Page 30 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Summer 2019- Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS

The

Wheelers

Come

FULL in kindergarten, remembers how great it was to

grow up on the farm. His dad and
meeting Janet
CIRCLE Mozell (White) brothers did most of the work, so
Falletti, who is her
his childhood was pretty carefree.
best friend to this
When he was in high school, he
moved into town with his parents
day. The family
when Ilona was in
High School in 1958. As much as
by Jane Bromley moved to Midland and graduated from Crosbyton
the 8th grade. Her he loved the farm, Ed did not love
orthwest Texas Hospital parents had had farming. He dreamed of becoming
in Amarillo rose to the two more children, and her baby a pilot, and his favorite hobby even
Noccasion, when a 4 lb. 4 oz. brother and sister were a source of involved flight. He would salvage
baby girl arrived in the fall of 1941. great joy to the teenage girl. She the tissue paper that came home
Not many children that small were graduated from Midland High on the clothes from the drycleaners
able to survive back in the 40s, but School in 1959 and went off to West and build his own kites. He even
little llona Dygert was an overcomer Texas State College (now West Texas took a couple of flying lessons at the
from the beginning. A&M University) Tradewind Airport while he was in
She spent her first in Canyon to earn college.
few years shuttled her elementary
back and forth education degree. Ed studied Chemistry at West
between relatives in She gratefully Texas State College. It was here
Vega and Plainview recalls a program that his path crossed that of Ilona
while her father, at WT called “The Dygert. He received his draft notice
who was a mechanic, Opportunity Plan”, just before graduation and drove
worked on bombers which enabled her to Lubbock to join the US Navy.
and P-38s at Amarillo to pay her college The two married on June 16, 1962,
Air Base during expenses with part- just before Ed reported to Navy
WWII. time jobs. Officer Candidate School in Rhode
Island. In 1963, Ilona finished her
The family moved A farm near degree and joined her husband in
to Raton, NM when Crosbyton, Texas, California. After training at Treasure
Ilona was four, where her father east of Lubbock, was the setting for Island Naval Base, Ed was assigned
owned the Studebaker dealership. the arrival of little Edwin Wheeler to the USS St. Clair County - LST
Memories of her childhood include in June 1940. His father had married 1096. He served three- and one-half
riding her beloved scooter, sledding a woman with two boys who were years of active duty, eight more
down her “own private hill” and, eight and eleven years old. Ed years in the Reserves and retired

30 Amarillo Senior Link