Mary Lewis

>    *"It seems that in Lonville, justice has prevailed once again."*
> --Mary Lewis, writing in the *Lonville Report*
>
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**Mary Jane Lewis (nee Sonjek)** (1928 - 1994) was the main reporter of *The Lonville Report* until 1986, when she retired. She only wrote the front page twice in her career, for the company was not willing to let women write the front page until the late seventies.

## Early Life

Mary was born into a large family on July 18th, 1928, to parents Eloise (nee Simms) and John Bagel Sonjek. She was the youngest of eight children: Hannah (1907), Joseph (1909), Constance (1910), Elizabeth (1914), John Jr (1916), William (1921), Charles (1923), and herself. The Sonjeks lived on Main Street for their whole lives.

Mary's favorite sibling growing up was Constance, as she was charming and patient in all that she did. Constance was like a second mother to Mary, and Mary always did what she said, when she did not listen to her real mother. Mary grew up with a particular dislike for Hannah, Elizabeth, William, and mother Eloise as she believed them to be quite snobbish.

In 1935, John Bagel Sr died, cutting a large hole in Mary's heart. She often consulted her sister Constance for help through these times, but another tragedy struck in 1941: Constance and Joseph were forced to join the army at the respective ages of 31 and 32. They had already married and their spouses also lived in the house on Main Street. The spouses were also forced to join the army.

Mary began to start writing in 1942: poetry, to comfort herself. She sold one poem, entitled "Rivers e'en Cry", to the *Lonville Report* at age 14, establishing her first bands of trust with the business. The poem was as follows:

> *Rivers e'en cry / when they are 'fraid / cometh, seek assistance / unto thine parade*
>
>

In 1943, Constance and Joseph were killed in action.

## Business Years

In 1945, Mary Sonjek became an apple vendor, and then a poet for the *Lonville Report*, to re-establish a good household money circulation after WWII. She and Hannah became somewhat friends from then on, as they both realized they had much in common. Mary met her future husband Fred Lewis in 1946, on a "double date" with Hannah. At the time, Hannah was thirty-nine years old, and engaged to Hubert Rogers (1905 - 1997).

Mary married Fred Lewis on May 31st, 1947, the same year she began to report for the *Lonville Report*. She immediately fell in love with the newspaper and often stayed overnight at the offices, to her husband's dismay. However, Mary became pregnant in late 1948, and she was to take a leave from work to care for the baby when it was born on March 10th, 1949.

At the newspaper offices, editor Jean-Phillipe Monys and manager Edward Cooper were hesitant to allow Mary to write "important" stories, due to the fact that no woman ever had done that before, and because of Mary's infamous prolixity when she felt strongly about a topic. Edward Cooper died on January 18th, 1950, and Monys finally agreed to let Mary write a headline article and see what happened.

Sadly, readers were disgusted by the article Mary wrote on the front page on February 5th, 1950, and they angrily telephoned the office, begging for a more experienced writer to deliver the news (which was of an explosion in City Hall). Monys was quite disappointed: he had hoped that women could get larger roles in the paper.

## Middle Years

Mary continued to work at the *Lonville Report,* but spent nights at her own home with Fred, son David, and daughter Eleanor, who was born on June 3rd, 1954. In the summer of '55, the Lewises and the Monyses (Jean-Phillipe and his newly-married wife Beth) went to France for a short vacation. Monys and Beth considered retiring and moving to France, but Mary convinced them to stay in the United States, and each summer the two families could go to France together. This greatly improved the tensions between Monys and Mary.

In 1956, Fred died at the age of 38. Mary was extremely upset, but remarried soon afterward to Benjamin Hickley (1916 - 1998), mainly to support her children. Mary became the head reporter at the *Lonville Report* in 1957, when Phil Shopper retired. However, she did not write a second front page until 1969, over a decade before she retired.

Mary continued to become quite respected at the offices. The Lewises and Monyses continued to visit France every summer until 1966, when Monys sadly passed away. Beth and Mary were not very close, and they never contacted each other ever again. Mary felt like there had been much tragedy in her life, but it wasn't going to make her any less determined.

