WW II vet holds his ground, fights eviction at 89

WW II vet holds his ground, fights eviction
Pushing 90, Chicago veteran fights to stay in apartment

By Ron Grossman, Tribune reporter
May 14, 2011

Five shooting wars later, Lt. Col. Curtis Welborn Jr., U.S. Army, ret., remains doggedly determined to hold the high ground.

In this instance, it's a tiny apartment in a Near North high-rise, where the 89-year-old and his wife have lived for a decade. Management wants them out by May 31.

Wellborn says he's been told it's because of bedbugs. But he sees the affair as a matter of honor — a sense shaped by military service that began in a World War II bomber. Small in stature but martial in bearing, he answers the phone with a crisp flourish: "Col. Welborn here."

He doesn't deny the bedbugs, but says they came from next door — retreating to regroup, as it were, when that apartment was fumigated. Besides, he says, he was the one who brought the matter to light by calling the city's help line, about a year ago. He thought it a top-secret communication. Evidently the building inspector didn't.

"311 betrayed me," Welborn said. "We were threatened with eviction."

The management company says it was the other way around: The bedbugs originated in the Welborns' apartment and, because the couple didn't cooperate with an exterminator called in by the company, spread to surrounding premises.

Either way, that initial skirmish ended in a truce: Welborn got a lawyer, and the eviction issue wasn't pressed. But a few months ago, he was informed their lease would not be renewed.

He fears a move would be psychologically devastating to his wife, Elizabeth. She has multiple health problems and suffers from "cognitive impairment," as he terms it, the diminished mental capacity of old age.

"She's a woman of good character," he quickly added. "We love each other. We want to stay together."
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WW II vet holds his ground, fights eviction