Anne Burke’s little-known story soon to be at a theater near you...

By Karen Conti

Karen Conti is owner of ContiLaw LLC. She is a regular legal commentator on the local Fox affiliate and CNN. She appears every Sunday from 8 to 9 p.m. on WGN-AM 720 to discuss current legal events and to answer listeners’ questions.

From the Illinois Supreme Court bench to the silver screen, Justice Anne M. Burke’s life is about to take an interesting turn. Or, more accurately, another interesting turn.

Last week, it was announced that Burke’s struggle to create the Special Olympics for children with disabilities will be portrayed in a feature film. “Special” will be the true story of 24-year-old Anne Burke (nee McGlone) who came up with the idea of having a track meet in Chicago for disabled children that she wanted to call “Special Olympics.”

In 1968, a year filled with political and social turmoil, Burke tenaciously sought to convince an insensitive Olympic commissioner to allow use of the name “Special Olympics.”

Worried that “retarded” kids would somehow tarnish the Olympic brand, the commissioner was dead set against the idea. An uphill battle ensued.

At the time, Burke, was a clear underdog. Suffering from dyslexia and having dropped out of college, Burke was a shy and unassuming physical education instructor for the Chicago Park District. Undeterred, Burke persisted against the odds and finally won her way.

Special Olympics is now a worldwide event involving 172 countries with more than 5.7 million disabled children participating annually.

Burke’s vision and drive would serve her well later in life as she completed college and law school while mothering four children with Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke. (She now has five children and nine grandchildren.)

In 1995, Burke became a justice on the appellate court and has served on the Illinois Supreme Court since 2006.

The story of “Special” is made more interesting by the fact that Eunice Kennedy Shriver (John F. Kennedy’s sister), whom Burke sought for support, almost immediately was given credit for originating the whole idea of the Special Olympics.

In fact, to this day, Shriver’s Wikipedia entry identifies her as the founder. The movie will address, and hopefully correct, this misplaced attribution.

Written by Washington attorney and journalist Matthew Scott Weiner, the movie will be produced by ShivHans Pictures and InCahoots Film Entertainment.

I had a chance to sit down with Burke to discuss “Special.”

Q: Put yourself back in the year 1968. What was your initial vision for having a Special Olympics?

A: There was no vision! Because what I envisioned for the children was an ordinary old track meet, which we had been doing at the park district since 1965. However, with Eunice Shriver’s suggestion, we wanted to invite other states.

So the vision was really more a local Chicago event, inviting families and children with disabilities to Solider Field to participate in an entire day of games and competitions.

Q: Describe the political climate in the 1960s that made this such a difficult project.

A: At that time, Robert F. Kennedy had just been killed. There were the riots in Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention. There were so many things that made it difficult to concentrate on something that had never been done before.

But, so many people knew how important it was to make this happen for the families in the Chicago area who had children with special needs. It’s hard not to feel like you need to do something when there appears that there is nothing you can do to make a difference in the world.

Q: Has Special Olympics changed the perception of children with special needs?

A: Yes, but it has taken 50 years. The more children and adults that have special needs that are mainstreamed into the community — in schools, in parks and in jobs — the more it becomes second nature to everyone.

At the time, though, the children were still in institutions and in the closet. Parents were embarrassed to have a special needs child. They wouldn’t take them to the store or out with the rest of the family to go bowling.

Our hope was to teach them not only athletic skills, but life skills, so they could participate in lifelong activities in the community. So, it has taken a long, long time, especially in countries like China, where they wouldn’t accept anyone with disabilities. They now embrace it. A few years ago, I attended the international games in Shanghai, where there were 8,000 children from around the world.

Q: Was it Shriver who failed to give you credit for this project or was it the press who likely focused on the Kennedy name?

A: I don’t really know. I don’t think anyone disputes that the genesis of the Special Olympics was in Chicago and through the Chicago Park District. There is also no doubt that, without the Kennedy Foundation and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the games would not be what they are. We are so thrilled to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Special Olympics this July, and I think Chicagoans know that the games started here.

Q: Do you look back at the 24-year-old Anne McGlone and think of yourself as a different person? Would you say that this was a defining event in your life?

A: Looking back, yes, it was a defining moment, but I didn’t know it at the time. I think we all have certain characteristics, certain DNA, that makes us who we are from the very beginning. How we use those tools and gifts is a different story.

I had been working with children, which was on the top of my wish list. From the moment I met the children with disabilities, I knew I wanted to continue to be an advocate for children and children with disabilities, so it was a defining moment, but it wasn’t any different from what I had always wanted to do.

Am I different now? Not really. My experience over 50 years has made me wish that I knew then what I know now so I could do a few things differently, but I think we all have those thoughts. I do not regret anything I have done and consider it a great privilege to have been part of this great movement with the great teachers and volunteers who helped make it happen.

Q: When you were first approached about the making of this film, did you think it would make a compelling story?

A: Of course I didn’t think so. One doesn’t think that what happened in the normal course of their life is a story that is any different from anyone else’s story. What is compelling is that people can change — not about me, but about the world. In the mid-1960s, there was no Special Olympics, no Americans with Disabilities Act, no programs for education and recreation for people with disabilities. That wasn’t even on the radar.

When Special Olympics happened, these issues were brought into the open so that everyone could see who these people were, what their abilities really were. The more people learn about each other and what is going on in the world helps us to understand who we really are. That is the compelling story. Not me, but how people can change if they permit themselves to listen and understand each other.

Q: You have made children’s advocacy your life’s project. (Burke was appointed special counsel to the governor for Child Welfare Services and was appointed by the Catholic Church to the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People.) How do you think this film will further your support of children and special needs children?

A: One of the main concerns I have had is that, while the games themselves are important to change the world about how people view others with special needs, we haven’t really focused on the need for long-term residential care for them.

Parents pass away and some of these children don’t have parents who can take care of them. Our society must look to what we can do for these special people in the future.

We haven’t really done that much. There are only a few places in Illinois, for instance, where disabled people can go like Misericordia and Good Shepherd Manor in Momence. What happens to people who can’t afford the care?

The funds are drying up all over the country for people with special needs. I hope the film changes the thinking and what we need to do for the most vulnerable people in our society.

Q: And most importantly, what actress do want to portray you in the movie?

A: I have no clue! But whoever it is has to have dark hair because I did when I was young. And I was relatively thin at the time. And it’s going to be interesting who other people think who look like me. I am looking forward knowing who that will be myself.