Jim and Margaret: Still Crazy In Love After 66 Years

PALOS PARK, IL — A Palos Park couple celebrating their 66th wedding anniversary were honored with a car parade down Romiga Lane. With a little help from Palos Park police and the Palos Fire Protection District, Jim and Margaret Riordan’s nine children and their respective offspring made a boisterous showing as they honked and waved at the self-quarantining couple beaming at the front door.

Jim, 92, and Margaret, who is going on 90, are both from Ireland but didn’t meet until they immigrated to the United States in the late 1940s: Jim from County Limerick, and Margaret from County Galway. Both keep close ties to the small towns they came from, where they still have family and friends.

Jim joined the U.S. Army as an Irish citizen. He earned his sergeant stripes on the battlefields of Korea, and was discharged a U.S. citizen.

“If you got killed in Korea you got shipped back to Ireland in a box,” his son John said. “I did Honor Flight with my dad three or four years ago. We had an amazing time for a guy who doesn’t say a lot.”

They were introduced by Margaret’s uncle during a football game in Marquette Park. Jim and Margaret got married on May 8, 1953. They migrated from Little Flower Parish to St. Germaine in Oak Lawn, until they eventually landed in Palos Park. Between moves, they had nine children, who blessed them with 31 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, with number 40 on the way.

Jim worked two jobs during the child-rearing years, painting houses by day and as a boiler room fireman at night for Sears Roebuck. Like Rose Kennedy, Margaret’s full-time job was raising their nine children.

“In this day and age, how many people can say their parents have been married for 66 years?” John Riordan said.

After the parade, Jim and Margaret’s family flocked to the front lawn abruptly stopping six feet away from them. Somebody popped open a bottle of champagne.

“They’ve been married a long time, and they still love each other,” daughter Bernie said.

Another son standing in the front doorway with Jim and Margaret said his parents didn’t know what was going on when they heard the sirens and honking cars.

“They thought it was Sheehy Funeral Home,” he said.

Jim and Margaret Riordan honored with a car parade on their 66th anniversary.