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Note: Born December 13, 1911, on a farm southwest of Sandwich, Illinois. Family in 1911:
Father, Ward Pease Montgomery.
Mother, May Belle Fitzgerald Montgomery.
Sister, Marilla May, age 3.
(His younger sister, Mary Louise, would arrive two years later, 1913.)
1911-1915 - Raised on a farm originally purchased from the Federal Government in 1840 by his Great-Grandfather Thomas Lett.
1913, January 6 - From the Diary of Bob's Mother, May Belle, dated Jan 1 - Feb 4, 1913:
"My cold has been some better today. Marilla has felt more like herself. No fever all day. Has played with her dolls a great deal. Robert has been good as usual - such a dear happy boy. Ward took a big load of cobs to Aunt Delia today: brought home a barrel of Bed flower apples and a box of prunes among other things. Aunt Delia sent me two quarts of her own mince meat in the jar I sent her full of buttermilk. I ironed some this afternoon and washed out some diapers. Robert has dirtied several the last few days. Tonight, since supper I have washed my dishes, made applesauce, set my bread, made hash for breakfast, put Marilla to bed and sewed some buttons on her dress and mine. I'm very tired and my throat is bad again tonight. Think I shall retire as it is toward ten o'clock. Father (Ward) made me a new wood box today."
1915/1916 - His family left the Lett Farm and moved to a farm near Orchard Road and Base Line Road, north side of Base Line, west of Montgomery, IL. Attended school with his older sister Marilla, in the "Keck" School as it was called, next to the "Keck" Cemetery (now named the Joseph G. Keck Memorial Cemetery, begun 1843). He would come home from school and teach his younger sister, Mary Louise, to read. Younger sister Mary Louise also briefly attended this school.
1917-1918 - The family moved to a farm on Randall Road, just north of Galena Street in Aurora, where today there are only pine trees amid "newer subdivisions" to suggest the location. His father's WWI Draft Card of September 12, 1918, attests to the address. Attended the nearby rural "Randall School", the "Little Red (Brick) Schoolhouse" on Galena Street just west of Randall Road, with his big sister, Marilla. (See the caption written on the back of a photo taken of their Randall School Class field trip, taken at the Island Shelter House in front of Mill Race Inn, on the Fox River at Geneva, IL.) As she wrote in her autobiography, his sister Mary Lou remembered the family's pet hens, their Collie, "Flossie", and Shetland pony, "Bud". Bob used to ride "Bud" bareback. One time his Dad hitched Bud to a little cart and drove Bob and his sister, Mary Lou, to the little red schoolhouse. The last year they lived there (until early 1923), his Dad would drive older his sister, Marilla, to her Freshman year at West Aurora High School. Marilla would graduate from WHS in 1925.
1920-1922 - History of Tuberculosis in the family? His father Ward developed it while living on the Randall Road farm and was quarantined in a small screened in house for a while. He had a scar on one lung - possibly from TB as a child.
1923, Early - Moved with his family from the Randall Road farm to live on Blackhawk Street near Greenman School, west side of Aurora, IL. His father, Ward, started to sell real estate while taking commercial art correspondence classes and doing some land surveying.
1923, July 2 - While the family lived on Blackhawk Street in Aurora, his father, Ward Pease Montgomery, died of a ruptured duodenum in Aurora, Illinois, after only a week in hospital. Ward had apparently begun ulcer problems while living on the farm(s).
1923-1937 - After the death of his Father, Ward Pease Montgomery in July of 1923, the family lived in several places:
1923/24 - Lived on a farm with his Grandfather and Grandmother Fitzgerald and his Uncle Harold
1924 - 296 South Avenue
1927 - 317 South LaSalle
1929/30 - South Avenue (by themselves, May, Marilla, Bob, and Mary Lou)
1931 - 360 Evans Avenue (when he contracted polio at age 19)
1932 - 420 Linden Avenue (November - Grandpa Fitz died. Grandma Fitz came to live with the family)
1933 - 440 Weston Avenue (A four-bedroom house near Copley Hospital, with the expanded family including Grandma Fitzgerald)
1936 - 420 Marion Avenue (City Directory: "musician")
In addition, the family had lived in houses/apartments/duplexes (1924-1933) on:
Grant Place "near the coffee house", Root Street, and Benton Street near East High School - all locations on the east side of Aurora.
