Growing up as 11: Peoria's Bannon family together after all these years

PEORIA — When you think of a family with lots of siblings, you tend to picture them as kids — cramming into a church pew, crowding around a long dinner table, spilling out of a car that somehow contained all of them.

But they don’t stay kids. Those siblings grow up, go to college, become adults. They have their own kids and move on to middle age and, hopefully, old age. Their parents, who minded them as little ones during those church services and car rides, pass away.

So it is with the Bannon family, a clan well-known to the central Illinois community since arriving in Peoria in 1956. There are 11 of them, the 10 daughters and one son of the late Ted and Rosemary Bannon: Maureen, Kathy, Barb, Terry, Kevin, Cookie, Ginny, Lorrie, Peggy, Jean Marie and Joanne.

The eldest will turn 72 this year while the youngest turns 55. Most of them still live close to home, but a few reside outside of Illinois. The family has grown exponentially over the years; the siblings now have almost 40 children and nearly as many grandchildren.

“We’ve created quite a family tree,” Ginny Pisano said.

“I couldn’t begin to name them all,” Kevin Bannon joked.

Once the siblings became adults and started their own families, priorities shifted ever so slightly.

They still kept up with each other using whatever mode of communication was common at the time. Initially, that meant phone calls. One would dial the “big kids” — a demarcation ending with Kevin — before calling the "little kids." Then came email chains and text message groups under the name “Bannon Clan.”

Being spouses and parents took up a great deal of time and energy, though, and it wasn’t until a little later as adults when the Bannons found renewed meaning in their relationship as siblings.

Some of the siblings point to a specific moment where that was the case as the eldest was approaching her 50th birthday in 1996. The "big kids" section of the Bannons had older kids of their own now, and the "little kids" contingent had their own little ones. Still, there was a sense that the occasion of the first 50th birthday among the siblings should be appropriately celebrated.

With mom and dad in tow, all of them booked a four-day trip to Florida to surprise Maureen for her 50th birthday. It was a magical time together, and the Bannons resolved that weekend to make the celebration into a tradition.

And so the siblings packed their bags and went on a trip 10 more times for each successive 50th birthday. On occasion, one of them wasn't able to attend and quickly realized that they could never miss it again.

"It bonded us year after year," Joanne Bannon, the youngest, said.

The trips reminded them of what can be taken for granted during childhood — some of the strongest connections in life are with brothers and sisters.

Growing up as 11

Four bedrooms and one bathroom, two parents and 11 children. The math made for a tight squeeze, but that's all the Bannons ever knew growing up in the stately white house at 520 W. Armstrong Ave.

The family has four sets of "Irish twins," meaning that the two siblings in each set were born within 12 months of each other. The proximity to each other was an everyday part of life.

"I don’t ever remember thinking: 'Why do I have to share everything?'" Ginny recalled. Sharing beds, sharing socks, sharing the bathroom. It was as normal as waking up in the morning.

Despite the densely packed home, the Bannons lived simply. Oatmeal and spaghetti sufficed for most meals. When it came time for a birthday, which were numerous throughout the year, lavish gifts weren't the expectation. Kathy Bannon Ward said they felt special because of the cutout cakes their mother would make herself — securing a slice before it was all gone was an entirely different matter.

From the outset, the 11 were rife with differences. Some were shy while others had a more outgoing personality. As adults, those differences continued.

"We're very different: politically, religiously and philosophically in some respects," Joanne said.

Growing up as the lone male of the siblings might seem like a major encumbrance, but Kevin never saw it that way. He didn't feel ostracized from his sisters and, if anything, spent much of his time hanging out as one of the "big kids" with his older sisters. Even better, he didn't have to fight with anyone over clothes.

Kathy, Joanne and Ginny said they all cherish his presence in the family and said that he would do anything for them. One time, when some were a little miffed at Ginny getting their uncle's wooden Santa, Kevin showed up at the next family gathering with 11 reproductions of the Santa that he made himself.

Best of all, by getting married to his wife, Lynn, he gave them an 11th sister.

"If it wasn't for her, they wouldn't have anything to do with me," Kevin said with his trademark wit.

And besides never being able to access the bathroom growing up, he wouldn't change a thing.

Honoring differences

People have asked Ginny all the time, in a tone of surprise or bewilderment, if they all still speak to each other. The answer is always a "yes," in part because of the example set by their parents when they were kids. Ted and Rosemary respected their 11 children's differences and taught them what it meant to create a family.

That's not to say it's always been warm and fuzzy between the siblings. There was a sense for some, as the new additions piled up, that being one of 11 was an unasked for burden, especially for the older siblings who carried more responsibility.

It also might have hindered some of their relationships with other people in their lives. Developing a friendship with a classmate or peer can take a backseat when you have nine other sisters.

"As I grew older, I realized that I didn’t nurture outside friendships very well because my sisters were my best friends," Joanne said.

"I would say the same thing," Ginny concurred.

And, at times, the political debates became heated, enough that they pretty much stopped talking politics, Kevin said, in order to focus on talking "about more important stuff." The similarities between the 11 of them bind them together, and the differences are put aside to preserve that bond. Just like their parents once did.

One of the best examples Ginny could think of was when their mother passed away from cancer in 2012. It was 10 years after their father had died, and the big house on Armstrong was finally empty of people but still full of the little trinkets that had accumulated in more than five decades of the family living there. As mothers tend to do, she kept everything.

It was time for the 11 Bannon siblings to divide those items up among themselves. The first rule: If one of them gave it to her, they got it back. Then they drew numbers, from one to 11, and had a draft for all that was left. It wasn't about monetary value but instead the intrinsic value — besides, they had grown up modestly and none of the items had much monetary value anyway.

When a monumental treasure turned up — the weddings rings, for instance — everyone was happy for the person who got them. It's a day Ginny and the others will always remember.

"There were no hurt feelings," Ginny said. "It was so beautiful. Everybody was at peace."

Treasuring time together

With the sheer number of life events throughout the extended family — weddings, births, holidays — the act of gathering together is now considered as important as the actual event.

And after so many years, the time spent together has become all the more precious. The siblings were prepared for the deaths of their mother and father, but they weren't for other losses. Jean's husband passing from ALS in 2016 was shared as the whole family's loss, and Barb's grieving over her son's dying from cancer in 2012 was their grief, too.

They haven't faced that prospect with one of the 11 yet, and it's difficult to even consider.

"Having lost a sibling is something that we don’t have any idea …" Joanne said before trailing off. "I can’t even bear the thought."

"It’s going to happen," Ginny said. "It’s a matter of not having any regrets, which is why we have to put those differences aside. Those days are so precious."

They try not to dwell on it and instead look forward to those times when they're all together again. There will surely be weddings and births and baptisms again this year. And then there's the annual weekend trip to Chicago in December.

Once the youngest turned 50 a few years ago, they all collectively thought, "What are we going to do now?" The Bannon siblings settled on a long winter weekend up in Chicago each year.

"It's just a treasured time," Kathy said.

They get a suite in a hotel with bedrooms on both sides and wear matching pajamas and talk about subjects old and new. Several decades have elapsed and, for one weekend, things haven't changed all that much. They're still crammed together into one place, wearing matching clothes and sharing bedrooms.

For the 11 Bannon siblings, this is home.

Thomas Bruch can be reached at 686-3262 or tbruch@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasBruch.