Bears matriarch Virginia McCaskey dies at 102

Chicago Bears owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, and daughter of Bears’ founder George S. Halas waits for an unveiling ceremony outside Soldier Field of statues honoring Halas and Walter Payton in 2019.Charles Rex Arbogast/AP file

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Virginia Halas McCaskey, the matriarch of the Bears franchise and the NFL’s most direct link to its very founding, died Thursday at the age of 102.

One of founder George Halas’ two children, McCaskey was born Jan. 5, 1923. She and husband Ed McCaskey raised 11 children together in an unassuming home in Des Plaines.

After her brother, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., died in 1979, she was in line to inherit the team from her father — and did upon his death on Oct.…