Lillian Veronica Madden

(fjw) Lil Donohue (1901-1965) was the youngest child of Frances (Hearne) Donohue (1863-1937) and Lawrence Donohue (1857-1930). Born in Chicago on 18 July 1901, she often spoke of growing up at 1027 N. Ridgeway on the city's west side and attending Our Lady of the Angels Catholic primary school. She then matriculated to John Marshall High School, located in Chicago's East Garfield Park neighborhood, where she took typing and shorthand courses.

After graduating from high school she went on to work at the Sears Roebuck and Company headquarters and catalog complex on Homan Avenue on Chicago's west side. It was there that she met Jim Madden -- birth name James Edmund Campbell - (1904-1953), her future husband. Jim was also a west sider who attended John Marshall High School, although he and Lil did not know each other at Marshall. Jim was three years younger than Lil.

On 18 June 1927 Lil and Jim were married at St. Angela's church and held a wedding reception at Frances and Lawrence's house on Mason Avenue. A year later -- on 16 June 1928 -- their son James Edmund Madden was born. Eighteen months later, on 8 December 1936, their daughter Dorothy was born.

Lil had quit working when she got married and Jim changed jobs, going to work for the National Malleable Steel & Castings Company as an engineer specializing in metal strength.

The Madden family lived in an apartment on the city's west side at 943 N. Long Avenue. On 7 November 1936 their second daughter (Marian) was born. Eventually the family moved to Cicero, a nearby suburb.

In 1940 Lil and Jim began to think about making a change. A doctor suggested to Jim that because of heart problems he would do better if he lived in a warmer climate. One day, Jim saw a newspaper add for engineers to work in San Diego and Consolidated Aircraft (later to be called Convair and then General Dynamics). It was the beginning for preparations for possible US involvement in the second world war. Jim was hired as an aeronautical engineer and left for San Diego in November, 1940. A few weeks later he sent for the rest of the family. in January 1941, Lil and the three children arrived at San Diego's Union Station.

In 1941 for the first time, the family lived in a single family house. Jimmy was 13, Dorothy was 12 and Marian was 5 years old. A year later in the summer of 1942, Lil and Jim bough a house east of San Diego, at 4453 Mataro Derive.

Upon the conclusion of World War II, defense contractors scaled back production. In 1948 Jim Madden Sr. was transferred to Convair's Fort Worth, TX plant. The couple and youngest daughter Marion stayed there for two years and them moved back to San Diego, where Jim was able to find a position at the local Convair installation. During this period their son Jimmy entered the army and served to years in the Occupation Army in Japan. He later returned home to attend college at San Diego State, graduating in 1953. Daughter Dorothy also attended San Diego State, obtaining her degree in 1951 and in 1952 returned to her home town of Chicago where she landed a job performing medical research at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke Hospital. Meanwhile Marian entered a Sisters of St. Joseph Convent in early 1953, becoming a Roman Catholic nun.

A few months after Marian joined the convent, on 20 June 1953 Jim Madden Sr. died at the age of 49. Described at rather frail though much of his adult life, he suffered a stroke. Subsequently Lil traveled to Chicago to visit her daughter and other relatives and decided to stay in her old home town. She worked in the Radiology department at the hospital where Dorothy worked. For a time, Lil and Dorothy shared an apartment however once Dorothy married, In early 1965 Lil opted to return to San Diego. A few months later, she broke her leg. Sustaining an apparent complication of the injury, she developed a pulmonary embolism and died. She and Jim are buried in San Diego's Holy Cross Cemetery.

"United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MK8L-TDD : accessed 23 Aug 2014), Lillian Donohue in household of Lawrence Donohue, Chicago Ward 35, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 1525, sheet 10A, family 193, NARA microfilm publication T624, FHL microfilm 1374296. "United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MJ7P-469 : accessed 23 Aug 2014), Lilian Donohue in household of Lawrence Donohue, Chicago Ward 33, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing sheet 5A, family 100, NARA microfilm publication T625, FHL microfilm 1820352.