Original residents help Rolling Meadows celebrate

When Violet Zimmanck and her husband moved to Rolling Meadows in 1955 there were only three houses on their block.

“We watched them all come up around us,” said Zimmanck, who at 97 years old still lives in same house 60 years later.

Her daughter, Carol, was in the first graduating class from Kimball Hill Elementary School and worked at the Jewel along Kirchoff Road as a teenager.

As Rolling Meadows celebrated its 60th anniversary of its incorporation on Thursday night, officials took time to recognize Carol and Violet along with about 20 other residents who have lived in the city since the beginning, as well as Jewel, one of only two businesses that have been in the city all 60 years.

“I think it's a great city,” Violet Zimmanck said. “We've always been happy here. Neighbors love each other.”

She and a friend bought two houses next door to one another for $25,000, total.

When Kimball Hill, now recognized as the father of Rolling Meadows, set out to build the town it was meant to be an affordable place for returning World War II veterans to raise their families, said Mayor Tom Rooney.

“We came here as young brides,” said Helen Bremer, 85 and another original resident. “The housing was inexpensive, and my husband was a veteran just coming home. He's passed away, but I'm still here.”

Those original residents have seen Rolling Meadows grow from farmlands into a city of nearly 25,000 people.

“It was wonderful to see everything grow into what it is today,” Bremer said.

“We were going to live here five years, but I still live here and I still love it,” said Delores Fredericksen, 83.

Kimball Hill's daughter-in-law Diane was on hand to celebrate the big anniversary on Thursday night along with hundreds of residents, students and community and business leaders.

“It was really quite a family affair,” Hill said.

As the town aged, children of original residents would grow up and move back to Rolling Meadows to raise their own families there, like Bonnie Wulfram.

Wulfram and her parents moved to Rolling Meadows when she was 10 years old. Years later when she was ready to buy her own house, she bought her parents' original home and still lives there today.

“I went to Kimball Hill (Elementary School) and my children and grandchildren went to Kimball Hill,” Wulfram said. “It's kind of neat to see.”