1932-2011
1932-2011
| Robert Albert Stoens was born on August 13, 1932 outside of
Magnolia, Illinois at a place called Oxbow (which no longer exists) in Putnam
County. His mother, Alberta Daily was born in Putnam County, Illinois and
his father, Remijus Stoens was born in LaSalle County, Illinois. Robert has
an older brother, Howard. He also has a younger sister, Edith and a younger
brother, Arnold. His oldest brother, Elsworth died in infancy. Most of his
life, Robert has been known as Bob.
At the time of Bob's birth, his father, Remi worked by the month as a farm laborer for Mark Kays. They stayed there for two years. When Bob was 2 years old, his family moved to the Rismire Place outside of Magnolia. His father rented the farm as a tenant farmer. Bob's sister Edith was born at the Rismire Place on January 19, 1936. The farming there was very poor and Bob's father had a hard time trying to make a living for his family. Finally when Bob was about 5 years old, his father decided to try farming elsewhere. |
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| Bob's next home was the Schlesher Place north-east of
Lacon, Illinois. His dad, once again, worked as a tenant farmer. Bob and
his brother Howard started school together in 1938. They attended a little
country school called the John Swaney Grade School. Again, farming was very
poor, so in 1941, Bob's family moved again.
Their new home wasn't going to be empty until the first part of March, so Bob's family temporarily moved into a house outside of Henry. Bob and his brother and sister had never lived in a house with electricity before and were fascinated with the electric lights. The kids went around turning the lights off and on all over the house. The family stayed there about 2 weeks, living out of boxes before moving into their new home, a house owned by Ed Spangler. Bob was now about 8 years old. Bob's dad worked for Ed Spangler farming. His brother Arnold was born shortly after they moved on March 18, 1941. Bob's sister Edith was still too young, but Bob and Howard started to school at Fairview School. The next fall, Edith was old enough for school. It was in September of 1941, that there was a freak snow storm. Bob and his brother and sister had walked to school that morning. By afternoon, it was snowing so hard that Bob's father had to come and get them with the hay wagon and horses. The kids huddled behind the hay bales on the ride home. Because of problems in the school, the kids switched schools the next year. They now attended a little school in the woods called the Bennington Grove School. The children had to cross the Santa Fe Railroad tracks on their way to school. |
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| One fall day, Bob and his siblings were taking rakes to school
to help rake the school yard. A train was coming and they didn't want to
be late for school, so they hurried across the tracks, dragging their rakes
behind them. The train was so close, that it ran over the handle of their
rakes. (But they weren't late for school.) Bob and his brother and sister
never told their parents what happened to the rakes until after they were
grown.
Bob had what could have been a serious accident, when he was young. His mother had asked him to take some fruit jars to the cellar. On the way down, he slipped and slid down the steps to the cellar floor. Instead of letting go of the jars and catching himself from falling, Bob hung onto the jars for dear life. Not a single jar was broken when he hit the cellar floor! Thankfully all Bob got out of that was a scraped up back and a scolding from his mother for not letting go of the jars. Bob spent the remainder of his childhood at the Spangler Farm. They closed down the little school house they attended in 1945. By then, his brother Howard was old enough to drive so Howard and their friend, Eugene Cook took turns driving every one to school in La Rose, Illinois. Bob played basketball in high school and was very good at it. The school, at that time had a good team. One game, the team was down by one point and it was the final seconds of the game. Bob in desperation, threw the ball across the court from the other end and headed to the showers knowing they had lost the game. Well, the ball went in and they won the game. The crowd went crazy and Bob didn't even know he was the hero! He was taking a shower. |
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| By this time, Bob's older brother Howard was busy with other things,
so Bob spent a lot of time at home with his younger sister and brother. One
day, Bob's mother had baked a cherry pie. His parents went off to town, after
telling the kids they could have a piece of pie. Well, Bob thought some ice
cream would taste pretty good on that pie, so he went to town and bought
some. Naturally, Bob bought his favorite ice cream, strawberry. Even though
strawberry ice cream and cherry pie wasn't a normal combination, it must
have tasted pretty good, because they ate the whole pie! Then, thinking their
mother wouldn't remember that she had baked a pie, they washed the pie plate
and put it away. Naturally, mother remembered that she had baked a pie, but
had a laugh at them eating the whole pie with strawberry ice cream!
