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Walsh children recall 1955 polio outbreak
By Sharon Boehlefeld
Features Editor
In 1955, 11 of the 14 children of Keron and Anne Walsh of Durand suffered from mild to severe forms of polio.
Five of the children were hospitalized. The two oldest children, teenage brothers Dan and Ed, died.
Sixty years later, Rose Walsh Landers, the youngest of the hospitalized children, along with family friend Mike Waller and sister Sue Walsh Cocoma, have written about the family’s struggles and survival in "Triumph on Baker Road: How the Walsh Family Defeated Polio."
Each of the children credits their parents’ strong Catholic faith with seeing the family through the polio crisis.
As they recount in the book, their story made headlines not only in The Observer, the newpaper of the Rockford Diocese, but throughout the nation and the world.Julia Walsh Willkom, who, with her twin sister Joan, was among the hospitalized children, recalled, “Where could Mother and Dad have found the strength and serenity to accept God’s will for them without the help of prayer and their faith? They never gave up their faith or let themselves be totally overcome by sorrow. They maintained their sense of humor ... they continued fervent, quiet prayer.”
Even knowing the outcome, the well-written memoir generates concern for the stricken family while building hope through their deep faith.
Sue Cocoma, still a parishioner at St. Mary in Durand, says her sister, Rose Landers, was really the force behind the book.
“She wanted to tell the story for her children,” Cocoma said.
Landers began writing her own memories and asking her siblings and other family members and friends to write what they could remember.
Family friend Mike Waller, who also grew up in Durand and went on to edit newspapers including The Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Kansas City Star and Times, was interested in helping finish the project.
“He would call to ask how Rose was doing? Was she writing the book?” Cocoma said.
In 2013, Landers was diagnosed with Primary Lateral Sclerosis, a slow form of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her progress on the book slowed, but Waller collected Landers’ material and began writing.
Cocoma said he would send two or three chapters at a time to her, Landers and another sister for reading.
Landers was a careful reader, occasionally asking Waller to move paragraphs and segments to other places in the book.
“She knew how she wanted the story to be told,” Cocoma said.
Landers, who communicates now only through her iPad, spent two months working on her epilogue to the book.
In addition to telling the story to their children and other family members, Cocoma said, “Our family is very pleased with the book and hope that the message of faith and prayer and never giving up is of help to someone experiencing a rough time.”
Excerpt from the book:
The night before the opening day of school, the Dolan family, who lived up the hill from our farmhouse on Baker Road, dropped by for a short visit. Rose told our cousin Charlotte that she wasn’t feeling well. Charlotte stayed away from Rose the rest of the evening for fear of getting sick and missing the first day of school.
The next morning, on Thursday, Sept. 1, the big day arrived. Everyone was scampering around the house getting ready to catch the school bus when five-year-old Rose woke up and announced to her sister, Alice:
“I see snakes.”
Read more excerpts
Available from Amazon and Book World in Freeport:
“Triumph on Baker Road: How the Walsh Family Defeated Polio,” by Rose Walsh Landers and Mike Waller with Sue Walsh Cocoma. (Self-published, paperback, 2016) 224 pp., $16.95 (available from Amazon)
Enter by Oct. 17, 2016, to win both books from The Observer Book Club.
