Oak Lawn High School Sweethearts Renew Vows On 65th Anniversary

OAK LAWN, IL — Ron Schaar was standing at the sidelines of the Oak Lawn Roller Skating Rink watching the skaters, when a cute little freshman — Virginia Prillwitz — caught his eye.

“I turned to my friend and said, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry,’” said Ron, 84.

Sixty-five years, five kids and ten grandchildren later, the high school sweethearts renewed their wedding vows before their children and grandchildren at the gazebo on the village green, a few days before their actual wedding anniversary on Aug. 18.

Both were students when they met at the brand-new Oak Lawn Community High School that opened in the fall of 1952. Ron went to Reavis High School in Burbank for his freshmen year; Virginia was a member of the first class to attend OLCHS all four years. Later, Ron and Virginia had found themselves in the same driver's training class.

“She caught my eye, but she was going with someone else,” Ron said.

A few months after Virginia’s graduation, they were married on Aug. 18, 1956, at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church at 97th and Brandt, because that’s what teens in love did in the 1950s.

Ron was a firefighter for the Oak Lawn Fire Department, and one of the first responders on the scene when the Oak Lawn tornado struck on April 21, 1967. He spent the first 24 hours recovering bodies and dispatching crews from area fire departments that came to help. The second 24 hours he helped with cleanup, and the next week burning down destroyed houses.

Had Virginia followed her usual Friday afternoon routine, she might have been shopping at the Fairfield Super Mart at 95th Street and Southwest Highway, where the greatest loss of life occurred.

“I got a raise at work. I took my kids and was out buying clothes for work,” Virginia said. "Otherwise, I would have been at the grocery store."

Virginia also worked, holding jobs at White Castle on the corner of 95th Street and Cicero Avenue, and the Oak Lawn switchboard handling phone calls for businesses and doctors. When Ron retired after 30 years of service with the fire department achieving the rank of lieutenant, Ron and Virginia became partners, owning and operating several businesses, including construction companies. Their company was responsible for many area municipal projects,including building Chicago Ridge Village Hall and the Oak Lawn public works building. Virginia went back to school to further her education in bookkeeping to support and manage their businesses. They’ve lived in the same home where they raised their family.

Ron and Virginia’s five kids are all OLCHS graduatesl. Like their parents, many of the Schaar kids met and married their future spouses walking the halls of Oak Lawn Community High School: Steve Schaar, oldest of the brood, married Sue Moore; Juel Hood married Ed Hood; and Michelle Geraghty married fellow Spartan Dan Geraghty. While Gini Sulek didn’t meet her husband, Brad Sulek, an outlier Brother Rice graduate, at OLCHS, her future mother-in-law was one of her teachers.

So on Saturday at the gazebo, oldest granddaughter Danielle Schaar escorted her grandfather, and youngest grandson Jacob Sulek walked his grandmother down the aisle to Dan and Shay’s “From The Ground Up,” about a couple married 65 years. Through the miracle of Zoom, oldest daughter Vicki Schaar, who lives in Connecticut with her spouse, Ellen Eichhorn, officiated her parents’ vows.

“What a great day for a fabulous celebration of 65 years of marriage, love, partnership, friendship, truth and best of all raising this extraordinary family — including past and present four-legged members.

“Ron and Virginia, as you were first influenced by your parents and grandparents, your role modeling has continued to grow your legacy of honest, compassionate, hardworking, community building individuals who will branch out and multiply for generations.

“There is a sense of pride we all feel to be part of 65 years. We will all forever love you and thank you.”