Emory Schmidt

While cleaning out the basement recently, my wife Kris and I came across a very old and storied knife. It is part of the colorful past of the EZ Way Inn, which my parents Don and Nellie owned and operated for 37 years in Kankakee, Illinois.

After we found the knife, we dug up the photo that was on the front page of the Kankakee Daily Journal on October 4, 1963.  The accompanying story told of the then GREAT ROBBERY and the escape by our mother. 

If you look at the picture, you will see Nellie and a startled Don. As the robbery took place, five people were tied up with nylon tape. My mother, who was very innovative and even more fearless, managed to free herself and then the others with the knife. The irony of the story is that Don would never let Nellie use that knife, since she had a tendency to cut herself with any sharp object.

I was at college when this took place.  I had a subscription to the newspaper, but there was always a four or five-day delay before it reached my dorm. When I opened the paper several days after the robbery, there to my great surprise were my parents on the front page.

That was how I found out.  They never called me about it. That’s how Nellie and Don rolled.