CHICAGO (CBS) -- Friends and family are preparing to say their final goodbyes to Chicago restaurateur and former Irish senator Billy Lawless. Lawless died on Friday, Nov. 8. He was 73. He was a tireless advocate for immigrant rights, and became Ireland's first-ever emigrant senator.

Lawless died on Friday, Nov. 8 at was 73. He was a tireless advocate for immigrant rights, and became Ireland’s first-ever emigrant senator.

Billy Lawless has been remembered as "a political force who made a difference in Irish and American politics over many decades."

Former senator Billy Lawless, originally from Galway but who became a successful publican after moving to Chicago in the 1990s, has died aged 73. Lawless was known as a champion of the undocumented Irish in America,

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Former senator and Irish-American businessman Billy Lawless has died in Chicago at the age of 73. Mr Lawless moved to Chicago in 1998 and built a hugely successful restaurant business in the US. He was well known as a champion of the undocumented Irish.

"Billy Lawless was a gentleman to his core, he was a businessman at the top of his game, and he was a person who accepted a challenge from former taoiseach Enda Kenny - to travel from Chicago to Leinster House to represent the Irish diaspora.