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ALTON – Jonathan Curry of Alton was the ultimate Chicago Cubs baseball fan. He died back in January and unfortunately, failed to see the Cubs prevail in the World Series. The night before he died, he provided a last wish for one of his friends.

He asked a friend, Larry Hazen, about 7:30 the night before he died: “Will you do me a favor?”

At the time, his wife Mary Kay Curry, his wife, thought, “What in the world is he going to ask him to do?”

“When the Cubs win the World Series, I want you and Dan Gebben, caretaker at St. Patrick’s, to do a toast and pour champagne over my grave.”

On Tuesday, Hazen, Gebben, Mary Kay Curry and several family members and friends made the Cubs World Series toast happen at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Godfrey.

Jonathan always took a lot of grief in Cardinal baseball land because he was a Cubs fan, but he stuck with the team through thick and thin over all the years.

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Jonathan was a well-liked teacher in the Alton School system, spending most of his years at East Middle School and working with middle school students. Jonathan’s teaching focus was social studies and history. He retired about six years ago.

The story behind how Jonathan became a Cubs fan is that when the St. Louis Cardinals traded pitcher Dizzy Dean, his father lost all loyalty to the Cardinals and started rooting for the Cubs.

Jonathan gravitated toward the Cubs through his father.

May Kay has always remained a Cardinals’ fan, but one of her sons is a Cub fan like his father, another a Cardinals’ fan and the other neither, because he didn’t want to choose because of his father’s love of the Cubs.

When the last out came recently and the Cubs won the World Series, it was an emotional time for Mary Kay. She looked up to the heavens with tears in her eyes, believing that somehow Jonathan was part of the divine force behind the Cubbies and their championship run.

Jonathan loved teaching, but his heart issues lead to his retirement several years ago. He worked out and tried to stay healthy in all the remaining years and simply loved life, his wife said.

Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday the invited group of people met at St. Patrick’s Cemetery for the champagne toast. Mary Kay provided the champagne and glasses and his friends did what he asked. A few of his friends poured champagne over his grave as he requested. For May Kay, it was a priceless moment in time, granting her husband’s last request.

“The night the Cubs won I just wished he was here to celebrate,” Mary Kay said. “I stayed up and watched the Cubs late every night and know he would have loved it. He also would have loved the champagne toast.”

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