Can Joliet-New Lenox Area Help Danny Reyes Find Long-Lost Sister?

NEW LENOX, IL - For decades Gabriel "Danny" Reyes has lived with a nagging mystery about his family who lived in New Lenox. What happened to his older sister after she was born at Joliet's old Silver Cross Hospital on October 16, 1966? Where is she now? What is her name? Does she have her own family?

Reyes recently reached out to New Lenox social media groups on Facebook in search of answers. That's where New Lenox Patch learned of his plight. Patch decided to share his story with a larger audience in hopes of bringing this half-century family mystery to a close.

Danny Reyes said he was born in 1980 and his long-lost sister who may be living around Joliet or New Lenox was born on October 16, 1966 at Joliet's Silver Cross Hospital. Danny Reyes said his mother's name was Marilyn Sue Collier at that time. According to Reyes, the delivery doctor was named P.T. Dimus. Reyes also supplied Patch with a 1966 Lockport High School yearbook photo of his mother.

"My grandfather forced the adoption and snuck my mom in the back doors of the hospital the same way the family arrived for the child," Reyes told Patch. "My mom seen the baby leave in a pink blanket and the top of her head had brown hair. (My mother) was told she weighed around 6 pounds at birth. My mother left there for Oklahoma after the birth. She was 18 at the time."

In the years following the adoption, Marilyn Collier settled in Oklahoma. There, she bore her son, Danny Reyes, in 1980. In 2009, she was in Ada, Oklahoma, going by the name of Marilyn Sue White when she died.

Now, Danny Reyes is left to try to piece together the mystery surrounding the sister he's never met. Based on conversations he's had with other relatives over the years, he believes there's a good possibility that the family who adopted his long-lost sister may have ties to one of the New Lenox-area Masonic lodges.

"My grandfather was part of the Masonic lodge and my grandmother was part of a wine-tasting club," he said. "We believe the family had been (associated with) the masons as it was (a) highly private adoption.

"I was told the family was from New Lenox. I am not sure which branch of the Masons, or if it is just one for surrounding towns."

Danny Reyes said his mother's parents were Arthur Gene Collier and Dorothy Francis (Jiles) Collier.

From his perspective, it's extremely important to him and his children that his sister can be reunited with her family. Reyes lives in Oklahoma, though he says he's contemplated the idea of moving to Will County "so the kids can live where their roots formed," he told Patch.

"My sister has a brother and five nieces, one nephew and two great nieces and two great nephews looking for her," he said.

Thanks to the power of social media to help spread the message, Patch asked Danny Reyes whether he's optimistic the truth surrounding his missing sister will finally be revealed after many years of uncertainty?

"Yes, very," he responded. "Someone has to know something, somewhere. Things don't stay hidden forever, especially when it's for something positive."

Images courtesy of Danny Reyes