Don and Ellie Funk ‘ the perfect Valentine’s couple

Many around Vandalia will remember a little, red-headed, freckle-faced paperboy of years ago, delivering the Decatur Herald and Decatur Review newspapers on his bicycle in all kinds of weather.

Few probably ever imagined that little boy, Donald “Ferd” Funk, would grow up to contribute so much to his hometown of Vandalia and surrounding communities with the same conscientious commitment to the task at hand, industrious, but with a friendly, willing spirit,

He met his lifetime sweetheart and wife, little brown-eyed Ellie (Forbes) when they were both just 14, and she was working in a local café.

“Ferd”

“Ferd” shared his memories as a paper boy.

“We carried newspapers down from the old Kelly’s Barber Shop. It was located under where First National Bank is now. On the west side, there were stairs going down under the bank, and that’s where the barber shop was,” he said. The building was then known as Dieckman Hotel.

“The gentleman who took care of us was named Phil Perry. He was a blind man who lived in Steinhauer’s apartment house.

“He walked over on the old wooden railroad bridge (that spanned the railroad track on Johnson Street between Fifth and Sixth streets). If we got there ahead of him, we knew when he was coming because he would put his cane on the wooden rail and we could hear it click. He was a nice man.”

Others carrying papers at that time were the late Morris Ray and John Lester.

“We had our routes and rain or snow, you carried your papers. I got paid about $3 a week, but as a kid then, I did have some money,” he said, implying that he was grateful for the pay. He said they had to go to each customer’s house and collect for the papers themselves. “It’s not like they do today, when they bill (the customer) for it.”

Ferd Meets Ellie

“While I was doing that (newspapers), I also worked as an usher at the Liberty Theatre. That was back in the days when you had ushers. You had a flashlight and you took people down to their seat.

“I was about 13 or 14 then, and that was about the time I met Ellie,” he said.

“I was 14 when I started going with him,” Ellie said. She admitted it was love at first sight.

“He had red, wavy hair,” she said. Ellie was working in a little café located on South Fifth Street ran by “Toots” McMillian.

“A lot of times at night,” Ferd said, “I’d usher at the theatre and then come by over there.”

Ferd Keeps Working and Working and Working…

During his youth, Ferd continued to work. “When I was in high school, one summer I worked at the Johnson, Stephens & Shinkle Shoe Factory, like everybody did.

“Then when I got out of high school, that’s where I went to work, probably less than two months, then I went to work for the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.,” and the rest is history.

“My career there was 21 years, and that was wonderful,” he said. “After being a delivery man, and a supervisor, I became plant manager and managed the plant until we closed it in 1968.

“It was a wonderful. It was not only a good working experience, it was good training. They had a lot of good programs to help you do better. They were good about sending you to school to learn things, and I took advantage of everyone of them.”

He is very knowledgeable about the history of the beverage, from the time of its creation by a pharmacist; the original (and still-standing) building it was hauled from by horse and wagon, its close ties with Vandalia and Vandalia citizens of the day.

When the Coke plant closed, Funk intended to relax a while, but Bennar-Nawman Telephone Booth Co. came to Vandalia the same year, and called on him to join their company.

“A member of the Chamber of Commerce, Phil Craycroft, came to me and wanted to know if I’d consider going to work for a new company coming to town.

“I said I didn’t know anything but Coca-Cola, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.” But he met with the Benner-Nawman people, went to work for them and had another career of 31 years. “That was, again, another great experience. I learned a lot from that, too.

“Both of them were wonderful careers,” he said.

And through all those years, he said, “Ellie just kept looking after me.”

And for the Town…

His public service began when he was young. He was in Boy Scouts, again rising in the ranks to a leader.

“Oral Walker was my scoutmaster, and I became a scoutmaster for a few years when I was in my 20s, then an Explorer adviser.

“I don’t know why they wanted me to be a scoutmaster – I had two girls,” he said, laughing.

He went on to become a charter member and president of the Jaycees; president of the Chamber of Commerce; worshipful master in the Masonic Lodge; and president of the Lions Club.

And for the city of Vandalia, as a volunteer, he serves on the Economic Development Commission, the lake committee and Lake Watershed Area Committee.

Also, for 15 years, he served on the Administrative Review Board at the prison for the state as a volunteer.

When he found himself wearing many hats, he realized that Ellie wasn’t seeing him very much.

“It was my fault, but I did get burned out, and I said, ‘That’s got to be it – I’ve got to change,’ and I picked one organization and stayed with it, and that’s the Lions Club,” he said.

One of his pet projects and accomplishments has been the Lions’ annual Halloween Parade. “Several of us worked hard on the Lions’ Halloween Parade, and we’ve now got one of the best in the state,” he said.

Ellie worked hard also, at the shoe factory for 12 years and at Crane Packing for 31 years, until retirement.

And Now…

Thirty-seven years ago, Ferd and Ellie began building a home on the Vandalia Lake, where they now enjoy relaxing and enjoying the wildlife.

They watch a pair of Eagles which come each year, this year bringing a young one back with them. They count the wild turkeys flying across the lake, and feed the ducks, geese and especially the wild birds of a wide variety.

They watch baby ducklings in the spring. They also see coyotes, red foxes and squirrels.

They designed their home with all of this in mind. The wall overlooking the lake and the deck is mostly glass to the floor. Ferd can sit in his rotating, rocker-recliner chair and swivel it around to watch the lake and wildlife, the television, and the large stone fireplace.

They build a fire in the fireplace almost every day, not for heat, but for the coziness and atmosphere.

After the frame, floor and roof were in place, they finished building themselves, working together. Explaining the large beams that support and decorate the ceilings, Ellie said, “He nailed them together and I’d take them outside and stain them and bring them back in, and he’d get the ladder and put them up there.”

They have an old cross-cut saw hanging in the living room, of which Ferd says proudly, Ellie and he have worked together on it sawing wood.

Ellie likes to sit on the deck and fish, baiting with worms she dug up. They have a deal – when Ellie catches 100 bluegill, Ferd cleans them. He doesn’t feel there is any use messing with less than a hundred of them. Ferd thoughtfully provided a base for a large umbrella to shield Ellie from the sun.

Ferd and Ellie have two daughters, Kay and Judy, grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Ferd and Ellie will celebrate their 62nd anniversary on May 24. It’s a case of “love at first sight” being right-on in the lives of these two very deserving people.

They have both worked hard to earn their life of enjoying each other, their home and their favorite pastime – watching the wildlife and nature from their lakeside home. It’s a perfect Valentine’s Day story.