy Breslin.”

Jim Tuohy holding his Marine-era ID photo.

The youngest of six kids, he was born in Chicago and spent his early years in Rogers Park. After 7-year-old Jim’s mother died of cancer, his father, Illinois Appellate Court Judge John Marshall Tuohy, moved the family to Barrington, then mostly farms. His father married again — Mary Poe, “a direct descendant of Edgar Allen Poe,” Mr. Tuohy’s daughter said.

After Barrington High School, Mr. Tuohy joined the Marines, though Elliott said, “He was the most un-Marine-like Marine.”

Around 1960 he married his wife Michaela, who later worked for City Hall’s Office of Special Events. When they separated, he shifted to bars on the North Side, their daughter said, and “my mom got North Avenue.” They didn’t get around to a divorce before her death, in 1997.

Jim Tuohy and his wife Michaela at the Old Town Ale House.

After the Marines and a few college stints, Mr. Tuohy shaved a few years off his age and got hired at the City News Bureau of Chicago. In those pre-Internet days, friends said, he occasionally hinted at a fictitious master’s degree or doctorate to keep getting through the doors of Chicago journalism.

Jim Tuohy and his daughter Michaela and sons John and Don.

In one of his book-jacket blurbs, “He described himself as the winner of ‘the coveted Sarsfield Award,’ ” Warden said. “Sarsfield was his middle name.”

He went on to work for UPI, the Chicago Sun-Times, CBS and NBC. He also wrote for the Chicago Reader and New City.

“His frequent firings could be directly correlated to his frequent late evenings spent in the saloons,” his daughter said.

“He liked to have a libation,’’ said his son Don.

“He kept getting jobs,” Elliott said, “because he could write.”

Jim Tuohy loved to socialize at bars and could draw conversation out of almost anyone, friends said.

Here’s how he started an April 1984 Chicago Lawyer article about a wrongful conviction case: “They drive a hard bargain in Lake County. Police told Ronnie Starks that if he took a polygraph test and passed he could go free. He took the test. He passed. He got 11 years.”

He captured Royko in an article published in 1997 in New City. In it, Royko described listening to an unwitting “blowhard” who advised him that, to understand Chicago politics, he ought to read a book “by a guy named Mike Royko.”

Royko told Mr. Tuohy: “I put my hand out, grab his and say, ‘My name is Mike Royko, a------.’ ”

“He was a great investigator,” said Denise Kane, former inspector general with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, where Mr. Tuohy worked for a time on contract.

When a 6-year-old reported being sexually abused by his mother’s boyfriend, the only information the child had was the man’s first name and that he took the boy to a tavern.

When others moved on to new cases, Mr. Tuohy kept hunting, dropping in at saloons where he thought he might find the man. “Wherever he goes,” Kane said, “he asks, ‘Has [a man with that first name] been here?’ ”

It took six months, but his detective work paid off. He found the man in a bar, called police., and the abuser went to jail, Kane said.

Jim Tuohy didn’t need fancy drinks. Beer was fine, friends said.

Mr. Tuohy co-wrote several books about Lionel trains. He also was an assistant basketball coach at St Clement school.

In addition to his children Michaela, John and Don, he is survived by his sisters Lolita Tuohy and Julia Dolphin Glab, his stepbrother Bill Littlejohn and his longtime companion Kris Jones.

His brothers all died before him, including Bill, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his Vietnam reporting for the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Tuohy’s wake will be from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Cooney Funeral Home, 3918 W. Irving Park Rd., with a funeral Mass at 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Clement Church, 642 W. Deming Pl.

Jim Tuohy and his children (from left) Don, John and Michaela.