Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco holds her new book, “Love Letters From The Front … And Beyond,” about her father, Bill Wiebmer, in front of the Freedom Shrine near the Fox River in St. Charles. A member of the Tri-Cities Exchange Club, Wiebmer helped establish the shrine, which displays important United States historical documents.
Courtesy of Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco
It has been about 30 years since I was involved in some nasty dealings with Bill Wiebmer of St. Charles and other people from our service club.
It was a cleanup along Randall Road as part of the national Adopt-A-Highway program, in which the Tri-Cities Exchange Club recruited volunteers to pick up trash along highways. The word “gross” is apt, because Wiebmer pulled out of the ground what looked like a large piece of plastic sheeting — and on it was a vile substance that gave off an odor strong enough to knock over an elephant.
He didn’t say a word. He put it in his trash bag and we went about our business. It may seem like an odd memory of the late Wiebmer, but it is a testament to his calm demeanor and dedication to helping his community.
Years later, I wrote about one of Wiebmer’s proudest moments, when, at age 82, he became Quincy High School’s oldest graduate/athlete to show up for the school’s 100th anniversary basketball reunion game in 2007.
At the time, his health was failing and he joked that he couldn’t bend down to pick up the basketball or tie his shoes. But he ran up and down the basketball court a few times and was still talking about it weeks later.
He died in 2009 at the age of 84.
There had to be a lot more to this really nice guy who served in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War. His daughter, Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco of Sycamore, felt the same way – and she had to know him better than most, even those who lived near him or were friends with him during his 40 years in St. Charles.
Or was it? As Janet looked through hundreds of letters Bill had written to family and friends during his time in the military, she realized there was a lot she didn’t know. She decided to share it in an autobiography about her father, titled Love from the Front…and Beyond.
Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco of Sycamore reads letters written by her father, Bill Wiebmer of St. Charles, during his time in the Navy on Wake Island and in Korea. The letters served as the basis for an autobiography about her father.
Courtesy of Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco
“This autobiography was a love story he wrote for my mother and my siblings,” Janet said. “For me, it means that he left us such a gift.”
For Janet, now 60, it was an educational experience because she was able to “get to know my father as a small child, his years as a young man, how he courted my mother and other things.”
The letters and their revelations fueled Janet’s plan to tell her father’s story through the letters he sent home during his military service on Wake Island and in Korea. Of course, there were many other memories and experiences he wrote about.
The book tells the story of the letters of a young sailor who serves his country, finds the love of his life, Barbara, and grows up to be a family man and the type of man everyone would like to have in their community.
The book has some meaning even if you don’t know Bill Wiebmer. It tells us what it means to pass on a parent’s life and influence to future generations.
“I would encourage readers of the book to think about their family and pass on the stories and traditions that make them special,” Janet said. “If you are lucky enough to have a parent or grandparent still alive, take the time to sit down with them and talk about their lives.”
“Keep a journal,” she added. “Pass the stories on. When they’re over, you’ll wish you had.”
The paperback “Love From The Front … And Beyond” by Laurel Hill Publishing is available on Amazon.
In addition to an entry about the reunion basketball game in Quincy, future Wiebmer generations should also learn that Bill got talking to greats when he met Elvis Presley in a hotel elevator in St. Louis.
It was early in Elvis’ career, we are told in the book, when Bill wasn’t quite sure who he had just seen.
“I was waiting for the elevator to my room when a man accompanied by security burst through the hotel doors,” Bill wrote. “He was followed by several teenage girls.”
“Security took over the elevator and the entertainer came in while we were waiting,” he noted. “I asked at the counter who he was and was told it was Elvis Presley. I had never heard of him.”
You may also be interested to know that while Bill was studying at the University of Illinois, he roomed with a future technology leader and Nobel Prize winner in physics, Jack Kilby, who went on to become a famous inventor. His most important inventions included the calculator and later computer microchips.
Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco stands in a garden at St. Charles Congregational Church, which her father, Bill Wiebmer, helped design, holding a copy of an autobiography about her father.
