Vickroy: Harvey couple mark 70 years of marriage
Donna Vickroy dvickroy@southtownstar.com | (708) 633-5982 January 27, 2012 9:22PM
Ed and Virginia Stockey, who have been married 70 years, talk in their home in Harvey, IL on Friday January 23, 2012. They celebrated their anniversary on January 17th. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 1, 2012 8:05AM
Ed Stockey and Virginia Kurzawski met at a dance when they were 18. Ed was a student at Fenger High School in Chicago and Virginia attended Thornton Township in Harvey.
At the time, Ed was dating a friend of Virginia’s sister.
But fate had other plans. The couple ended up together, even though Virginia said, “He wasn’t much of a dancer. But he could roller skate.”
They dated for two years before Ed proposed.
“She wasn’t sure I was worth the trouble,” Ed said. “But I fooled her, I was a sweetie.”
It took him a little longer to win over her father, though. Ed said, “Her dad said, ‘Why are you marrying that guy? It’ll never last.’ ”
Here they are 70 years later, still married and still laughing at each other’s wisecracks.
So when exactly were they married?
Virginia pauses,
“Hmmm, Jan. 17, hmmm, 1942, right?” She looks at Ed.
“Hey if you don’t know maybe you shouldn’t be part of this,” he says, adding, “We’ve been married 77 years.”
Virginia balks, “You’re dreamin’.”
“Well, it seems like 77 years,” he says.
“Seems like a 100,” she says.
They were married at St. Susanna Church in Harvey. A reception for about 100 people followed in Roseland.
Soon after, Ed enlisted in the Navy, where he served for three years, seeing duty in Brazil, Saipan and Guam.
Meanwhile, Virginia lived with his parents and wrote to her husband regularly.
After Ed was discharged, the couple lived for a few years with Ed’s parents in West Pullman before buying the Cape Cod where they still reside in Harvey in 1949.
“The junk man who used to come around picking through trash moved us here, in his horse and buggy,” Ed recalled.
Ed found work as a crane operator at the nearby International Harvester plant, the same place Virginia worked while her groom was serving in the Navy.
Eventually, they added on, doubling the size of their kitchen to accommodate their four children. Their oldest, Phyllis, who was diagnosed with polio when she was just 8, still lives with them, as does her son Frank and his daughter Taylor.
Daughter Ruth is a retired professor of biology living in Oregon. Son Gregg is a psychologist.
All of the kids, including the youngest, Janet, and all of the grandchildren were able to make it home for this past Christmas.
“There were people all over the place,” Ed said.
“It was nice,” Virginia said. Her daughter cooked and her son-in-law washed the dishes.
The Stockeys, both 90, share a love of opera, a passion handed down by one of Ed’s uncles. Once they actually got to meet Luciano Pavarotti and shake his hand while dining at Cavallini’s Tavern in Chicago.
Early on, Ed taught himself woodcarving. The Stockeys’ home is filled with his handiwork. There are relief carvings hanging in the living room and carved animals in a curio cabinet in the kitchen.
He helped found the Midwest Carver’s Museum in South Holland and he taught carving classes at Thornridge High School and at the Mokena Park District, to name a few places.
“I won many awards for my carvings,” he said.
The family also made many trips to a carving museum in Colorado Springs.
Ed and some friends also formed the Shypoke Club and went in on a cabin at Rice Lake, Wis., where Ed liked to fish and Virginia liked to relax and read.
One time, after one of those friends had too much to drink, he told Ed, “Look, I went into the service two weeks after you. I got married two weeks after you. If you die, I’ll know I’ve got two weeks.”
A sense of humor has helped the couple endure life’s ups and downs.
Ed has survived two strokes and two heart attacks. He’s now hard of hearing and walks with a cane. Virginia says she’s in pretty good health. She still does two loads of laundry and cooks dinner every day.
To what do they attribute their long, happy marriage?
“We were sensible, I guess,” Virginia said. “We had our children to take care of.”
Finally, Ed said, “The secret to a happy marriage? It’s having a good basement.”
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