Raising Rooney's, a tribute to Sandy Sully Rooney
I have heard it said, "Behind every good man, is an even better woman." It is always so intriguing to hear a person's life story, certainly that of highly accomplished people, and learn how they came to be the person that they are. In Florida, we are fortunate to have some really great elected officials. Through observation of two of them, one person began to emerge in my mind as a woman I would really love the opportunity to be able to meet and come to know.
Watching these two brothers and their leadership abilities, knowing they came from a large family, it struck my interests even more. If these two men were able to accomplish so much, what have her other children achieved? How was the mother of these people able to raise them with such amazing success?
The woman I am speaking of is Sandy Sully Rooney. Recently, I was able to have a lovely conversation with her, and I can tell you that it was a very enjoyable experience; I laughed and I learned. She gave me great insight into how these two men were molded into the leaders they are and the strength the Lord gives to a Mother who would seek His counsel. She is a devout Catholic and has raised her children that way.
Mrs. Rooney is the mother to 7 children, and helped raise another niece that she was blessed with when the child was 5 years old, (her sister had fallen ill, and was not able to care for her full time, but was an active part of her life) bringing the total up to 8. By today's standards, this is a truly amazing accomplishment. Just being able to raise 8 children in and of itself is an accomplishment, but that they have all gone on to be successful in each of their chosen professions, as well upstanding citizens is truly remarkable. This charming lady has gone above and beyond in the raising of her children and has made her family and marriage her life's success story, her legacy for the world, and I am so thankful to be able to share the secret of her success with you.
Mr. and Mrs. Pat Rooney, Sr. recently celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in Georgia, with all of their children and grandchildren in attendance. Between Pat, Joe, Terry, Chris, Brian, Tom, and Molly, she has 24 grandchildren including one on the way, due in October and the oldest turning 21 in May. She grew up with only one sister, and marrying into the Rooney family, she immediately gained 4 brothers in law and one big family!
As she reflected back on the experiences they shared as a family, she told me that her first born Pat Rooney, Jr. was the first baby born on her side of the family in 30 years, and there was never a time when he was not being tended to. Someone was always there to hold him, chase after him, and he was treated like the Prince of all Princes. She spoke of his birth as him being "the experiment" since neither she, or her husband had previous experience with babies, and were very young at the time; “…he was the first one and the only one I devoted my whole time to.” She told me she bathed him often, laughingly adding that “the poor kid stayed puckered from bath water.”
She explained to me that even though it began a little bit hectic, as time went by, it became easier when the next baby arrived. Pat was the sole child for only 15 months before the second baby arrived, and says, “before you knew it there were 8!” That would be 8 children within 10 years. Pat being the oldest, she feels did not have a chance at "babyhood" because with the arrival of the consecutive newborns, he was constantly moving up the ladder. As time went by, they had each other to play with and keep themselves amused, leaving her more free time to tend to whoever was a baby at the time.
She went on to say, "Pat was always the one in charge of things, he was the one they looked up to, the one they counted on to take care of things, to tell them what to do, and he sure never let that job go without being attended to, because he was always telling them what to do!" she added with a laugh.
While speaking of Pat, she enjoyed telling me the "Christmas" story and how he would have all the kids piled up in the floor of his room on Christmas Eve so no one could make it downstairs to see what Santa Claus brought for them before he could get there. She also said he would make sure no one had more presents than he did.
I told her that a person easily could tell that Pat was very protective of his siblings, and she agreed, adding "Pat is just a really good person; he went to grade school in the Northeast part of Philadelphia. When he was in 8th grade, we moved over to what is called the Main Line. He was the only one born in Pittsburgh. All the rest of them were born in Philadelphia. That is Pat's exclusive honor; that he was born in Pittsburgh. He went to 8th grade in a completely new school; which is hard to do when you are that age, having gone to one school your whole life and then switching, but we ended up living in neighborhoods all the time. There were plenty of kids besides my kids. When we moved over to the Main Line, to a town called Rosemont, there were only 6 houses on the street, but in those six houses, one family had 9 kids, we had the 8 with my niece, and another neighbor across the street had 8 kids, so there was never a shortage of friends, more than they could have ever needed."