Courtesy of Janet Wiebmer Gianfrancesco
Ultimately, you look to a book like this for clues to learn how good people live their lives – and what motivated them to do so. And what they did to make their community a better place to live.
When asked what he thought was the best advice he ever received, Bill simply replied, “Be yourself. Don’t change yourself for others.”
Bill Wiebmer’s “self” was certainly a role model worth emulating.
Bring me a shake bar:
It’s been about 35 years since I mentioned in my column that it would be great for the Tri-Cities area to have a Portillo’s Hot Dogs.
Portillo’s was well known in the suburbs east of the Tri-Cities, and I was a fan of the restaurant’s Italian beef sandwiches.
Shortly after the column appeared, Dick Portillo wrote me a letter telling me that he was indeed interested in a location in the Tri-Cities area and that he appreciated my mentioning his company.
A few years later, Batavia had a Portillo’s on Randall Road and St. Charles had one on East Main Street. It’s a good thing I discovered Dick Portillo so early, because in 2014 he finally sold his restaurants to Berkshire Partners.
Whether my query has anything to do with that is up for debate, but I thought it would be worth another try.
This time, I wouldn’t mind seeing a JoJo’s ShakeBar in one of the many open spaces in downtown areas of the Tri-Cities.
I have only received feedback from family and friends who have been to the one on Jackson Avenue in Naperville. If you have never been to one of these places, all you have to do is visit jojosshakebar.com to see the shake creations and menu.
As a fun family restaurant, I would choose this over another bar and grill any day (and I like the bar and grill business model, but we’ve had enough of those).
It’s unlikely that I could devour one of Jo Jo’s specialty shakes in one sitting, but I wouldn’t rule it out. But I like pretty much everything on this place’s menu.
If anyone from Jo Jo’s comes across this column, just think of us.
About the bikes:
Rex Morrison operated an excellent restaurant on the east side of St. Charles for decades, as Rex’s Cork ‘n Fork had become a favorite of many people in the St. Charles area.
It started in the late 1950s as Rex’s drive-in restaurant, where drivers would come to cars to take orders and serve the food on a tray that would be attached to the driver’s side. Yes, that’s a trip down memory lane.
In the 1970s, the drive-in concept finally developed into a place for upscale dining.
Of course, time marches on. After Morrison’s retirement and death in 2007, the site was sold and eventually used for other businesses, including a pet grooming and kennel operation.
But this place, 1317 E. Main St., is soon to become the St. Charles Motorcycle Museum and Art Gallery. I never thought I’d mention Morrison’s old restaurant in the same sentence as a motorcycle museum. But there it is.
The organisers are aiming for an opening in September this year, so that we will have an interesting new attraction for motorcycle enthusiasts and other visitors from across the region.
And you can bet a burger from Rex’s Drive-In that over 60 years ago a few motorcycles stopped here to chat with car hoppers and order food.
The mystery of the empty shopping center:
I enjoy watching movies at Classic Cinemas in St. Charles because it’s a comfortable and clean theater – and it’s interesting to take a look at the excellent artwork on the hallway walls depicting various locations in the Tri-Cities.
The theater complex remains part of the long-abandoned Charlestowne Mall, which I long ago dismissed as a problem apparently too big for anyone to agree on and find a solution to move forward.
Ideas and plans have always been linked to several different owners with different levels of funding and implementation, leaving city councils’ hands tied in solving the puzzle.
So far, the puzzle has won.
Meanwhile, the city has turned to developer Greco Investment Management to build a shopping strip called Fox Haven Square on a vacant lot near the closed mall. The new development, which also includes a plan to capitalize on the popularity of pickleball, sounds great on paper. But that doesn’t change the fact that most of us have lost track of what could, should, or would have happened at Charlestowne Mall. The more disappointing side of it is that many of us have lost interest.
But I’m glad the cinema still calls it home. And those who like the Von Maur department store on the other side of the mall probably feel the same.
