Jim Fleming, former Chicago Sun-Times copy editor, dies at 84

Former Sun-Times copy editor Jim Fleming didn't have an off switch.

"He drove me crazy because he would edit my grocery lists and tell me I misspelled 'carrot,'" Mr. Fleming's wife, Joette Fleming, said with a laugh.

He also had a T-shirt that proclaimed: "I'm silently editing your grammar."

"He was a solid old-time copy editor who watched everything very carefully," said former Sun-Times editorial board member Tom Frisbie.

"And he was everybody's hero on the copy desk," Frisbie said, noting that for much of his career Mr. Fleming, something of an introvert, worked weekends and overnight shifts, which meant others didn't have to.

"This not only made it easier on younger workers who wanted better hours, but it also enabled Jim to work in the quieter hours of the daily grind," said Sun-Times copy editor Jeff Britt.

"He stood as a steadying force with the highest integrity, prepared to call out stories that didn't meet the paper's standards," Britt said. "And he was someone I always could go to when I needed to know, as the old saying goes, where the bodies were buried."

Mr. Fleming, who worked at the Sun-Times from 1976 to 2010, died Jan. 5, at his home in Bensenville from a degenerative muscle disease. He was 84.

"He just loved being a part of the city and making it work, and was very dedicated to accuracy and truth," his wife said.

"He had an eagle eye, knew grammar and the newspaper’s style inside and out, and he had a solid grasp on public officials’ titles, key dates and all of that crucial background stuff," said Scott Fornek, former Sun-Times politics editor.

"But he also was a true gentleman, always approaching reporters and editors with tact and courtesy with his questions or suggestions. No ego or condescension. You always knew that all Jim cared about was protecting you and the paper — and making life easier for the reader," Fornek said.

Interviewed for a story in October 2004 on the last day Sun-Times staffers worked at the newspaper's building along the Chicago River before it was demolished, Mr. Fleming, who was last to leave the building, was asked if he'd been thinking about the significance of the era-ending exit.

"All the time. I've been thinking about it for months. When you spend so much time in a place, it becomes part of you," Mr. Fleming said.

"It's dilapidated and old," he said with a shrug, "but so am I."

Before settling in the Chicago area — originally in Elmwood Park — Mr. Fleming worked as a reporter in Richmond, Indiana, where he covered a gas explosion that killed 41 people in 1968. In the years after, Mr. Fleming was contacted by local news outlets on the anniversary of the tragedy, his wife said.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Fleming is survived by his son, Robert Fleming; his daughter, Kristen Ryan; and five grandchildren.

Services have been held.