She told me, "they liked to spend the summers in Avalon on the Jersey Shore. All of the kids (neighbors) also went to the Jersey Shore, so there was a constant friend always at the house with them. There were so many siblings, so many friends there was always someone to play with and to have fun with. They would play the sports according to the seasons, because when it was football season, they would play football out in the yard, when it was basketball season, it would switch to basketball, and they just had a nice time growing up. Hopefully, at least I think they did."
She also told me about a girl that lived across the street from them who had Multiple Sclerosis. She was paralyzed from the waist down and was confined to a wheelchair; she had never been able to walk. Tom found out she was in need of a date to the prom, since all the kids had grown up together and were all friends, there was always someone available for an ‘escort’ to an event. Tom readily stepped up to the plate and took her to that Prom, and never left the dance floor with her that entire night. She said, "he was always a thoughtful kid, and he never even considered that she should not be able to go. It was just an automatic thing, he was going to take her; he is just a good person, all the time. He really and truly liked being with people, he was fun to be with, and he still is."
I asked her, "What were her favorite activities to participate in with her children were when they were younger?” She then told me, "being involved in the Race Tracks, there were meetings every year in different places at the tracks, so my kids were very well traveled. I took them everywhere that we went. They would get a hard time from school about being taken out, but I would tell the schools, 'they can repeat a year of school, but they cannot repeat an experience to take these trips with their parents going to these different places.” She says "I felt like it was more important for the children to go with them while they were younger because when they got older, they would have families of their own, and I wanted to be able to have the experience with them and to be able to watch them enjoy it."
Mrs. Rooney said, "at home, my son Pat was always quiet, he was not the wild child that Tom was. Tom was constantly going from one room to the other room, and he was the closest to his brother Brian. Pat's big thing was, he had a small refrigerator in his bedroom stocked full of stuff, and he would sell it to the other kids. If someone wanted a candy bar or a coke, they went to him for it.”
"This is the way we were, we did things as a family, we enjoyed life as a family, we traveled together, we vacationed together, and Pat was the one in charge." She concluded.
"Pat later went on to go to Clemson University; he got his Master's at Lehigh and decided to be a lawyer. He met his wife, Patti, while going to see his brother in college. They have 4 children; he is a devout Catholic, and he has raised his children in the church. He worked at the Race Track before he decided to run for office. He really got the fever to run for office after helping his brother, (Tom Rooney, now serving Congressional District 17) run for office the first time. I hope he is doing a good job, because he certainly has the people in mind all the time, he has his own life experiences, and I just really feel that he does a great job because morally he has his own life's compass. He has a great support system with his wife and kids, as they are very supportive of him. His wife is a very hard worker; she is devoted to the kids, and to Pat. She is a CPA, and they have been married for 20 years," Mrs. Rooney proudly added. (Pat is the State Representative for District 85 for the Florida House).
I then asked this amazing mother…"was there a specific moment when you knew that they were going to become the leaders that they are today?" She answered with a surprising response of, "no, I cannot recall a specific moment that I knew," but added, "I knew that Tom, especially, made it a point to go to law school and then to go serve his country by joining the Army Jag Corp. with the intention of knowing he was going to do something, just not sure what it may be at that time." We also discussed him teaching Constitutional Law at West Point while he was serving. She told me, "the decision was made between Tom and his wife Tara, (who he met while they were attending Law School at the University of Miami) that they would join the Army Jag Corp together, with the intention of maybe running for office later on."
We also conversed about Tom's past positions he held before running for office. Specifically, his former position as CEO of ‘The Children's Place at Home Safe;’ she confided in me that at times it was really difficult for him. There was so much he wanted to be able to do for the children that needed help. He was also a former member of the Children's Services Council for Palm Beach County by appointment of former Governor Jeb Bush. She also added, "even though Pat was a lawyer, I never saw him going in that direction."
I asked her "is there was a singular achievement that Tom or Pat had attained that she was the most proud of?" Her response was, "I think the fact that they are both Representatives in one way or another is a major achievement. Those things are not easy to do, and I think that the fact that they are decent people, who have the belief in God, and in what God can do, has made them better people. They are good Husbands, good Fathers, and they certainly try to be good Representatives to the people. I think both of them are in that same category; as far as their personal lives, they live decent, good lives."