Bob also spent a lot of time helping his dad farm. His dad had an old John Deer tractor that had a hand clutch. Every so often the clutch would loosen up and had to be retightened. After tightening it, it was very stiff. One afternoon, Bob's dad had tightened the clutch and hadn't told Bob. Bob headed to the corn crib to put the tractor away. He reached to pull the clutch and couldn't pull it and Bob and the tractor went right through the corn crib doors! Luckily there wasn't any machinery stored inside the crib. |
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| Besides playing basketball and helping his
dad farm, Bob worked for other farmers in their area during high school.
He graduated from LaRose High School in 1950. Bob owned several vehicles
while in high school. One was a Terra Plain that he and Howard bought together.
It was nick-named "The Terrible Pain" because they constantly had car trouble
with it.
One of Bob's most prized possessions was the Plymouth that he bought in 1952. After high school, Bob continued farming until he enlisted in the air force in 1952. He left his Plymouth for his sister to drive while he was away. |
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| Bob and his cousin, Frank Roth went through Basic Training at Lockland
Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He continued his AIT in Texas at Amarillo
Air Force Base. Bob was then stationed in Rome, New York. It was there that
he met his friends, Lee and Dick Norton. Bob brought friends home with him
on leave many times.
Bob's parents had bought a home in Toluca, Illinois by then. The winter of 1955, Bob had gotten orders to go to Korea. Bob and Dick had come home on leave to Toluca for Christmas before Bob was to go over seas. Edith was working at the garment factory in Toluca and had been paid in silver dollars as a Christmas gift. They had been told by someone that some of the silver dollars were very valuable, so Bob and his friend Dick decided to drive to Henry to a dealer to have the value of the coins assessed. They took off one evening for Henry with Dick driving Bob's Plymouth. What they didn't know, was while they had been away, the county had widened the road on the Lacon hill, but it was still narrow at the bottom of the hill. Since, Dick was from Wisconsin, he was unfamiliar with the roads anyway. When they got to the bottom of the hill, Dick went off the road. During the accident, Bob was thrown from the car. They were taken to St. Francis hospital in Peoria. Dick's face was cut up from glass but otherwise was unhurt. The doctors thought Bob's leg was broken, but he kept complaining that his neck hurt. It wasn't until two days later, that they discovered that his neck was broken! (That was also the end to the Plymouth. It was completely totaled. They also never recovered the silver dollars.) After he was put in a body cast, Bob was sent to the hospital at Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. This is where he finished out his time in the service. While at the hospital, Bob and another friend would hitch-hike home. His friend had an arm and shoulder in a cast, so they probably were quite a sight, Bob in his body cast and his friend in his. Luckily, people must have felt sorry for them, because they always made it home. |
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| After his enlistment was up in 1956, Bob came home and went to work for Ulrich Manufacturing in Roanoke, Illinois. He lived at home with his parents for almost nine years. Then on November 25, 1967, Bob married Minna Ruch Benkendorf in Toluca, Illinois. They were married by Judge Higgins at his home in Toluca. Bob and Joyce Durham were their witnesses. | |
| Along with becoming a husband, Bob became a parent because Minna had
three children. At the time of their marriage, Debra was eleven years old,
Diana was ten years old and Brenda was eight years old. Now Bob had a ready
made family. They lived at first in a small house on what is known as the
Minonk-Washburn blacktop, west of Rt. 116A (this is now 117). The house was
too small though, and they soon moved to a house by Pattensburg, Illinois,
which is a small village south-west of Toluca.
Ulrich's Manufacturing went bankrupt in 1969. After that, Bob went to work at Rendispose Corporation in La Rose, Illinois. In September of 1974, Bob went to work a Caterpillar Tractor Company. Sometime, during the 1970's, Bob and his family moved to Toluca. All three of his daughters graduated from Toluca High School. Bob was laid off from Caterpillar Tractor Company and he went to work at McBride and Shoff Manufacturing in Metamora, Illinois. Bob and Minna moved to Washburn, Illinois where they lived for several years. They then moved to back to Toluca, Illinois in 1985 where they currently still live. Bob continues to work for McBride and Shoff until his retirement. He continued living in Toluca the remainder of his life. |
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Bob passed away on Monday evening, April 11th, 2011. He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him. |
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