1923 - 1924 - Lived with his Mother and sister Mary Louise and his Uncle Harold (Harold was only about 13 years older than Bob) at the farm of maternal grandparents, James and Ida (Compton) Fitzgerald, north of Wheaton, Illinois. Went to grammar school there. Sister Marilla stayed in Aurora, attended West Aurora high school through graduation (1925).
1924 - Moved from Grandparent Fitzgerald's farm north of Wheaton back to Aurora. Reunited as a family unit, with Mother and 2 sisters, after sister Marilla's West Aurora High School Graduation in 1925. He attended Young School on Fifth Street, at the same time as his younger sister, Mary Louise.
1924 - 1925 - First job: paper route route for Aurora Beacon News.
1925 - 1929 - Attended East Aurora High School, Aurora, IL. Interested in music, art, and illustration, as was his father. In an autobiography at age 14, he expressed a desire to one day become a commercial artist as his father had desired at the end of his father's life. Bob played drums in the high school orchestra, but apparently in the band only his freshman year. His artwork is displayed on many pages of his high school yearbooks. In his Senior yearbook, next to his senior class photo is written, "Bob spends so much time helping others that he never has time to do any work". His high school achievements are listed: Student Council Rep. 1-4; French Club 3, 4, Treas. 3; Boys' Glee Club 3,4, Vice-Pres. 3, Sec. 4; Orchestra 2, 3, 4; Band 1; Auroran Staff 3,4 (school newspaper?); Patron Staff; Class Motto Committee. He designed scenery for three various stage productions during his senior year.
1925 - Became a Boy Scout (picture taken in BSA uniform on porch at 303 (110) Plum Street address (?).
1926 - 1928 - Purchased his first second-hand snare drum with $5.00 from paper route.
1928 - 1929 - Worked after school and Saturdays at Fisher's Bakery in Aurora for 25 cents per hour during Senior year of High School.
1929, June - Graduated East Aurora High School, Aurora, IL.
1929 - Began playing dance jobs using his expanded drum set, added to during high school with money from the Bakery job.
1929, October - Stock Market Crash.
1931, August - Contracted polio of the lower extremeties following a long hot day, having had a headache all day and playing a band job. Doctored daily by a Doctor Lindbergh, Osteopath, and his family with the aid of fluids, fruit and many massages. Recovered from polio enough to be able to walk independently and play drums - but never to run again. Took drum lessons in Chicago for a brief time after the polio - paid for by his Mother.
1932, October 22 - Bob's Band, "The Fidgety Five", a novelty band, won first place in the district finals of the WLS Radio / Paramount Radio contest at the Paramount Theater in Aurora, IL, winning $75 and an opportunity to perform before a live audience on the air on November 20, 1932, at the WLS Radio Studios in Chicago, IL. Playing in the band were: Don Wiley, bass; Russ Lindgren, guitar; Jack Pfeffers, trumpet; Clyde Rogers, sax, Bob Montgomery, drums. (Although press releases and news clippings about the performance of "The Fidgety Five" reported that the group had performed at WLS on November 20, 1932, upon being asked by son William (in the 70's) as to whether there may have been any recordings of the performance, Bob replied that the performance really never took place. One of the group's members (second from right in photo?) who did the arrangements for the band did not "come through", as Bob put it "he got cold feet". When it came to the time of the performance that member developed stage fright, or something similar defining that member's unwillingness to perform.) The news clippings attest only to what coulda, woulda, shoulda happened on November 20, 1932. NOTE: One of the WLS judges eventually purchased radio station WLBK, in DeKalb, IL.
1932, November 13 – His Grandpa Fitzgerald died. Grandma Fitz came to live with the family.
1932 - 1933 - "Bob Montgomery and His Band" - played at small clubs in and around the Fox River Valley, ala Geneva and Aurora, IL. Places like the Prima Gardens, the Fox Valley Gardens, and a nice club on the east side of Geneva.
1933 - Played drums in a small band (his band?) at a club north of Aurora in Geneva named "The Paramount". At home in Aurora, took on a roommate, a fellow band member named Harold K. "Obie" O'Brien. Obie was originally from the Genoa/Sycamore/DeKalb, IL, area.
1934, June 11 - "Obie" O'Brien marries his sister, Mary Lou, in Denver, CO.
