The Glory Days of Ozark Airlines

Whenever, I think of Ozark Airlines or even Airtran Airlines, I often think of my old buddy who’d used to live at Little City Foundation out in Palatine IL. He’d used to fly home on Ozark Airlines when he went to visit his family on visiting weekends which was once a month for all of us who used to lived out at Little City.

Although, I had never flew on neither on Ozark Airlines or even Airtran Airlines, but man alive! I bet it was wonderful just to fly on Ozark Airlines, where people treat you right! Not like a bunch of sour pusses where today’s airline flight attendants are grouchy and snippy towards us ticket holders of where they show very little respect towards us.

My old friend who is Michael Verban, he used to lived at home with his parents attended the special education program at Lincoln Community High School until age 13 when he went to live at Little City Foundation in Palatine, Illinois. While living at Little City he was very active in Special Olympics. In addition, he had partnership of being co-owner of his own airlines called: Ozark Airlines, in which he would often fly home on a family visit during visiting weekends from Little City on, a once a monthly basis. Mike would fly out of O’Hare Airport and flew back again; this was during the 1970s throughout the mid 1980s when Ozark went out of business.

Mike Verban was also selected by Jack Brickhouse to throw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field in honor of his retirement from the Chicago Cubs.

In May 2007 he was truly blessed to move to Briarwood Court, Quincy, Illinois where he has enjoyed spending time with his family. He attended workshop at Transitions Western Illinois. He was an avid cub fan and enjoyed auto racing especially Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Michael enjoyed the simple things in life especially the love of his family being the dearest to him. The highlight of his day was spending time with Jason, Emily, Hannah, and Martin. He had a remarkable gift of touching the hearts of everyone he met. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends.

If anyone has a Ozark Airline memory like to share, please post a comment down below…