The Sonjeks had a family reunion in the spring of 1967. Eloise, Hannah, John Jr, William, Charles, and Mary attended; and so did spouses Richard (of Eloise), Hubert (Hannah), Wilhelmina (John Jr), and Lynda (Charles). Benjamin did not attend, and William did not marry until 1970. The family reunion was the last time Mary saw any of her family except for Hannah and William.

In 1969, Mary had a small role in the moon landing, when she cleaned something for astronaut Neil Armstrong. If she had not cleaned whatever it was, Armstrong likely would have forgotten to bring the American flag to the moon. She also wrote an article about the moon landing, as her last front-page article. Audiences/readers enjoyed this article much more than her first front page.

Mary was diagnosed with cancer in 1970, a few weeks after witnessing William's wedding to Sheryl Crawford (1948 - ). Hannah, who was at the wedding as well, was also diagnosed with cancer at around the same time. Hannah survived for two years before passing away in 1972, due to cancer and other complications. Mary and Benjamin spoke their first words to each other that actually had love in them by 1973, when Mary was close to death. However, Mary recovered in the beginning of 1974, but did not return to the *Report* until 1978.

## Later Years

Mary had a heart attack in 1976, but it was quite small and she recovered in less than a week. Benjamin lost all interest in Mary and married Ora Goldstein in 1977, due to the fact that both of Mary's children were now grown-up and Mary would need less help supporting them.

In 1983, Mary made a shady business decision (with the help of co-worker Gerald Happney) and sold ten early editions of the newspaper to an "elderly historian". However, the person was actually a young man who exploited typographical errors in the editions he had, and a group of fifteen people raided the office in late December of that year to exploit errors in other editions. Mayor Lydia Armstrong filed a lawsuit against the office, charging them with "miscommunication of public service". The *Lonville Report* subsequently lost over $500,000.

Very embarrassed, Mary took a leave of absence from the business. A friend convinced her to run for mayor in 1984, and Mary accepted, although she had never been involved in politics. She believed she could do a much better job than Lydia, and her predecessor John. Mary unexpectedly won the election by a great margin against Lydia Armstrong's son, Nathanael. Mary did not know how to balance being mayor and being head reporter, so she demoted herself in the *Report* and focused on mayorship.

### Mayor-hood Scandal

In 1987, Mary retired from the *Report*, at the ripe old age of 59. This allowed her to settle down, and also to focus on the last year of her first term as mayor. She worked hard and happily every day to make things right.

However, soon after being re-elected in 1988, Mary was forced to make an important decision that could forever change the fate of the town. She could either decide to tax farmers more, or the rich more. She decided on farmers, thinking that the electric industry and factories make a good amount of money for the town, and farms are not needed as much.

Farmers responded angrily just an hour after the bill was passed. They started a riot, preparing to tear down the government building until Mary was fired. However, she was still within her second term, and could not yet be un-elected. She was impeached, but found not guilty at a public trial. She repealed the farmer tax and imposed it on the rich instead: influential families such as the Fredericks family, Picka family, and others. When 1992 elections came around, she was again re-elected. However, she quit in 1994 due to health difficulties.

## Death and Legacy

On February 10th, 1994, Mary married her third husband, Matthew "Matty" Tannhausenstein (b. 1963). However, Mary being a very respected and role-model individual, many were shocked that she had married a man over thirty years younger than herself. However, Mary and Matty had love for each other non-existent in the relationship with Benjamin. They had one child, in May of '94.

However, a few days after Houston Lewis (Matty had adopted Mary's last name to avoid confusion with the name Tannhausenstein) was born, Mary began to feel nauseous for long periods of time. She constantly had fevers, and eventually she was declared in critical condition by her doctor. Mary quit her mayor job on May 30th, 1994.

Sadly, Mary passed away on June 9th, 1994, at the age of sixty-six: a rather young age, according to incumbent *Report* manager Arthur Mackey, who delivered a famous and well-remembered (in Lonville) eulogy at Mary's funeral, beginning with the line "*Throughout the history of civilization, there are certain persons whose souls are filled with a slice of hope, a feeling greater than wealth or fame, or any other...Mary Lewis is one of these persons."*

Mary Lewis was known for her kind heart, loving and caring personality, and determination at all times. On March 2nd, 2008, the Mary Lewis Memorial Museum of Writings and Rights was constructed in Lonville, NY.