1934 - 1935 - Traveled with Artie Collins' Band to, among other places; Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, Cleveland, Akron, Syracuse, Buffalo, Columbus, Youngstown, Louisville. In a letter to his Mother in September, 1935, he writes from The Garfield Hotel in Cleveland of having nothing to do while waiting to leave for "a one-nighter in Bascom, OH, then to Youngstown for 2 weeks at $20 a week - a "living wage", and then to the "Roosevelt" in Pittsburgh, the Van Cleve in Dayton, the Gibson in Cincinnati, or the Carter in Cleveland." The bookings didn't sound reliable to him - confusion was blamed on the bookings office, as per Collins. His money was shrinking, too. He left the band some time after the Nashville gig at the "Club Embassy" where they played for about 3 weeks in October.
1935 - November - He had left playing with Artie Collins' Band to play with Harold Menning's Orchestra and was living in Appleton, Wisconsin. Bob talked to Menning about hiring Obie and in mid-January 1936, Obie and Bob's sister, Mary Lou, "joined" the band. Appleton was headquarters for the band and they played in surrounding towns, traveling in a bus. He returned home in time for his sister Marilla's wedding at Thanksgiving-time and gave away the bride.
1935 - 1936 - Played drums in the Harold Menning Orchestra. Traveled by bus to surrounding towns. Maybe got in the band by knowing someone in the band, as it was when he got his brother-in-law, Obie into the band. Owned a 78 rpm record disc, dated as recorded in 1928 in Port Washington/Grafton, WI, of Harold Menning's Band's performance of "My Suppressed Desire".
1936 - January-July - "Obie" and Lou came "up to town". They lived with their son "Jackie" in an apartment in a private residence in Appleton. Brother-in-law Obie also played with the Menning Band and then moved back to Illinois. Bob lived with Bob Tuckis and another man in Appleton and slept on an open sleeping porch. He returned to Aurora after the band had apparently broken up.
1939 - 1941 - Working at a men's clothing store in Aurora. Met the famous actor, Buster Crabbe, of "Flash Gordon" movies fame, sold him some shoes, while working in Aurora.
1940, August 28 - Recorded on a Silvertone Label disc; "Exactly Like You" and "Medley: Whispering / On The Alamo / More Than You Know," with vocals by Bob in the Medley. Band recorded with: unknown.
1941 - 1942 - Invited to DeKalb by a man named Dee Palmer, who needed a good drummer for big band and "combo" gigs. Bob was recommended to Dee by Bob's brother-in-law, "Obie" O'Brien. Bob's response to Dee was that he didn't have a set of drums anymore. Dee replied that would not be a problem because he had a music store. It's quite possible Dee helped Bob get a job at Montgomery Wards. (As of 2009, Dee Palmer, at the age of 95, continues to conduct the DeKalb Municipal Band at weekly concerts in Hopkins Park in DeKalb. The DeKalb Municipal Band is the oldest continuous Municipal Band in Illinois, over 150 years, and, quite possibly, in the United States.)
1941 - De Kalb, IL - Would eat some of his evening meals at "Punk's Cabin", a tavern and eating establishment in downtown De Kalb. An evening meal at "The Cabin" cost $ .75 in 1941. Bob's Uncle Clifford Fitzgerald, as a young man (ca. 1900), had delivered beer in barrels that he rolled off trucks into a tavern in the same location.
1941 - Went to work at Montgomery Wards department store in DeKalb. On the recommendation of his new friend, Vic McMenamin, whom he met in "Punk's Log Cabin", he rented a room in the home of John and Martha McMenamin on Augusta Avenue in DeKalb, where he met Vic's sisters, Barbara and Claire McMenamin.
1942 - De Kalb, IL - Began working at Bowman's Shoe Store, 237 East Lincoln Highway, later as Store Manager. He remained Store Manager until 1966.
September 4, 1943 - Married Barbara Jean McMenamin, Vic's sister, while earning $ 35.00 a week at Bowman's. They rented a downstairs apartment on West Locust Street in De Kalb. Rent was $32 a month.
1943, November - Moved to 112 East Oak Street with a baby on the way. Rented the two-bedroom house from Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.
1944, June 5 - First child born - Jean Marie - at St. Mary Hospital, De Kalb, IL.
1946, June 13 - First son born - Richard James - at St. Mary Hospital.
1948, October 6 - Second son born - William John - at St. Mary Hospital.
1950, March - James Robert's Grandmother, Ida Compton Fitzgerald, died in Aurora from pneumonia, a week after falling and breaking her hip.
1953, February 23 - Third son born - John Robert - at St. Mary Hospital.
1953, Summer - Purchased and moved into 3-bedroom, 1 bathroom house at 640 North 5th Street, De Kalb, IL.
