Miss Roney

Our fathers small contracting business was doing well. He lined himself up with some friendly local architect from the Beverly Hills area, and was bidding on some large projects. We were 16, 12, and 11. Even though we were underage Pops put us to work whenever he could. I think it was as much to get us out our Mom's hair. Come summer time we were working almost every day. Richard would drive Chuck and I to these large buildings under construction and drop us off. Our job was to clean, rake and level dirt floors to prepare for concrete. The space was as large as a city block. At least so it seemed to us. One Saturday on a particularly hot day we were raking and shoveling, shoveling and raking, making nice little piles to be picked up later. At one point we took a break and propped ourselves up to eat lunch. "Excuse me!" Came the voice from the air.   We turned to see a matronly lady with a large purse.        With an accent familiar to us she asked.........


          "Where's your faaather?

Brought up during the depression Mom knew how to squeeze the most out of a buck She knew the where, when, and while of a sale. If there ever was an award given she'd have a blackbelt in shopping. We were also privy to the trips to every thrift and salvage there ever was. She called them  " Junk shops "
When it came to food...we weren't fussy. Still feeding a family of five...soon to be six, was no easy task. She had one favorite food store we usually shopped at. Over in the old Hyde Park neighborhood.

When you walked in the store you were met with two aisles filled with cans and other goods for 10 cents. You could buy beer for 10 cents a can. Everything else must have been cheap too. We went home with a cart load. That was High Low Foods.

We turned to see whose voice it was. There was a prim medium sized lady in office type clothes  and one of those veiled hats standing in the door opening. We both jumped up and brushed ourselves off. We told her he would be back to pick us up. She said "   Tell him Genevieve Roney stopped by and to give me a call"

             

                                              Almost like the Aldi's of it's day.




We knew our Dad was a builder.  He was one of the first to install coin operated laundries around the city. He built one on 69th Street. Around the corner from our old house. He worked on properties for Illinois Bell too. It must have been some sort of secret. We did not know he was building High Low Foods stores.

Miss Roney as it turned out was the owner of High Low Foods. Some say she was a tough old gal. She seemed nice to us. She even stopped by the office and checked out the pool in the yard next door.We loved her even more when we found out our favorite ice cream was Roney's

                                                                          56th Kedzie



Pops was the contractor for five of their stores. Mostly south side. One on Laramie. Brother Chuck and I worked in every one of them raking and shoveling...shoveling and raking. We saw Miss Roney one more time. She smiled and said "Hello Boys"

I tried to find some information on the internet. There wasn't much. I did find her obituary. She lived to be 89. Few women in her day were involved with business.  She was devoted to hers.




Jan 19 1978

HIGH-LOW'S GENEVIEVE RONEY DIES

Genevieve Roney, 89, a retail food
chain executive in the Chicago area for
many years and at one time the only
woman official in the Kroger chain, died
Wednesday in her home at 10355 S St Louis Ave.

Miss Roney, who was born and reared
on the family farm in Wauconda which
was homesteaded by her grandparents
in the 1800s, followed one of her brothers
John R. Rooney, into the food business in Chicago.

When her brother expanded his operations
from one store into the consumers Sanitary Coffee and Butter Co
in 1917, she left the farm and came to Chicago to
become treasurer of the company.

Miss Roney had an active role in
the expansion of the company and operations
of its stores. By 1928, when her brother sold
out to Kroger, Consumers was a chain of 350 stores
in the Chicago metropolitan area from Gary to Racine.

Miss Roney was retained by Kroger as a general manager
of its Chicago branch operations, a position she resigned in 1939
to become treasurer of High-Low Foods inc,
which was established in 1939 by her late nephew Walter J. Roney.

High Low Foods had a chain of 56 supermarkets in Chicago.

Miss Roney beame president of High Low Foods in 1969
after the death of her nephew. She resigned from the presidency
in 1972 to become chairman and a director.

High-Low foods went out of business in 1976.

Mass will be at 930 am Saturday in Queen of Martyrs Church
103rd and Central Park. Interment Holy Sepulchre.