John Corkery, Chicago attorney and "performer at heart," dies at 82

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John Corkery was an attorney and a distinguished one, a frequent radio and TV legal expert, a powerful courtroom presence, and an admired teacher and administrator. He was much more.

“John was a performer at heart,” said his wife, Denise Corkery, an advertising executive. “He always referred to teaching his law classes as giving ‘five performances a week.'”

Corkery died at home in Chicago on Nov. 27, on Thanksgiving morning. He had been on home hospice care for a lengthy battle with brain cancer, with which he had been diagnosed in 2019. He was 82.

“He died peacefully, without pain,” Denise said.

Born in 1943 in St. Louis, Corkery was the eldest of eight children. He earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Louis University in 1964 and his law deg