1955 - Father-In-Law, John McMenamin, dies.
1958, June - daughter Jean Marie graduates from St. Mary Parochial School.
1958, Summer - Remodeled house on North 5th Street, adding a large living room on the south of the existing dining room. The previous living room became a 4th bedroom.
1960, June - son Richard James graduates from St. Mary Parochial School.
1962, June - daughter Jean Marie graduates from De Kalb High School, attends Northern Illinois University in the Fall.
1962, June - son William John graduates from St. Mary Parochial School.
1964, February 8 - daughter Jean Marie marries Joe Thomas Bjorn.
1964, June - Richard James graduates from De Kalb High School. Shortly thereafter begins attending Elgin Community College, Elgin, IL.
1965, Summer - Bathroom / Kitchen addition to rear of house at 640 N. 5th Street.
1966, February - Travels with Dee Palmer and friends to New Orleans for a few days to enjoy the jazz!
1966 - Leaves Bowman Shoe Store employment after 23 years.
1966 - Begins working for Charles Ackerman Stores, a chain of women's clothing stores, as bookkeeper.
1966, May 26 - First grandchild born - Jeffrey Thomas Bjorn - to Jean Marie.
1966, June 8 - William John graduates from De Kalb High School. Attends Northern Illinois University in the Fall.
1967, June - Richard James graduated from Elgin Community College and began a 34-year employment with Commonwealth Edison, starting out as a meter-reader. Richard enrolled at NIU in the fall.
1967, Fall - Son Richard James enrolls at Northern Illinois University, graduating in December, 1983, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in General Studies.
1968, September 4 - Celebrates 25th Wedding Anniversary.
1968, September 7 - Richard James marries Jeanne Lorraine Allen.
1968, January 23 - Second grandchild born - Eric Clifford Montgomery - to Richard.
1968, May - Son Richard James drafted into US Army, sent to Viet Nam.
1968, June 12 - Mother May Belle Fitzgerald Montgomery dies in De Kalb, IL.
1969, April 26 - Son William John marries Pamela Whitson.
1969, November 3 - Son William John drafted into US Army, sent to Korea.
1970, June 18 - First Granddaughter born - Stephanie Lynn Montgomery - to William.
1970, November - Son Richard James returns from US Army, Viet Nam.
1971, June - Son John Robert graduates from De Kalb High School. Attends Kishwaukee College in the Fall.
1971, June - Son William John returns from US Army, Korea.
1973, January 31 - Grandson born - Scott William - to William.
1973, January - Son William graduates from Kishwaukee College with an Associates Degree.
1973 - James Robert Montgomery retires from Chas. Ackerman Stores after 5 years employment, age 62.
1973, June - Son John graduates from Kishwaukee College - transfers to University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
1973, September 4 - Celebrated 30th Wedding Anniversary.
1973, September - Granddaughter Jennifer Pielstick born to son John.
1974, April 23 - Grandson born - Spencer Fitzgerald Montgomery - to Richard.
1975, June - Son John graduates from University of Illinois with BA.
1976, June - Son John graduates from University of Illinois with MA.
1976, August 26 - Son John marries Kristi Pielstick.
1977, Spring - contracts Prostate Cancer.
1977, Summer - Travels with his wife Barbara to England and the Island of Majorca, Spain, to visit Barbara's sister, Mary Claire.
1977, Summer - Radiation treatments for the cancer and a somewhat primitive, uninformed treatment of castration do not alleviate the "disease.
1977, September 23 - Granddaughter born - Jennifer Pielstick - to John Robert.
1977, November 22 - Granddaughter born - Carolyn Martha - to William John.
1977, December 11- Grandson born - Joe Ryan Cornish Bjorn - to Jean Marie and Joe Bjorn.
1977, Fall to 1978, Spring - A 4-month, at-home, increasingly bedridden decline, with loving care provided by in-home nursing, his children rotating to assist their mother on weekends, and the faithful devotion of his wife Barbara.
1978, March 12 - James Robert Montgomery dies of Prostate Cancer
1978, March 15 - Buried in St. Mary Cemetery, De Kalb, IL.
Following his death, as of this writing (March 2020), another 2 children were born to son John Robert, Martha and Robert, and later 3 step-grandchildren to son Richard, 9 grandchildren, 4 step-grandchildren, and one great-grandson to son William John, and 3 grandsons and one granddaughter to son John . . . all occasions causing regrets that Bob was not present to help celebrate.
And the beat goes on . . .
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