Bonnie and Don come to Everleigh

After a long, long pause to catch my breath I am back with a new story about the people who live here. This time it is a little different because I am writing about a couple, Don and Bonnie Long. They both have unusual stories about their early lives. Many of you know Don's story but Bonnie also has a tale to tell.

Let's begin first with Don. He was born in West Virginia, the second of five children. Unfortunately, Don's father, a coal miner, died when he was only five. His mother was left with five small children. Don's youngest sibling, a little girl was only an infant. 

The family of a widow and five small children needed to survive. They were able to go to Mooseheart, which is located about thirty miles west of Chicago. It is run by the Loyal Order of the Moose. This is an international organization of men and women dedicated to caring for young and old, bringing communities closer together and celebrating life. There are similar fraternities in the U.S such as the Elks, the Knights of Columbus, the Rotarians, the Masons etc. They are groups of men and women devoted to certain philanthropic causes.

The Moose have a unique way of caring. They run Mooseheart Child City & School in Illinois. They also run Moosehaven, City of Contentment, for the elderly in Florida. Don and his siblings went to Mooseheart along with his mother. Here the children were cared for and his mother was given a job. 

Mooseheart was dedicated in 1913 and cares for youth whose families are unable, for a wide variety of reasons, to care for them. The Moose fraternity provides children with a home-like environment plus training and education. There are thirty residences which house six to eight children. They have over a thousand acres with 300 used for the student campus. Twenty acres contain a lake and picnic area. There is a school and vocational buildings. Acreage was also used for farming or grazing dairy and beef cattle. 

Because of the death of his father Don and his siblings became residents of Mooseheart until high school graduation. Although his mother arrived with them they did not see her very much. They were placed in residence halls appropriate for their ages rather than in a family unit. 

Mooseheart was a lovely setting and they have a complete self sustaining community with rules and procedures for caring for the children in their custody. However, living in a dorm with other children and house parents could never be the same as being with your family. There were rules to be followed. For example, new winter coats were purchased every other year. One year a friend of Don's had a growth spurt and his coat did not fit anymore. He had to make do somehow until the next year when he would get a coat that fit. Each item of clothes was marked with a laundry number. The soiled clothes were placed in a laundry bag and washed. Everyone had the same number of socks. 

Money was also something they never had in their pockets. There was a bank with an account for each child. Money sent from relatives was placed in these accounts. If children did odd jobs around the campus they received thirty five cents an hour which was also put in their accounts. There was never much cash to splurge in the candy store or on rare trips into town.

Time could be spent trying to get away with breaking the rules. For instance imagine a group of six to eight boys living in a house together, all about the same age. What happens when the house parents go to bed? What will high spirited boys do? Plan mischief. It could be anything from a pillow fight to sneaking out to find the girl's campus. Don has many stories of all the boys' antics. If you see him around, stop and ask him about some of his adventures. 

Don and his older brother were excellent athletes. This was a plus for their stay at Mooseheart. Don played football and got to travel around the country playing other teams. They were unbeatable! At one time they were on a train. In the next car the Cleveland Browns were settled in. Don and his teammates visited and got to hang out with the professional players. It was an unforgettable experience!

Playing sports was the best way to operate at the Mooseheart facility. It got you away from the institution and gave you a chance to see how the rest of the world lives. 

Students took regular high school classes but they also had brief stints learning different trades such as drafting, barbering, machine shop, carpentry etc. Don graduated from high school at Mooseheart and got a scholarship to North Central College. After he finished at North Central he married a girl from Mooseheart and began a career in sales. They moved to Maryland and had two daughters.

In the meantime, Bonnie was growing up not far away from Don in Aurora. That's not very far from here either. After graduating from high school she married and moved to Ames Iowa where her husband attended Iowa State University. After twelve years and two daughters, problems began to appear in her marriage. Eventually it ended in divorce.

Bonnie has a sister, Shirlee who lives in California. She invited Bonnie and her girls to California to visit. It would be a chance for Bonnie to reassess her life and plan for a different future than she had expected. Shirlee and her husband were on location a lot for his job and it would be helpful to them if someone lived in their guesthouse and acted as a house sitter. 

Shirlee, Bonnie's sister, had been a model and an airline hostess for American Airlines. She happened to be on board for the first trans-continental flight by that airline. In the course of her career she met many celebrities. One with whom she especially connected was Henry Fonda. Although Henry had been married before and more than once, Shirlee was the one with whom he really connected. Shirlee and Henry Fonda were married for over seventeen years until his death. 

So our Bonnie went to California and she and her daughters stayed seven years. Bonnie got a job at UCLA. It was a great experience for both Bonnie and the girls. Henry Fonda was a wonderful brother-in-law to her. She has many notes, drawings and paintings that Fonda gave to her and her girls. Actors have lots of time on movie sets when there is nothing to do. Fonda taught himself to paint and created many beautiful works. He often gifted co-stars with a painting specific to the film they worked on. Bonnie has many of his paintings on the walls of her apartment. However, Bonnie eventually moved back to Illinois.

In the meantime Don had also been divorced. He had been in sales in Maryland but he was burned out with that type of career. He returned to the Midwest. While working in a clothing store he met Bonnie. She had come into the store to visit the owner. Taking an interest, he asked the owner to get Bonnie's telephone number. The owner, knowing both of them, thought they'd be a good match and played cupid. Thus began the story of Don and Bonnie Long, one of Everleigh's nicest couples.

While he was at Mooseheart, Don had earned a barber's license through the different trades the students were introduced to in high school. With Bonnie he decided to start his own barber shop in Darien, a suburb not far from Naperville. He ran it for twenty-six years before retiring. They had a home in Naperville for many of those years. 

Before moving into Everleigh, Don and Bonnie visited her sister, Shirlee, in California. Her sister had surgery and they helped care for her while she recuperated. However, they could not stay because they have children and grandchildren here in the Midwest so they decided to live in this area. That is how we now have Don and Bonnie Long in our midst. It was a good deal for all of us.