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thePeorian.com
The Present
TOM AND VIOLA CONROY
“
Long engagements give
people the opportunity of
finding out each other’s
character before marriage,
which is never advisable.”
The above quote is from the
well-known Oscar Wilde com-
edy, “The Importance of Being
Ernest.” Its inclusion here is not
meant to necessarily imply that
the short engagement the Con-
roys enjoyed before they married
Aug. 1, 1942 — 70 years ago —
kept them together.
The wedding came when the
couple, who met in Syracuse,
N.Y., had known each other only
three months. He was 20 years
old, in the U.S. Air Force, when
he was stationed in Syracuse
and met Viola Button, who was
17
and living at home with her
father.
“
Soldiers were always looking
for girls, you know. But she was
special and I knew it right away,”
Tom said while sitting near Viola
in their Pekin home. “People said
we were too young and shouldn’t
do it, but we were stubborn, you
know. We stuck with it.”
The young couple and young
marriage survived Tom’s deploy-
ment overseas; it was, after all,
World War II. He was gone 28
months, spending time in China,
Burma and India. Viola came to
central Illinois to live with Tom’s
mother and wait for him to come
home. She wrote him every day.
The courtship, whirlwind by
today’s standards, ended with a
simple proposal, Viola said. “Yes,
he called me on a Wednesday
night and said, ‘we’re getting
married on Saturday.’ I said, ‘Are
we?’ That was how I accepted,”
she said, smiling at the memory.
Added Tom, “I just thought it
seemed like a good idea. It may
not have been all that romantic,
but I’d say it’s worked out pretty
good for us even though we re-
ally didn’t know each other very
well. We’re still working at it,
though. I don’t think we ever had
thoughts about whether it would
last. Oh, we had our spats like
everybody else but we worked
through them.”
Viola said the determination
to do that came from another
common ground they shared.
“
I think we were meant for each
other because we both came from
broken homes. We knew we were
going to work hard at it because
of that,” she said.
Another factor was that both
came from families with 10
children. They decided early in
their marriage to have only two
children and thus be better able
to support the family.
Tom was adopted, as well. He
and his siblings were separated
at a young age and he spent
several years living at Boys
Town in Omaha, Neb. He knew
Father Flanagan, the Boys Town
founder, and recalls the first time
meeting him, when he was still
frightened about what was going
to happen to him.
“
Father Flanagan, he pats me
on the head and says, ‘Kelly, you
don’t have to be afraid here. We’ll
take care of you.’ And they did.”
Kelly is Tom’s middle name.
Viola also had a tough child-
hood. Her mother left the family
when she was 10. She lived in
Syracuse until she married Tom.
Tom came to central Illinois
after his adoption; his adopted
mother was from Armington and
he lived in Bloomington during
high school. He and Viola moved
to Pekin after he went to work at
Caterpillar Inc., starting as a floor
sweeper and working his way up
to a supervisor before he retired.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
Tom and Viola Conroy shortly after they were married more than 70 years ago.
