For many years, the quickest way to reach the Chicago Sun-Times newsroom was by dialing 321-2522. That phone rang on the city desk, and often would be answered by the gruff, no-nonsense, suffer-no-fools nicotine growl of Connie Wilkie.
“Connie ran the city room like a drill sergeant,” remembered Scott Fornek, a Sun-Times breaking news editor. “I believe her title was something like ‘chief editorial assistant,’ but she was effectively an office manager for the newsroom, overseeing the clerical staff, handling scheduling, expense accounts, vacation requests — and everything else that it takes to keep an office of that size running.”
Ms. Wilkie died Aug. 5 of COVID-19 at Liberty Village in downstate Pittsfield. She was 85.
“Connie was a rock in the Sun-Times newsroom, efficiently ensuring that phone calls into the city desk from sources, reporters, cranky readers and others were channeled in the right direction,” said Alan Henry, a former editor. “Graced with a kind heart and a dry sense of humor, she was a pleasure to be around and was one of the ‘characters’ who helped make the newsroom a fun place to work.”
Ms. Wilkie had a genius for friendship — not only was she friends with Mary Dedinsky, who rose to managing editor, during her time at the paper, but they remained friends for decades afterward.
“We continued our friendship,” Dedinsky said. “Every Christmas and birthday I got a card with a witty note inside. She loved antiques, good food and parties. I have all over my house gifts from Connie, wonderful carnival glass and antique plates. It was always fun to be with her. There was an energy and a wit. She made the best cheesecake I ever tasted in my life: sumptuous.”
Don Hayner, former editor-in-chief, said, “Connie was tough, loyal and smart. She could be formidable when needed, and kind. There was nobody who was a better protector of the Sun-Times and its people.”
Some of its people, that is.
“She was one tough cookie,” remembered Fran Spielman, the paper’s longtime City Hall reporter. “A gruff drill sergeant. An iron lady with a heart of gold. If she liked you, she was fiercely protective of you. She would do anything. But boy, you didn’t want to cross her. If she didn’t like you, you wouldn’t get any calls forwarded to you.”
Connie Wilkie and her twin sister, Corrine, were born in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1939 to Walter Wilkie and the former Victoria Garlenski, Chicagoans. Her parents had met at Farragut High School. Her father started as a copy boy at the old Chicago Times while still a teenager, but the family had moved to Minnesota so he could work at a newspaper, but he lost his job in a merger.
Returning to the Times shortly after his twins were born, Walter Wilkie became art director after the Times merged with the Sun in 1948, and helped his daughter get a job as a copy clerk.
“She started when she was 15,” said Sue Franklin, her longtime friend. “They had to put down she was 16.”
This was an era when 16-inch softball was an important part of newspaper life — the sport became popular during the Great Depression because no pricey gloves were needed. Ms. Wilkie was an avid player.
“I’ve known Connie for 60 years,” said Franklin, the former athletic director of Whitney Young High School. “I met Connie when we were both playing softball for the park district.”
Ms. Wilkie worked for the paper when copy still moved from floor to floor via canisters shot through pneumatic tubes. She would go to the roof to get undeveloped film that had been flown from Wrigley Field attached to the leg of a homing pigeon.
On rare occasions, Ms. Wilkie got into the paper herself. In 1965, she was identified as “a librarian” and seen holding photos from the paper’s “Beat the Champs” bowling contest. In 1986, Basil Talbott began his column this way:
“The vice president tried to telephone me twice yesterday before I got to work. Connie Wilkie, the first person to show up at our city desk in the morning, took George Bush’s second call. She said he was very nice, and just wanted to apologize about the interview he gave me the day before.”
Ms. Wilkie lived in Downers Grove and liked to travel, to go to Las Vegas and see Don Rickles, an entertainer who shared her sensibility.
“She had a biting, sarcastic sense of humor,” Spielman said. “She was so funny. I would have dinner with Connie and Sue; we had hilarious times. We’d laugh until we cried.”
Ms. Wilkie retired around 2002 after 48 years with the paper.
She left no immediate surviving family. Her twin sister, Corinne Falco, died in 2019. No service is planned, but she asked that her ashes be scattered on a farm downstate, near where she was living about 70 miles west of Springfield.
“Connie was just a lot of fun, very intelligent,” Franklin said. “I have nephews, and my God, she loved them to death, and they idolized her. She was just a good person. But she didn’t take any bull from anyone.”