Elmira (Smith) Wilkey’s Biography
Elmira (Smith) Wilkey was born on December 13, 1936 in Kankakee, Illinois.
Elmira was born to Dorothy (Schilling) and Edmond Smith, who were married in 1928.
Elmira and her sister Suzanne were the only children in the family. Her FrenchCanadian ancestry comes from her father’s side of the family. She is a descendant of
twelve of the founding families of New France/Nova Scotia.
Before her birth, Elmira’s father (Edmond A. Smith) had been working for
International Harvester in Bismarck, North Dakota. Then he took over his father’s farm
implement dealership (sales and service)—“H. Smith Sons”—in 1931, which had been
established in1863. In 1933, the Smith family moved to Manteno, Illinois after living in
Peotone, Illinois for a short time. At the age of six, Elmira took private art lessons taught
by Sister Epfraim, Congregation of Notre Dame.
Growing up in Manteno among some of the original French-Canadian
descendants, Elmira and her older sister attended the convent school, Our Lady Academy
for twelve years. Our Lady Academy was one of three similar boarding schools (the
other two were Holy Family in Beaverville, Illinois and Saint Patrick’s in Momence,
Illinois. Elmira was early impressed that being French had a certain distinction and pride.
One of her earliest recollections was a gift of a bone rosary from the Shrine of Saint Anne
d’Beaupre brought from Canada for her after the trip made by her father and sister. That
rosary had a mystique and striking power—Elmira still has that rosary, and uses it. As a
student at Our Lady Academy, she had the privilege to join in performing at the Museum
of Science and Industry in Chicago during the Christmas season. She and other students
presented a French Christmas play complete with traditional French carols in the French
Cultural Exhibit (one of several countries represented in the gallery of Christmas trees of
other nations. She graduated from high school in 1954 in a class of five.
In 1958, Elmira graduated cum laude from Loretta Heights College in Denver,
Colorado. She also took courses at Loyola University in Chicago. Elmira began teaching
at Kankakee High School (Kankakee, Illinois) and completed her teaching career at
MacNamara High School in Kankakee. She also taught art and literature as an adjunct
professor at Kankakee Community College and art at Olivet Nazarene University
(Bourbonnais, Illinois).
In 1960, Elmira married Lowell G. Wilkey who was an engineer, farmer, and
quality control manager for International Tool Works before he retired. They raised six
sons on the farm in rural Bourbonnais, Illinois (Anthony, Eric, Martin, Barry, Tad, and
Jeremy) and now have eight grandchildren. Elmira has been active in traveling to
France--singing at the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, conducting tours of the family
woods to introduce interested persons to the identification and uses of thirty varieties of
wild herbs and plants, founding with her sister The Bronte Press—producing their first
book (an herbal with original wood engravings), conducting children’s summer reading
programs at the Manteno hometown library, presenting and reading books as the “book
lady” for children on local cable (Manteno), writing letters and receiving letters at the
level of a minor art form, cooking the French cuisine, and
researching/interviewing/editing/illustrating Rockville, the Ordinary and Extraordinary
History and Folklore of Rockville Township for the Bicentennial Commission of
Kankakee County in 1976. Elmira also has written book reviews and profiles of notable
persons. She also has served as a motivational speaker.
As a teenager, one fond memory of Elmira’s was that she sat in the winter
evenings with Uncle Joe Smith (her father’s uncle) as she stoked the stoker in the old
basement. She would watch that he did not have an accident with his two burner
kerosene stove that he preferred to the modern version, and that he did not catch fire to
his vest smoking his pipe as he dosed off with the radio turned up. It was he who taught
Elmira to eat raw oysters with vinegar and a dash of pepper. Elmira was drawn to the
French language of her family and studied two years of French at the academy and then a
third year in college.