A 90-year-old tapestry of friendship and respect

When former Joliet resident Rosemarie Devine reflects back on her 90-year-friendship with Rose Mancuso of Joliet she doesn’t see a timeline.

Devine, 95, of Lisle, sees a tapestry.

“It was never a thing we measured out and I respected her successes,” Devine said. “Our lives were interwoven, separate and recrossed over and over, stretching out the 90 years plus. I think I can speak for the both of us that we feel fortunate for this lasting friendship … two months, three months could go by, and we would not see each other. And yet it didn’t feel as if we’d been separated or anything like that. It was just the way life took us at that particular month.”

Katherine Collins of Joliet, Mancuo’s niece and caregiver, can’t recall a time Devine was not in her life. Although the women had very different personalities and professions, Collins points to one quality that tied them together.

“Mutual respect,” Collins said. “I think that’s the core of it.”

Devine said she and Mancuso grew up on the south side of Joliet and attended the former Eliza Kelly School, which is where she first met Mancuso. Devine came from a small family. Mancuso was one of nine children of Italian immigrants. Her father started Mancuso Cheese Co. and ran a grocery store in their neighborhood.

She shared her earliest memory of Mancuso.

“I was at the chalkboard, adding up a long column of figures and I was wondering if I was going to be able to do it as well as she,” Devine said.

Devine didn’t wonder because she and Mancuso competed with each other, she said.

“We just wanted to accomplish things,” Devine said. “If one person could accomplish it, surely the other person could do the same thing.”

Devine recalled her jealousy over Mancuso’s banana curls and how an aunt tried unsuccessfully to give Devine banana curls for an event, but Devine was not “banana girl material” like Mancuso was.

“Like most people with naturally curly hair, she did not realize what a jewel she had,” Devine said.

Although Devine and Mancuso occasionally visited each other’s home, they mostly socialized at school and shared the same friends, Devine said. That changed at Washington Junior High School, where the students were divided into homerooms based on the letter of their last names, Devine said.

But the core friendship remained. They attended school functions together and belonged to the same youth group at the Church of St. Anthony in Joliet, Devine said. She recalled how the two of them visited a favorite teacher, who lived in the former West Pines Hotel.

“We thought we were pretty hot stuff, getting to visit our teacher on a Sunday afternoon,” Devine said.

Devine and Mancuso both attended Joliet Township High School together until Devine’s mother, who was widowed, remarried and the family moved to Lockport. By then, Devine never “doubted their friendship or dwelled on it either,” she said.

“Our friendship was something we both enjoyed,” Devine said. “We were good friends who were long-lasting friends because circumstances allowed us to have the long-lasting friendship that we had. The fact we’d stay put in one neighborhood [for a time] certainly contributed to that. The fact we enjoyed the same forms of entertainment and learning and cultural exchanges all contributed to that. She did have a sparkling personality, and she did attract a lot of friends. But I never thought any more of that it than that. I never asked her what she liked about me.”

Devine said the fact they respected each other’s privacy especially contributed to their bond. Neither pried into the other’s private business; yet neither ever shared a confidence that was divulged to another, she said.

After high school, they both attended Joliet Junior College and then worked at the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant to save money, Devine said. Because she and Devine worked different shifts, they typically saw each other once a month, Devine said.

“But it didn’t mean any pause in our friendship,” Devine said. “She was working for contact with the public. I was a little less in the public eye kind of person.”

They both attended University of Wisconsin as science majors; Devine studied biology and Mancuso studied pharmacy. Mancuso joined a sorority; Devine did not, but their friendship continued. Devine earned her master’s degree at Northwestern and built a career at Argonne national laboratory.

A 2007 Herald-News story said Mancuso was one of four women to graduate in in 1948 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy from a class of 37 pharmacy students.

Devine married, had two sons and became a widow when they were ages 3 and 17 months when her husband’s congenital heart issue caused a fatal heart attack.

“I was 25 at the time,” Devine said. “But the Lord gave him to me for a little while.”

A second 2007 Herald-News story said George Block founded Remco Medical Inc. in 1981 in Joliet; the name stood for Rose E. Mancuso Co. Block had met Mancuso in 1975 when he started working at her store and became her business partner in 1981.

Mancuso was a founding member of the Greater Joliet Ostomy Association, a leader for the Will County branch of a multiple sclerosis organization and a member of the advisory board for the Chicago-Greater Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the stories said.

She was a contributor of educational scholarships at JJC, University of Wisconsin, University of St. Francis in Joliet and Lyons Township High School, the stories said.

The Zonta Club of Joliet Area honored Mancuso in 2007 as its working Woman of the Year. The same year, Joliet Junior College honored Mancuso with its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

Devine, on the other hand, became involved in organizations that supported the local arts, such as the Rialto Square Theatre and local museums.

“Rose worked with the public and she’s a great person for that,” Devine said. “I worked in the lab and, very often, I was isolated eight hours a day.”

To keep connected, they took vacations together with Devine’s sons.

Devine recalled one trip to a national park with a borrowed tent. They had arrived at 7 p.m. and the night looked “stormy,” she said. They checked in with the park guide who said to pitch their tent where they could find room, Devine said.

So Devine, Mancuso and the boys trudged up a hill and only to find it “littered” with tents while the night was “getting darker by the minute, Devine said.

So they quickly pitched the tent at the very top, crawled under the covers and fell promptly to sleep. The next morning, Devine pulled aside the tent flaps and found torn tents, tents blown apart and “rivulets everywhere.”

“Our tent was on top of the hill so everything that fell down rolled off of us,” Devine said. “We got really lucky on that.”

Collins said Devine and Mancuso took cruises together; they visited to Alaska together.

They stayed in Mancuso’s cabin in the Wisconsin woods and hiked together, Collins said.

They went to the Kentucky Derby and sat apart – Devine in the grandstands and Mancuso in front.

“It was so hot, Rose fell asleep and missed the race,” Collins said. “She told that story forever.”

People called them “Thelma and Louise” when they were still driving. As they grew older, Collins happily played chauffeur.

“I used to make them sit in the back seat because they couldn’t hear each other,” Collins said. “Rosemarie would say something, and Rose would hear something else. They were just like sisters the way they just bickered. You had to laugh.”

Their last trip together was a cruise to the Caribbean with some of Mancuso’s nieces and nephews. It was a celebration of their 90th birthdays.

“Cruising was something they did over the years,” Collins wrote in an email, “so this was special for me to accompany them on their final voyage.”

Mancuso recently turned 96 on April 26 and Devine was with her to celebrate. Looking back, Devine said Mancuso enriched her life and she hopes Devine enriched Mancuso’s, too.

“I don’t see her very often,” Devine said. “I’m living in an independent living unit, and she is partially bedbound. I don’t have a car and I don’t call her that often because calling her entails getting her niece to set her up. But I have this warm feeling and I hope that she does, too. And I think I’m right when I say that we each have a very deep respect for each other.”