Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

And a lot of those people are all gone with one exception, her Aunt Margaret is still alive
in Philo. And in fact she was talking to her last night. She's well in her nineties but they
keep in touch with her. But they were just dirt farmers is all they were and . . .
Q: Where did she go to school?
A: Well she went to the Catholic schools in Philo, and then at that time they had a Catholic
high school in Philo, she went to high school there too. It's all tore down now. And then
she took a business course in one of those business schools in Champaign. My brother-inlaw,
he and his wife are both U of I [University of Illinois] graduates, and he went away
to - all of the Dailey or Cain men - all of the boys, all of her uncles, almost to a tee,
went away to Catholic boarding school, high schools. Some of them went to St. Bede's at
Peru, and some of them went to St. Mary's out in Kansas. Rut they've all gone now. My
boy went to St. Bede's up at Peru and I think my brother-in-law did too. And I think several
of Eileen's - she's in the third generation - a lot of the third generation went to St. Rede's
and a kt of the second generation went to St. Mary's out in Emmett, Kansas. I think that
school's closed now, and I believe St. Bede's is closed too I think, on account of I guess no
enrollment. They used to be boarding schools but they - I guess inflation does away with
a lot of those places.
Q: Where did she go to school after she completed high school in Philo?
A: Well she went to Champaign to one of thosc secretarial schools, that's all. She just went
for a year or two. I'm not sure how many though, maybe two years, that's all. She didn't
go to college, didn't go to the U of I or anything like that. Her brother did, but none of
the girls did.
Oh she's got a sister in Danville. She was talking to her last night too. She's an RN [registered
nurse]. Went to St. Mary's hospital in Danville and of course she lost her husband
about ten years ago and she's a widow lady. And she's got another sister down in Florida
that worked as a secretary in Chicago but married and went down to Florida. We hear
from her down in Tampa. We hear from them occasionally. And she has another sister
that's not well, and she's in a nursing home over in Highland and she was over here this
week too. We keep in touch with her. She comes over here maybe every third month for
a weekend or something like that.
Q: Has she said why she decided to go work in Springfield?
A: Well, the only reason I can give you is that I said - there wasn't any jobs in Philo I
guess - I had said that the Daileys were active in politics and I guess that's why she went
to work in Springfield that's all. She just I guess took it for granted that she could get
a job in Springfield. So that's where she went right after she was out of school. And she
saved a little until she met and married me and then came down here.
Q: And that marriage occurred in 1949?
A: Nineteen forty-nine. We were married at the Cathedral church in Springfield. Father
O'Hara married us. He's not there anymore. He's in Rosewood lleights. We werc marricd
at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Sixth Street there May the seventh, 1949.
Q: Where did you go on your honeymoon?
A: Starved Rock.
Q: Oh you did? Well I'll be darned.
A: We had a lot of fun, a lot of fun. I must laugh at that because I got to know Dan Walker
pretty well. And whcn he was thinking about running for governor for the second term