Category Archives: Manor Spotlight

Meet Maryanne

“You don’t mind taking the stairs, do you?” asked Maryanne, who bounced away from the elevator and into the stairwell. “I just prefer to use the stairs. It’s good exercise.”

On the way up, she explains how a neighbor once asked why she exercises every day, considering what good shape Maryanne is in. “I think maybe that’s why I’m in good shape…Once I told her, she started coming to exercise, too.”

If you haven’t guessed, Maryanne has a rather take-charge, get-up-and-move personality. And why not? Staying active — in addition to taking on having a thirst for learning and doing more — is a big part of who Maryanne is.

“We’re so lucky to have the chance to exercise like this,” she said. “People don’t know how important it is as you get older like us. I never was athletic and was terrible at it, but in my 50s I was feeling like I was getting arthritis. I heard the best thing for it was exercise.”

She’s making the most of every opportunity that comes up. As Maryanne explains it, she comes from an era where many women didn’t have the opportunities they do today,

She was married for over 50 years, but felt she held more of a secondary role — common to women of an earlier era.

“My parents never brought us up any differently, to make our own choices,” she said. “Women, especially, didn’t have too many options. Thankfully, that has changed.”

As her life progressed, Maryanne discovered — and acted upon — the need to do more for herself.
“I started taking more classes at Macomb Community College,” she said. “I had a very dependent personality and couldn’t make decisions for myself. It’s good to know you can change if you work at it”

Growing up with a twin sister, Rosalie, Maryanne came to the conclusion many twins do — that there is a natural want to compare and sometimes, compete. Rosalie actually used to live at Oakmont Manor, but when she had to move elsewhere, Maryanne knew it would be a good fit; especially since she could be her own person.

“I used to play bridge. I think being a twin made me more competitive,” she said. “I used to love competition so maybe that’s why.” She added she’s a firm believer all twins should be raised as individuals, not as one person dressed twice in the same outfit. “That drives me crazy. Let them be their own people.”

Maryanne runs a book club at Oakmont Manor, often trekking to the local library to get more books for the residents. She also now coordinates a book group discussion.

“As you get older, it’s good to do something different,” said Maryanne, who also likes to use her computer and read along with being physically active. “There are so many things now that are available, like computers. I think it’s unbelievable. You still want to learn things. At 86, I’m still trying to make myself a perfect person.

“That’s the interesting thing about living so long. You see so much. The technology amazes me.”

Maryanne, who is widowed, has five children. Four live nearby and another lives in Virginia. She enjoys her 12 grandchildren and a recent family addition, her first great grandchild.

Meet Bill and Lil

After surviving Air Force crash in 1945, Manor resident enjoys 71 years of marriage

It was January 1945 and Bill was preparing to head off to New Guinea in the Pacific Theatre with the Air Force. He had been stationed in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and was awaiting his call when a plane in which he was flying crashed during a training exercise.

“I spent my last two years in the hospital. I broke my neck,” Bill said. The pilot of their B-20 (it was a new aircraft still being tested for live action) died in the crash; Bill and the other gunner survived. “I was in five different hospitals. I just went from one place to another, and I was in a full-body cast for a while. Then I had to be in braces and all that sort of stuff.”

Bill was fortunate to survive that crash. Shortly after that, he married Lil, his high school sweetheart. They have been married for 71 years.

Growing up in Canada, then in Lathrup

When he was quite young, Bill and his family moved from Canada and settled in Lathrup. At the time, the new community was quite rural and not overly populated.

“When I lived there, Lathrup had maybe a dozen homes in the whole place,” he said. “It was quite different than it is now.

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you. The name of the high school was Log Cabin, it was on Livernois just south of 15 Mile Road. I think it’s a Wendy’s now. But that’s where we met in high school. The high school was one building, probably less than 100 people, kindergarten through high school. There were 13 in our class, and we were two of them.”

Bill joined the Air Force right out of high school during the height of World War II. After the war and his lengthy hospitalization, he worked for Chrysler.

“I was a finance analyst, after working on the trim line in the truck plant,” he said. “My dad worked for Chrysler, he got me in there. That was in Highland Park. But now, there’s not one building left that used to be there. They’re all gone.”

Family life and later years

Bill and Lil have three children, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren. It’s convenient as one of their daughter’s lives nearby, in Royal Oak. Their other children live in Chicago and Arizona, where they have both traveled several times.

Travel is something they have enjoyed as a couple.

“We did a lot of traveling with a group after I retired, bus tours and stuff like that,” he said. “And we’ve been over to England and Germany a couple times. I have enjoyed traveling.”

The idea of being married 71 years is pretty remarkable. He said he doesn’t have the secret to a long, happy marriage – but he said there are a few things worth remembering.

“There’s give and take, that’s all there is,” he said. “You’re not going to be right all the time, but you’re not going to be wrong all the time, either.”

After living in Fraser, Bill and Lil moved to Oakmont Manor seven years ago.

“We have entertainment here once or twice a week, and we like going to that. It’s a lot of fun,” Lil said.

“We enjoy it here,” Bill said. “They do a lot for us and we enjoy ourselves.”