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Arts & Entertainment

Before Royko's Words Got Him a Pulitzer, They Got Him a Wife

Son of legendary columnist discusses father's love letters.

When David Royko discovered his father’s letters wooing Carol Duckman, he learned not only of the intense love his “dad had for mom,” but saw early glimpses of the talent that turned Mike Royko into a Chicago journalism icon. 

After Mike Royko’s death in 1997, David discovered a treasure trove of handwritten letters his father wrote while stationed as an airman in Blane, Wash. to his boyhood sweetheart—they met when she was 6 and he was 9.

David discussed the letters at two events in Highland Park this weekend: one on Friday at the , and another on Sunday, where he was joined by voiceover artist and actor JoBe Cerny and WGN-AM Radio host Rick Kogan at a fundraiser for the .

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“At 21, 22 my father was Mike freakin' Royko,” David told the library group who came to hear how he edited the letters into his new book, “Royko in Love, Mike’s Letters to Carol.” He interspersed his talk with stories of his famous father and the love he had for his first wife. 

Mike Royko began his journalism career nearly 60 years ago as a reporter for a military newspaper. Within 10 years, his writing was the most read in Chicago. As a columnist for the Chicago Daily News, he was known for his humor, wit and willingness to attack anything he thought deserved criticism. 

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When the Daily News shuttered in 1978, Royko moved to its sister paper, the Chicago Sun Times. Later, he walked across Michigan Avenue to the Tribune in protest when Rupert Murdoch, who Royko dubbed “the Alien,” purchased the Sun Times. He continued writing his daily column for the Tribune until his death. 

For David, a psychologist and writer, "Royko in Love" was a journey into his parents’ love at a time when letters were an essential part of romance. Long distance phone calls were expensive, and email and texting didn't exist. 

“They were kids in Logan Square. They were best friends,” David said of his parents before they matured into teenagers and fell in love. “Mom was hot,” he added proudly showing pictures of his mother in her late teens. “Dad’s competition was every other single man in Chicago.” 

Carol graduated high school at 16 and was offered a full scholarship to Northwestern, while Mike’s bad behavior got him kicked out of a number of high schools before graduating from Central Y and joining the Air Force during the Korean War. 

Mike kept his feelings for Carol to himself until he was ready to leave for Korea and decided he could no longer keep quiet, according to David. 

“He went over to the Duckman house to tell my mother how he felt, but before he could say anything she said, ‘Larry proposed, I said yes and we’re getting married on my 18th birthday,” David said. “Dad was crushed.” 

So Mike Royko spent the Korean War as a heartbroken airman never even writing to Carol. 

When the war ended, he had 30 days in Chicago before reporting for duty at Blane, and was still too hurt to even go to the Duckman home to see her. When he returned to Washington, however, he made a serendipitous call to Carol. 

“She admonished him for not seeing her and said, ‘The marriage was a mistake and I’m moving back with mom and dad,” David said. After that, Mike Royko began his barrage of letters wooing Carol. 

Though David never found any letters his mother wrote his father during that time, he did find her diary that indicated his father faced fierce competition for his mother. 

“She told the story of the letters (in her diary),” said David. “Dad was competing with every other guy in Chicago at that point."

In one diary entry, Carol described getting three marriage proposals in a week. 

Finally, Mike muscled the courage to propose when on leave in Chicago during the summer of 1954. Carol accepted and took a train to Seattle where they were married in a Lutheran church and had a six-day honeymoon. 

Carol returned to Chicago to await Mike’s eventual homecoming. He had 400 days remaining in his enlistment and the letters professing his love became even more prolific. 

“He wrote 114 letters between March and the end of the year,” David said. 

A sad twist of fate intervened in late 1954 when Mike’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and he was given a compassionate transfer to the O’Hare Air Force Base at what is today’s airport. He returned to Chicago in January, 1955. His journalism career began then when he became editor of the base paper. 

David lost his mother and Mike the love of his life in 1979 when Carol died suddenly at 44, casting Mike into a depression that worried his family and employers at the Sun Times

“They had two reporters with him at all times,” David said, because of concerns his father might commit suicide. 

David concluded the description of his parents’ love with the reading of what he considers his father’s greatest column, “A November Farewell,” written on what would have been Carol’s 45th birthday.

“We didn’t expect a column that day,” said David. “Everyone was worried about him.”

Ed Note: David Royko spoke about "Royko in Love" on Friday at the Highland Park Public Library and then again on at the . The pictures are from Sunday's presentation, which was a fundraiser for the .

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