'Big stories for a small town'

As The Sun moved into its second decade, news of World War II still

dominated the pages of the newspaper. There were stories of young

soldiers, sailors and Marines from Naperville who were missing in

action or killed. When the war finally ended, the stories shifted to

"our boys returning home from the front."

A front-page story dated Aug. 16, 1945, described how Naperville

heralded the approach of V-J Day. The story read: "When the supper hour

was over, huge crowds congregated in the downtown area. Street dancing,

cheering and a deluge of paper from windows keynoted the celebration of

the close of World War II. The lights burned late in many Naperville

homes as celebrants went from house to house, visiting people they had

never met before."

The years from 1945 to 1950 show a town slowly returning to normal.

After the war, Naperville military veterans in need of homes attracted

national and international attention with their plans for prefabricated

houses.

    

The biggest Naperville story of this period was the tragic rail crash

on April 25, 1946. At the Loomis Street crossing, the Burlington's

Exposition Flyer smashed into the Burlington's Advanced Flyer. One

coach car overturned, and two others derailed. Forty-seven people died

and 100 were injured in the accident.

Another major tragedy that affected all of Naperville was the Dec. 7,

1952, disappearance of Jean Peterson, 6, and Edward Rosenstiel, 3. The

two were next-door neighbors living on West Water Street, on the banks

of the DuPage River. The entire town banded together to search for the

missing children. Although the river was dragged, road blocks set up,

cars searched and a bloodhound used, the children were still not found

at the end of the year. It wasn't until Feb. 3, 1953, that their tiny

bodies were discovered beneath the ice of the DuPage River. There was

no evidence of foul play. Police officials said the youngsters had

probably walked onto the ice near a footbridge and proceeded up the

center of the river, where the ice gave way.

Vic Thornton, a reporter for The Sun for 15 years, wrote in a 1976

reminiscence that the incident was especially arduous and heartbreaking

for Sun reporters Jane Witte and Jean Schmus, who knew the parents of

the missing children. Thornton also mentioned The Sun's hospitality in

allowing out-of-town reporters to use the paper's phones and

typewriters to cover the story.

But The Sun didn't just run serious stories. There were also lighter

pieces that reflected the farm community Naperville was at that time.

Triplet lambs were frequently born and announced in the newspaper.

In 1946, a cow gave birth to a two-headed calf. Four years later, a pig

with one head, six legs and two tails entered the world. Naperville

farmboys also made headlines when they won the National Plowing Match

in Iowa.

With its Oct. 1, 1953 edition, The Sun launched its yearlong Mystery

Farm Contest. Each week, The Sun ran an aerial photo of a Naperville

farm. Readers who identified the photo correctly won a year's

subscription to The Sun, which cost $3 at the time.

During that period, technology advanced at The Sun. In 1950, the owners

installed a used Duplex newspaper press, which printed on rolls of

newsprint. The papers were printed and folded simultaneously at speeds

impossible with a hand-fed press.

The Sun also was known for some of its writers. Genevieve Towsley

started at the newspaper in June 1954. She is still remembered for her

Grapevine column and the Sky-Lines features. Some of her articles were

later compiled in a book called "A View of Historic Naperville."

The Sun's second decade saw the end of World War II and the beginning

of the Korean War. There were stories about the advent of TV, items

about Naperville's new families and blurbs about where Naperville

residents spent their vacations.

It was, as Thornton recalled, a time for "... big stories — at least big stories for a small town."

 Coming Thursday: 1955-65

The weekly Sun costs a dime per issue and $3.50 for the year. Harold

White's mother, Fannie, functions as surrogate mother. But the small

staff deals with big events, including the murder of a Pan American

Games athlete in Naperville in 1959 and the fire that gutted the Sun's

offices in 1956.

7/13/05