Cyril and Kathleen Von Fumetti
November 19, 1955
Cyril "Cy" Von Fumetti grew up in Dubuque, Iowa. Kathleen "Katie" Kenyon grew up in Monroe County, Wisconsin. Their paths might never have crossed except for Camp McCoy, an Army training base, in Monroe County, between Tomah and Sparta.
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Cy graduated from high school in 1948 and went to the University of Iowa in Iowa City that fall as a mechanical engineering major. Needing a way to earn and pay for college expenses he joined the Army ROTC program at the university. Part of the commitment to the Army included an obligation to participate in summer training. That training took Cy to Camp McCoy the summer of 1949, and the following summers again the next 3 years.
Cyril met Katie sometime over the summer of 1949 when she was between her Junior and Senior year of high school. We would not know about that early meeting except that one of her friends made a comment about "Si" in Katie's senior yearbook.
It was likely a slow to develop friendship or romance because Cyril was not in Monroe County on a regular basis other than during the summers. Katie had several boyfriends over the same years and moved around enough that no grass grew under her shoes.
She graduated from Tomah High School in May 1950 and spent the summer at home in Tomah, working at the local A&W. Although neither Cyril nor Katie ever talked much about their dating life, it is likely they resumed their friendship that summer. At the end of summer training, Cyril returned to the University of Iowa and Katie started at the University of Wisconsin in Madison that fall majoring in Chemistry.
Katie's College Womens' Dorm
"The Badger Club"
The Badger Club Residents
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Fall 1950
Katie, age 18, is in the front row, 2nd from the right
Katie was awarded a one-year tuition scholarship to the University of Wisconsin and a monetary science award from Bausch & Lomb. Her brother Kyle Kenyon gave her a significant gift of money on her graduation from high school which she used to help pay housing and expenses. In addition, Katie found a job as a part time clerk-typist job in the Sociology Department at the UW. Despite everything she did not have enough funds to continue after the first semester and had to step away from the university.
Katie went to work for Cutler and Hamer Engineering Services as a full-time editorial-clerk in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a little over a year from March 1951 through June of 1952 along with doubling up as a nanny for a local family. Cyril was back in Camp McCoy the summer of 1951 when Katie was working in Milwaukee. We do not know if they saw each other much, if at all, that summer.
Katie, center
Milwaukee Club ca. 1951-1953
When Katie left Milwaukee and returned to Tomah the summer of 1952, she was employed at Camp McCoy as a clerk typist and continued there through September 1953. She and Cyril may have dated the first summer in 1952, but he was officially sworn in as a second Lieutenant in the Army in February 1953 and was in France and Germany the summer of 1953.
Katie was able to go back to the University of Madison fall of 1953 as a full-time student. She had dated a local boy from high school over the past few years and they became engaged Christmas 1953 over the winter break. The engagement was brief and was broken off because Katie wanted a large family, and he did not.
Katie with "small gift"
Christmas 1953
By late spring 1954 Kathleen had moved on with her life and was socializing again at the university.
"Pajama Party"
University of Wisconsin
Katie, center checked shirt.
Delta Theta Sigma Fraternity Formal
May 8, 1954
Katie is in the 2nd row, 3rd person from the left.
Katie was hired as a part-time typist by Solvit Chemical Company in Madison during the school year 1953-54 but needed a full-time job that summer to help with fall school expenses. During that summer of 1954, Katie returned to Tomah to work as a clerk-typist and stock-record clerk in the Commissary Office at Camp McCoy. When it was time to go back to Madison for fall semester, she took on a part-time typist job with Schwarz Paper Company in Madison. Cyril spent that entire time in France.
Always a very social young woman, Katie ran for and became a semi-finalist for the 1955 University of Wisconsin Prom Queen.
Katie permanently left school in February 1955, returning home to Tomah and went back to work in a promoted full-time position as Requisition Clerk for the Commissary Office at Camp McCoy until mid-October. She quit her job at that point to get ready for her wedding to Cyril and prepare for a permanent move to Dubuque, Iowa. Katie left college the first time to earn money to go back later, but it is unclear why she left college the second time as Cyril did not return from France until May 1955. They may have been engaged already at that time and knew she would not finish before they were married.
Women Employees at Camp McCoy
September 2, 1955
Katie, center
Cyril returned from France in May 1955 and went to work as a mechanical engineer for the John Deere Tractor Works in Dubuque, Iowa. Dubuque is 125 miles from Tomah and from photos taken he made the trip to see Katie several times that summer in his new Chevy Bel Air and used the camera he had purchased while visiting Germany.
Katie
Taken by Cyril Summer 1955
Katie and Cy
At the Beach, Summer 1955
Katie putting her hair up in her trademark pinwheels after swimming.
Summer 1955
Cyril in town for the Tomah Centennial Celebration
Katie, Fritz Kelley and Cy with Fritz's car
Summer 1955
Katie and Cy
Summer 1955
Cy and Katie's wedding was held on November 19, 1955, a cold, snowy weekend. It was also the first day of deer hunting season in Wisconsin, a bone of contention with a brother and a couple of brothers-in-law!
Katie and her mother, Harriet (Shookman) Kenyon
leave the house to get ready for the wedding.
Katie, the youngest of the 8 children was the last to get married.
Tomah Methodist Church.
Postcard from 1956
Harriet, attaching Katie's veil shortly before the wedding.
Flower girl, Karen Greene, age 5.
Katie at the back of the church, escorted by her father, Charles Kenyon.
Wedding party photo after the ceremony.
Rev. Ernest Kistler (back)
L-R: Sandy Hart, Roxy Buxton (maid of honor),
Katie & Cy,
Bob Greene (best man) and Jim Link.
Karen Greene, flower girl and Danny Kenyon, ring bearer.
Marriage Record signed after the ceremony.
Receiving Line at the church.
Karen Greene, Dan Kenyon,
Cyril, Bob Greene and Bob Von der Ohe
Off to the reception!
Bob Greene and Cy helping Katie into Cy's new car.
Exchanging bites of cake.
L-R: Sandy Hart, Cy and Katie, Roxy Buxton, Bob Greene.
Danny Kenyon is not all that interested!
Devilment is afoot!
Bob Greene, always full of fun himself, clearly sees the situation.
The Bridal Couple
Wedding Party
Sandra Hart (niece of bride), Roxy Buxton (maid of honor)
Kathleen and Cyril
Bob Greene (best man and husband of Cyril's sister, Phylis) and Jim Link, (lifelong friend of Cyril).
Wedding Announcement
Dec 8, 1955
La Crosse Tribune
Katie and Cyril spent their first months of married life at 1760 Adair Street. This house belonged to Cyril's mother and step-father, Sadie and Maurice Bush who spent that winter in Arizona.
© Karla Von Fumetti Staudt
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