Beedle bound to Bourbonnais Friendship Festival

Though they are just a regular couple, one would swear lifelong area residents Mary Kay and Jim Beedle are official historians for Bourbonnais.

Stories of the community’s history pour out of the local grandparents without much prompting.

“We have no desire to like, live in Florida or to leave the area,” Mary Kay said. “Because we like it, and it’s a nice area. The changing of the seasons is good.”

And so it is fitting that the couple who share a special connection to the anniversary of Bourbonnais’ founding will also play an integral role in its festivities this year.

In 1975, then-19-year-old Mary Kay Beedle played the role of a Native American princess in the village’s centennial celebration, which has since evolved from the “Hooray Bourbonnais” pageant to the annual Bourbonnais Friendship Festival.

In 2025, now 69-year-old Mary Kay will be the Grand Marshal of the Friendship Festival parade, with Jim, her husband and fellow festival volunteer, to remain by her side atop the leading float.

“It’s exciting, extremely busy, and when it’s over, it will be a great remembrance and a great honor to have been in the parade,” said Mary Kay, who retired in 2016 after 23 years as a teacher at Manteno Middle School.

The parade will close out the festival starting at 1 p.m. Sunday along a new route, beginning at Ward Field on the Olivet Nazarene University campus.

It will proceed west on University Avenue, north on South Main Street, and then west on Main Street NW (Illinois Route 102), ending at William Latham Drive.

The 50th anniversary of the festival, which marks the village’s 150th birthday, also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the marriage of Mary Kay and Jim Beedle.

The couple met at Kankakee Community College and both volunteered for Bourbonnais’ centennial celebration as an engaged couple. They married months later on Aug. 16, 1975.

Much like the village of Bourbonnais is still going strong decades later, the Beedles’ love for each other seems just as vital today as it was half a century ago.

Down memory lane

Back in 1975, Mary Kay began attending planning meetings for Hurray Bourbonnais with Jim, who was helping with sound for the pageant along with volunteer Dan Kirsch.

Dan and Jim had worked together at KCC, and Dan’s wife, Mary Ann Kirsch, was chairwoman of the centennial celebration.

As Mary Kay had long, dark hair at the time, she was asked if she could play the role of Catish, a historical figure in the founding of Bourbonnais.

According to the village’s website, Catish was a member of the Potawatomi tribe who married early Bourbonnais Grove pioneer Francois Bourbonnais, Sr.

Mary Kay didn’t have to practice her lines much. In fact, she had just one:

“I am Catish, daughter of a Chief.”

Mary Kay Blankesyn (niece of Dan and Mary Ann Kirsch) created a Native American inspired headband and green dress for the occasion.

The headband is lost, but Beedle held onto the dress that she wore for the 1975 pageant, held in Olivet’s Chalfant Hall.

Though the dress still fits, she won’t be donning it for the parade, as the material is rather warm for the summer.

Instead, she handed it off to village officials to be part of their historical display for the festival, which can be viewed in the Robert Latham Community Room in the village’s municipal building.

A family built on Friendship

The Beedles and other dedicated volunteers meet almost year-round to prepare for each year’s festivities.

“It’s like a Friendship Festival family now,” Mary Kay said. “We work all year, and then we meet the first Thursday of every month, and we meet outside of Friendship Festival meetings. After the meetings, we go to Sammy’s, or, you know, maybe Beef O’ Brady’s for a little dinner, just to get together.”

The camaraderie has compounded over the years, and they are always looking to get more people involved.

Jim doesn’t hesitate to mention the importance of Bob Steinke, festival chairman since 2006 and an electrician whose involvement in the fest began in 1999.

“He made the festival evolve into something that is so unique,” Jim noted. “He made everybody’s job easier. He’s a great chairman.”

Though she is one of the volunteers who has been involved since the beginning, Mary Kay felt surprised to be asked to be the parade’s Grand Marshal.

“I was thinking, ‘Me? There’s so many other people that could [do it],’” she recalled.

But of course, she agreed.

“It took a couple seconds to mesh into my brain, like, oh my gosh, this is kind of a big thing,” she said.

Over the years, the Beedle’s children and grandchildren have also gotten involved in volunteering with the fest.

They have three sons and six grandkids, some of whom will join them on the float and help them wave to the crowd.

“People come and go, and everybody’s got their own reasons for getting on board,” Jim said. “But the people that have loved it, they usually stay.”