"Tom likes to use you a lot in his speeches; I have heard him do it more than once, are you as active in his life, and in his leadership, as it would lead us to believe?" was the next question I had for her. She answered with an emphatic "YES! I am, I call him all the time!" and I laugh. "I tell him, 'When you were on that TV show, why didn't you smile more', or 'don't wear that tie!', 'Just once in a while, just smile.' " She even went on to say that Congressman John Boehner, (before he became Speaker of the House) took the newly elected (in 2008) Congressman under his wing and actually called her and asked her if she had any influence over Tom. She asked him "Why?" And he told her, "Would you please go get him some new clothes?" She laughingly adds.
In our pre-interview e-mails, I sent her a list of questions I was interested in asking her. One of those questions was,”if you could tell the constituents that currently live in the districts that Pat or Tom represent, what would it be?” I never had to ask her the question, because she told me without me having to ask what she wanted to tell them.
“My two sons will do their best for the people that they represent. They took their oath of office ending with the words, 'so help me God', and they respect those words and will honor them. They are both men who love their country, the State of Florida that they represent, and I think that is the best recommendation I can give to either one of them. I feel like they respect the words of their oath, and they will live by them. I really do feel that to be the truth. They are God fearing men, they believe in the word of God, and they believe in the power of God."
My last question to this magnificent lady was, "have you ever looked at the accomplishments of your children, that have been collaboratively achieved, the successes they have experienced, and what does it feel like?” This is her response, "My husband and his family, concerning the businesses that they have, between his brothers, they all decided that their children would have to have their own occupations. There were so many of the kids that they all could not possibly participate in the same businesses as the Father's did. The children would have to be able to support themselves in different ways, none of the kids have been raised with the expectations that they were going to take over for their fathers or uncles, or just sit back and do nothing. To make sure they all had secure futures, my husband told all the children that as long as they were in school, he would pay for their tuitions, so they would not have student loans to deal with when they were finished with school. They have all gone on to be successful. Pat became a Lawyer. Joe Rooney is a School Professor at Lynn University; he has a PhD. My daughter Terry Meis is a Registered Nurse. My son Chris Rooney is also involved in politics, he worked on Tom and Pat's campaigns, and he has become a lobbyist. My son Brian Rooney works for the Governor in Michigan, and he also is a Lawyer. Tom is a Lawyer, and my daughter Molly Smith is married to a lawyer, and now she is going to have her 4th baby. The niece previously mentioned is Suzanne Hecht, she is an Attorney as well, and owns a law firm. They have all had to have their own occupations separate from what their father has done, and they all had to make those achievements on their own. Tom and Pat decided to take that a step further and do what they could to help the country. Yes, I am very proud of their achievements. My kids were not babied. They were not treated as anything other than regular kids, and they were corrected; believe me, when they did something I did not like. There was no time that I could not take all 8 of them out and ever have to leave the table. I had a log book for every one of them with their name on it, and what needed to be done; if they had practice for this or that, and I kept track of them. I ran my home like a small business. If I didn't do it that way, it would become a zoo. My husband was away a lot because of his work, so it became a dictatorship." She laughs and says, "There was no democracy in my house; my kids seemed to have thrived on it and have done well. Yes, I am very proud of every one of them, and all of their accomplishments; they have all married and they are all great parents."
She loves having the entire family together and is quite proud of the love that is shared among the family members. All of the Holidays and memorable traditions are still spent together. She also adds that her children all enjoy each other; they all respect each other, the grandchildren also maintain very close bonds and have been raised to be close to their cousins. She feels elated to have a family that loves like they do, and feels that the children and grandchildren have been very blessed to experience this closeness and love as well. Looking back on her life, she says, "I have been very fortunate and so have they, they have been very fortunate too. It worked out nice."
In 2002, Pat submitted his mother for the Palm Beach Post's Mother of the Year Award and she won it. When I asked him if he had anything he wanted to add to this article he told me "It is more important to show your mother how much you love her." A task, I believe he has done very well in the way she speaks of him.
When I asked Tom if there was anything he would like to add, his response was, "My mother is the strongest woman I have ever met; my wife is the most tender."
It is very apparent that Pat was a very strong son for his mother in helping her raise the family. It is also very obvious Tom and Pat both adore their mother.
Happy Mother's Day to you Mrs. Sandy Sully Rooney. Thank you for blessing us with your wonderful children, and raising them into the influential, successful people that they all have become.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs,22:6
Josie Weeks-Elliott