Jerome M Larkin & Sadie Irene Leary

Jerome Michael Larkin

"Jerry" was born Michael Jerome Larkin on Aug 1, 1906 in Towanda, IL. His sponsors were May Gould and Michael Kinsella. He grew up on his father's farm and later changed the order of his first and middle name to more clearly differentiate himself from his father. In contrast to his father, he was a very outgoing personality and was always close to his brothers Jim and Red, whom all his children remember fondly.

On May 12, 1931 he married Sadie Irene Leary at St. Patrick's Church in Merna with Martha Larkin and Fred Leary as attendants. A live of economic struggle during the Great Depression did not prevent them from establishing a large family of which we are all members.

Jerry Larkin was a man of formidable skills and is remembered by his elder sons as a good baseball player, a very good pool player, and an excellent hunter and marksman. Larry relates that he could shoot a moving rabbit at 75 feet without missing (that was how they ate during the winter). He was also known as a very skilled machinist and grinder when he worked at the Eureka factory (this has been related by coworkers, not just family members.)

Unfortunately he suffered from alcoholism severe even by the standards of that day and would go on extended drinking binges. An inherenetly strong and energetic man, he seemed to take pride in proving wrong the doctor who told him at age 33 that he would be dead from drinking within 2 years. He made it 20 more years and died on Oct 14, 1959. He is burried in St. Mary's Cemetary, Bloomington in Lot 4, Block 316, Grave 6.

Sadie Irene Leary

Sadie (aka Grandma Larkin) was born Dec 2, 1908 and was sponsored by Mrs. Margaret Williams. She worked as a school teacher amidst raising 10 children. Sadie was very active in the Democratic Party in McLean County in the 1960s and ran for County Recorder of Deeds in 1964 and City Clerk in 1965. (See Leary Family for ancestry)

Sadie was the Associate Editor of her senior yearbook and student body Secretary. In the midst of some elegant Jazz age styling, the quote selected for her was "They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts."

We have been blessed to have some hand written reminiscences of Sadie's:

I met Jerry Larkin in January 1927 at O'Neil's Park Dance Pavilion. My friend Mildred said "He's got a line." His cousin brought him over to meet me, calling me his girl and threatening to break his neck if he ever got a date with me. A snowball fight later we danced. We danced for four years at what is now State Farm Park, swam in the lake at Miller's Park, ate a lot of nickel hamburgers, and went to a zillion movies.

We got married May 12, 1931. We started housekeeping and farming at Buck's Crossing, halfway between Heyworth and Wapella. We borrowed to start farming jumbo corn on 80 acres for one year (where Larry was born) then moved back to Grandpa Larkin's birthplace right north of their house where Joan was born. Jerry played softball in Lexington, farmed 160 acres with his brothers Jim & Red's help. They lost the farm to foreclosure and we moved to town in 1933 [the height of the Great Depression]. In '35 Betty was born and we moved to a farm in Cooksville of 190 acres. Three years later we moved to Holder so Jerry could get WPA work for $ 1.00 a day and federal food. We lived there four years and Mike was born there. We broke out and moved to Downs for 12 years where Dick, Tom, Mary, & Alice were born.

My husband worked for transfer companies and finally at Eureka on a precision grinder and made parts for machines during WW II. He also worked for the State on highway construction. He was built a lot like our son Mike. A hard worker and proud of all his kids, afraid something would happen to them. A family man, except when Old John Barley's Corn got in his way. He could always get a job but had trouble holding on to one. Had a hundred friends. He was musical, told stories, a great gardener, charming, sensitive, etc.

He rode horses 10 miles to Holder when they had work and roads were impassible and returned home the same night and shucked corn all day, with little sleep.

The center of our family passed on to her rest in September of 2005. She is buried in St Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Bloomington, next to her only husband, Jerry Larkin.