Lombard woman preserves history of village’s lilacs

By Susan Dibble

sdibble@dailyherald.com

Marymae Meyer is practicing her wave for May 15 when she appears in Lombard’s Lilac Parade as the Woman of the Year.

The 30-year Lombard resident, who has spent the last three years documenting Lilacia Park’s historic lilac collection, and who organized the convention of the International Lilac Society meeting running Thursday to Saturday, April 28-30, in Lombard, said she was stunned speechless by the honor recently bestowed on her by the Lombard Service League.

“For the first time in my life, I was flabbergasted,” she said.

Her friend Rose Roth, who accompanied Meyer to the Service League meeting under the guise they were going for another purpose, is amused by the memory of Meyer’s surprise, but affirms the group’s choice.

“She was beyond words. If you know Marymae, that’s pretty amazing,” Roth said. “(She’s a) dedicated volunteer in Lombard. Anything she starts to work on, she gives 110 percent.”

Meyer recalls that, several years ago, Village President Bill Mueller wanted to introduce her at a meeting, but couldn’t identify her with any organization. “Marymae Meyer … a devoted citizen,” he announced.

“Of all the titles I’ve ever had in my life, I absolutely love that title,” she said. “I learned long, long ago the value of people who give back to their community, because I’ve been on the receiving end.”

Purple passion

Outside of her self-admitted outspokenness on issues that concern her, Meyer says she used to be an ordinary Lombardian. That is, like any good resident of the “Lilac Village,” she grew some lilacs in her yard and loved to go to the annual Lilac Parade.

Her involvement with the lavender and white springtime flowers reached a whole new level after she joined the Lombard Garden Club in 2004 and started helping with the group’s annual Lilac Sale fundraiser.

“She came out in her overalls to help pot the lilacs and was just charming,” recalled Roth, the co-president-elect of the garden club.

Meyer noticed that the buyers at the Lilac Sale were asking questions about the flower’s history and cultivation that club members couldn’t answer. Drawing on her background in the corporate world, Meyers decided to put together a PowerPoint presentation on lilacs so club members would be better informed.

One thing led to another. Meyer offered to update and modernize the park district’s lilac database. Then she learned that the International Lilac Society was meeting in Minneapolis in spring 2008 at the same time she planned to visit her son there, so she joined the society and attended its annual convention.

“I came back here with the realization that there is a whole lot more work here than I ever imagined,” she said.

Meyer learned that it was important for lilacs to be mapped so their history could be properly documented. Without a record of the exact location of each lilac, their identities might be lost if the tags on the plants came up missing, she said.

So Meyer spent 80 hours one winter mapping the lilacs in Lilacia Park, and last spring, she and other garden club members put in 200 hours making a photographic record of the blooms. But the history of some lilacs in Lilacia Park remains lost.

“We have 300 unidentified lilacs out there,” she said.

Meyer said when it comes time to replace an unidentified lilac, the park district can draw on the historic record to plant a lilac that existed in the park in the past. One such historic flower would be the Col. William R. Plum Lilac, named after the man who brought the first two lilacs to Lombard from France in 1911 and bequeathed his home and garden to the village when he died in 1927.

“This is really the 100th anniversary of lilacs coming into Lombard,” Meyer noted.

The Col. William R. Plum Lilac, however, no longer exists in Lilacia Park. It does still grow in Rochester, N.Y., which has its own lilac festival each year, and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Ontario, Canada. Meyer said she has put out feelers for one of those places to make a donation that would bring the lilac back to Lombard.

For a hybrid lilac, called a cultivar, to be registered with the International Lilac Society can take 10 years, Meyer said. The grower must show that it is a different type of lilac than has existed before and thoroughly document its history.

“My fascination with lilacs is in the science of it all,” Meyer said. “Lilacs have the capacity to live for 300 years.”

Lilacs can range in size from dwarfs of under 6 feet to lilac trees that can grow 40 feet high. Their bloom period, which starts in this area in April, lasts 6 to 8 weeks. However, now some lilacs are cultivated that will re-bloom later in the year, Meyer said.

Meyer said late blooming lilacs generally have a spicy smell, while French hybrids have a more perfume-like scent, but she added different opinions exist about which lilacs are more fragrant.

“Fragrance, I say, is in the nose of the sniffer,” she said.

Lilac Village

Meyer, who now serves as a director of the International Lilac Society, spearheaded the effort to have the group hold its 2011 convention in Lombard with the blessing of the village and park district. Fifty members are coming from throughout the United States and Canada. The society has a total of 200 members, including contingents from France, Russia, Japan and Australia, Meyer said.

Because society members pay their own way, Meyer looked for ways to keep the convention affordable while offering special touches. She obtained the help of a friend who knew how to sew to make 13 lilac vests for workers to wear. She solicited the backing of West Suburban Bank to commission the manufacture of an umbrella adorned with a photograph of lilacs. The umbrellas sell for $20 and are available through the park district and community not-for-profit organizations.

“Even the village president could not get one without making a charitable contribution,” Meyer said.

Jason Myers, Lombard Park District’s superintendent of finance and personnel, said Meyer has secured donations of materials, time and money from 80 businesses, groups and individuals.

“I think that shows how well she is respected in the community,” he said. “She’s definitely a go-getter.”

Meyer recalled that one resident handed her a $20 bill to go toward putting on the convention.

“Lombardians love their lilacs,” she said. “It’s just been magic.”

Overachiever

When the lilac convention and Lilac Time are over, Meyer expects to be asked to give presentations to different groups on the database she created and what she’s learned about lilacs.

“My hope is to inspire the next generation,” she said.

Meyer, who grew up as a farm girl in central Illinois, credits mentors in her own life with helping her to move from what she calls a troubled and traumatic childhood to becoming a productive citizen.

“Often, people like me become real overachievers and we have sort of an unfulfilled need to make other people happy,” she said.

She counts as one of her mentors a boss who would stop at her desk and ask, “What have you contributed to the health and welfare of the world today?”

At age 70, Meyer is still asking herself that question.

“When you get to be my age, you think about leaving something behind,” she said. “I will never fulfill my need to give back because I am hellbent on leaving this world a better place.”