Jim McNamara, Chicago fire lieutenant had bar named for him, dead at 78 - WOW an Irish guy who had a bar named after him.... Very unusual!

When family or friends came over for a visit, Jim McNamara would say, “Let’s turn off the TV, and let’s talk.”

He appreciated life’s little glories, like still having friends from St. Mel’s parish he knew since before kindergarten.

The retired Chicago Fire Department lieutenant liked to play air trombone to celebrate a touchdown while watching the Bears at McNamara’s, the bar-restaurant his daughter named after him.

“He would lead a march up and down the bar, singing ‘Bear Down,’ ” said T.C. Heaney, his daughter and owner of the pub at 4328 W. Irving Park Rd.

In his final days, when he had trouble breathing from the smoke and asbestos inhaled during a 33-year firefighting career, he kept his nurses laughing. They put up a sign in his hospital room with an abbreviation explaining he had “Shortness of Breath.”

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