Interview with Gene Callahan # IS-A-L-2011-030 Interview # 1: July 6, 2011 Interviewer: Mark Depue – ALPL Oral History Program
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Interview with Gene Callahan # IS-A-L-2011-030 Interview # 1: July 6, 2011 Interviewer: Mark DePue – ALPL Oral History Program COPYRIGHT The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955 Note to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, or for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge. DePue: Today is Wednesday, July 6, 2011. My name is Mark DePue, Director of Oral History with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. I am sitting in the library this morning with Gene Callahan. Good morning Gene. Callahan: Good morning to you sir. DePue: This will be the first of what I believe will be quite a few sessions. I am guessing right now three or four sessions. But, Gene, with the career you have had in politics and baseball, we have got a lot to talk about. We got some opportunity today to talk about your career as a journalist and then your association with Sam Shapiro, a short one, and then with Paul Simon and then Allen Dixon, all of that leading up to several years as a lobbyist for major league baseball to include the strike years. So, there is a lot to talk about. I have had several people say, oh, you have to talk to him. He has got these great stories. That is why we love to talk to the people who are not just the politicians themselves but those who are working in the office, press secretaries, aids and people like that because often times you get even better and more revealing stories and insights in that respect. So, that is a long introduction but let’s start off with when and where you were born. Callahan: Born November 5, 1933 in Milford, Illinois. M-i-l-f-o-r-d in Iroquois County and I was the last of four children. My brother was thirteen years older than I. One sister eleven years older and one eight years older. Gene Callahan Interview # IS-A-L-2011-030 DePue: Tell us a little bit about Iroquois County. Callahan: Well, it is the third largest county in the state of Illinois area wise. It is larger than Cook County. A lot of big farms. Extremely Republican. If my memory is correct on this and I think it is, it was the fourth strongest county in the state for Goldwater in 1964 which gives you an example of just how strong a Republican county it is. There have been two Democratic natives in Iroquois County as Democrats elected to the Illinois House. My Dad is one of them. DePue: And your father’s name? Callahan: Joe Callahan. He was a Democratic committeeman for forty-eight years. Liberal Democrat in a very conservative area. But he paid his bills and told the truth and had a good reputation. DePue: Where in the state is it located? Callahan: It is sixty five miles northeast of Champaign. About eight miles to the Indiana line. We live closer to Purdue University than we do the University of Illinois. DePue: So, in the northern third of the state then? Callahan: Well, I call it east central Illinois. It is thirty six miles north of Danville if that helps you. DePue: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your parents and how they ended up in the Milford area in the first place. Callahan: Well, when my Mom… First, her Mom and Dad came from Germany and settled … DePue: What was her name? Callahan: Meyer. M-e-y-e-r. DePue: Her first name? Callahan: Helen. H-e-l-e-n. And she had an eighth grade education. Never spoke English until she went to grade school and church services there were one in English and one in German. She was very religious and she was really the religious anchor of our family. DePue: Lutheran? Callahan: Lutheran. Missouri Synod Lutheran, as you know, very conservative. DePue: Okay. And your Dad. 2 Gene Callahan Interview # IS-A-L-2011-030 Callahan: My Dad’s family in the 1700s, one relative came from Ireland and that is the only one that we see from the 1700s that came from Ireland. They were hog farmers in Kentucky and then they came from Kentucky to Milford, Illinois where they were hog farmers. My Dad was a hog farmer. My brother was a hog farmer. They didn’t think I was much of a hog farmer so they jettisoned me off to college. DePue: Well Callahan is obviously a very Irish sounding name, but it sounds like you don’t have much Irish blood that remained in there. Callahan: Well, the Callahans around Milford are not Catholic. Most of them belong to the Christian Church there. My Dad went to the Lutheran Church in Milford. Never became a member but went out of respect for my mother. But he had a brother that he was quite fond that was a thirty second degree Mason and I think it was just … he didn’t want to alienate his brother and he didn’t want to satisfy my Mom by becoming a member of the church because I don’t think he believed in everything as she did religiously. But he never did embarrass her. DePue: I take it then you attended Lutheran services when you were growing up. Callahan: Oh, yes, yes. And many times, you know, like Lent, mid-Wednesday services, Sunday services, went to catechism for three years during the school year and then had confirmation. DePue: What was it like being the son of a hog farmer? Callahan: Well, my Dad was well respected and we paid our bills. For instance, I remember the first time I ever charged anything. I was in the eighth grade and it’s a box of shotgun shells. I used to love to hunt. I go in and I said, Mr. G, could I charge this box of shotgun shells? And he said, are you Joe’s son or are you one of his brother’s sons—he mentioned the name— and I said, I’m Joe’s son. And he said, Okay, you can charge it. Now that has had a lasting effect on me, that comment. Because, you know, if you don’t pay your bills, then you are in trouble and especially in home community like Milford. You know, everyone knows everything in Milford. It takes a little while for you to know everything in Springfield but not Milford. DePue: How big of a town was Milford? Callahan: Well, it was seventeen hundred when I was a kid. It was thirteen fifty at the census ten years ago. My sister and I … I say it’s going be eleven hundred. I haven’t seen the census figures for this time. I am going to say eleven hundred and my sister thinks a little bigger than that. But there is not much there anymore. DePue: I assume you grew up on the farm though? 3 Gene Callahan Interview # IS-A-L-2011-030 Callahan: Oh yes, right. We lived six miles from Milford until I was in the eighth grade. I went to grade school in Stockland, Illinois which is about two and a half miles from the Indiana line from the third grade through the seventh. My Dad bought his first farm in 1938 but where we lived we rented that farm. And now my first two years in school it was a one room school house. That was eight kids in the first year and I went the whole second grade year with two kids in the whole school. We used to have a family reunion and my Dad would say, Tell them how well you are doing in school son. Well, I said, I am the smartest kid in my class and the smartest kid in school. He said, How many in your class? How many in school? And then … Well, I am the only one in the class and Pauline Schroeder is in sixth grade. And then he would laugh just like you are right now. He thought that was funny but he especially loved doing that at reunions. DePue: How about chores? I would assume sons growing up on the farm have to do chores. Callahan: Oh yes. Now my Dad was a sports fan. He loved sports so he let us participate in sports but that is the only break we got. But like when there was a sports season going on, as soon as we got home from home we started working. I started working in the field alone in the sixth grade. I can drive a car to Milford by myself in the sixth grade on the back roads and my sisters they worked in the field during World War II during the summer.