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Note: he was born in Elgin, Illinois, in 1916. The family lived about one mile outside of town on a farm which they rented from Major Sherman. My mother, her parents, and her older brother lived in the “little house,” and her paternal grandparents lived across the road in the “big house.” Later, her grandparents moved into town and her family moved into the "big house." When my mother was about 4 the family moved into town, and her father opened a dairy. My mother got her 1st violin (¼ size) when she was 4 as a gift from her godfather Major Sherman. She became an accomplisher violin player. After graduating from Elgin High School, she followed her brother to the University of Illinois. After graduation from U of I with a Bachelor's degree in Music Education, my mother taught for three years in Harvey, Illinois. In 1940, she was living with Anna Reason, a widow, at 15417 Loomis Avenue in Harvey, Illinois. She was planning to travel in Europe, but decided not to because Hitler was on the rise. She used her money to spend the next few summers in graduate school at U of I, completing her Master's degree in Music Education. After the United States entered World War II, Vera was recruited by the "Aircraft Radio War Training Program for Women" and invited to complete a six month program at the University of Illinois, in which the students covered what was normally a 2-year training program to be an electrical engineering assistant. About ½ the class flunked out, but not Vera! On completion, she took a job as an engineering assistant at the Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. This job ended at the end of the war. Vera went back to her parents' house in Elgin to decide what to do next. While she was there, she received a letter from the brother of one of her dear friends Kathryn Phillips. Kathryn's brother William was back from the war, and was coming to Chicago to purchase equipment for the optometry practice that he was setting up in Carmi, Illinois. William asked if he could see Vera while he was in the Elgin area. They got together a few times, and soon became engaged. The entire Phillips family was thrilled! William Phillips Sr. used to tell Vera when she visited Kathryn in Ridgway “I wish one of my boys would marry you!”
Note: My mother has an interesting background for a woman for her generation. S
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