The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

The Callans and McClarys
The Callan kids in 1964
working at French’s and Margery
was working at Loblaw’s grocery
store. One day the wife of Don
Belmont, Jack’s boss, came into
the store, and asked her, “So what
do you think about moving to
Missouri.” Margery responded,
“What ever will be will be.”
That night, Jack came home
and confirmed that French’s was
moving the factory to Springfield,
Missouri. A few months later, in
October 1972, they flew to Missouri,
French’s gave them a
cashier’s check for a downpayment,
and they bought a brand
new house on Sherwood Road.
“That was the easiest house we
ever bought,” Margery says. “We
filled out the papers and it was ours.
We picked out all the carpets and
the counters, and then we moved in
three months later. All I had to do
when we moved in was some
painting, and put a banister on the
stairs to the basement.”
On January 5, 1973, Jack
and Margery loaded into their blue
Pontiac station wagon and moved
to Sprinfield, Missouri.
Bernie, who was 19 by
then and had been out of
the house for a year, stayed
behind in Rochester.
Linda, who would be
18 that coming May, had
graduated from Eastidge
High in Rochester a year
earlier. She moved with the
family to Springfield, but
moved back and forth to
Rochester three or four times
before settling down and
marrying Steven Lowery in
Springfield, in 1974.
During the next few years,
the four youngest children,
Maureen, Steven, John and Al, all
made new friends and happy new
lives in Springfield. The day after
Al graduated from 8 th grade, the
Callans moved to Eldon, Missouri,
where Jack had taken a job as the
comproller of Fasco Industries. Al
attended high school there, and
went to college just up the road in
Columbia, at Columbia College. It
was in Columbia, while managing
Brugger’s Bagel Bakery, that Al
met Nancy McClary, his future
bride.
Linda got married to Steven
Lowery in 1974, and had two
children in the following few years,
Steven Lowery Junior and Lisa
Lowery.
Bernie was married in the
summer of 1978 to the former
Miriam Rushton. They had a
daughter, Marissa, who was a week
shy of a year old when Bernie died
in a car accident in March of 1980.
Meanwhile, Maureen, Steve
and John all started college at the
local Southwest Missouri State
~ 58 ~
University in
Springfield.
Maureen
became a respiratory
therapist and
joined the Air
Force reserves.
She traveled all
over the world,
and eventually
settled down in
Cocoa Beach,
Florida, where
she married Bill
Brower on Sept.
11, 1999, and where they both
now live.
Stephen went on to graduate
from SMSU with a bachelors in
chemistry, and got two masters
degrees, one in business and the
other in chemistry from the
University of Missouri Rolla.
While attending Rolla, he met
Jayne Gaydos, they married and
had two children, Nicole “Nikki,”
and Tyler. Steve started his own
company as a polymer chemist,
which continues in to this day. He
and Jayne divorced in 1999. He
got engaged to Ellen
Kastner in the year
2001, and they plan
a late 2002 wedding.
John wrote
this book, with skills
he attained while
earning a masters
degree in journal-
Al Callan, the last of the
Callan kids to leave home,
pictured with parents,
Marge and Jack Callan, on
his graduation from
Eldon High School, May
1984.
The Callan kids in 1968
ism at the University of Missouri.
After stints at People magazine
and at newspapers in California,
and Budapest, Hungary, he
moved to Seattle, found his love of
a lifetime, the former Julie Kay
Fadenrecht, and got married in
1996. John and Julie have two
wonderful children, Brendan Riley
and Hannah Nicole, and now live
in Woodinville, Washington.
And then there is Al, who is
featured in the next chapter.