Kenneth Andmary Fisler

A love story from the 'Greatest Generation'
You hear a lot about how they survived the Depression and won World War II, but not so much about the great romances of the Greatest Generation. Maybe that's because you don't stop to think about it until their romances end, and the ending of a romance under any circumstances is the epitome of sad.
Mary and Ken Fisler's love story ended last week, at least on this earthly plane. It had started 70 years ago and took them from the hallways of North Attleboro High School to a life lived in Europe and a host of other locations where Lt. Col. Kenneth Fisler's duties with the Strategic Air Command put them in front-row seats to the making of Cold War history.
They reared five children. Their marriage lasted 67 years. It was only death that did part them — Ken passing on Oct. 1 and Mary on Oct. 6. That they died five days apart produced many a drawn-out sigh, but surprised no one. Theirs really was a Romeo & Juliet story — without the fatal misunderstandings. How else could it have ended?
Not that there was a Capulet-Montague feud in the background, but the farm in Oldtown where Ken Fisler grew up, dreaming of flying while he worked in his father Harvey's fields, was a world away from the North Washington Street apartment where Mary, the daughter of Peter and Mary McAdams nurtured her dreams. He walked across the street to church at First (Oldtown) Congregational. She walked across the street to church at St. Mary's.
But something clicked between the Yankee boy and Irish girl. The editors of the 1941 North Attleboro High School yearbook prophesied that the bright McAdams, who would be named class valedictorian, would someday wed the industrious Fisler who, while still in high school, had parlayed a single delivery route for a Rhode Island newspaper into a distribution network covering all the Oldtown and Adamsdale neighborhoods.
They were proved right, but not until 1944. Fisler had interrupted his education at the Allen School of Aeronautics in Providence to join the Army Air Corps in 1943. A year and a half later, he came home on leave to marry his high school sweetheart.
World War II service took them to assignments in Texas, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. At the end of the war, they returned to North Attleboro to build a home and start a business, but the opportunities to do so came too slowly and Fisler re-enlisted as a Master Sergeant in the Air Corps in 1946. He was a pioneer member of the Air Force when it was established as a separate branch a year later. His career soared.
Within a year, the certified navigator was a Second Lieutenant and a First Lieutenant less than a year after that. In 1950, he was stationed in Okinawa, from where he flew 59 combat missions in the Korean War, including one in which the plane was brought down by flak, though safely. He was promoted to Captain in 1952 and to Major and Lieutenant Colonel in later years.
During his 33 years of Service, he earned a host of commendations — Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal With 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Presidential Unit Citation, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award With 1 Device, Army Good Conduct Medal With 2 Devices, American Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, WWII Army Of Occupation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal With 4 Devices, Air Force Longevity Service Award With 7 Oak Leaf Clusters, Armed Service Reserve Medal, United Nations Korean Service Medal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation and Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon among them.
The certified master navigator served on B-29s, B-50s, KC-9Ts and KC-135s, and on the famed B-52 "Looking Glass," code name for a command center that remained airborne 24 hours a day during the Cold War in the event that ground-based command centers were destroyed in a nuclear attack. That assignment came while he was attached to the Strategic Air Command, of which Fisler was the longest serving member when he retired in 1977 and for which he handled classified assignments.
His Air Force career had taken the Fislers to all parts of the U.S. and to assignments in Europe, including one in Spain that afforded them the opportunity to visit several other countries. Mary Fisler, meanwhile, established herself as the perfect military wife, reigning over the family while he took on deployments and temporary duty, participating in Officers Wives Clubs, American Red Cross and remaining active in her church.
Following retirement, they settled in Apollo Beach, Fla., where they were active in the Apollo Beach Civic Association, they dabbled in the real estate business and Mary volunteered with the Apollo Beach Rescue Squad. They made frequent visits back home to the Attleboros and greeted several new years aboard cruise ships to exotic locales.
It was a full life for the Fislers. Their five children, Kenneth Anthony Fisler, who died in 1994, Harvey Peter Fisler, Mara Lynn Snodgrass, Gregory Steven Fisler and Michelle Lee Fisler, in turn had blessed them with 14 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and 10 great-great-grandchildren.
The secret to the success of their marriage may be that they never gave up dancing together while they were physically able to do so. Failing health slowed them down, but a nurse attending Mary during a recent hospitalization dubbed them Romeo & Juliet for their nearly constant hand-holding. And just a few weeks ago a family member making a wellbeing check interrupted them spooning.
Ken and Mary were 87. And, need I say, still in love.
MARK FLANAGAN (mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com) is Opinion page editor of The Sun Chronicle. His wife, Christine, is Ken and Mary Fisler's niece. Viewing Services for Mary and Ken Fisler will be held 1-2:30 p.m.; Funeral Services begin at 2:30p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15, at Newcomer Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 895 S Goldenrod Road, Orlando, FL 32822 (407) 277-4227.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to Hospice of the Comforter, 480 West Central Parkway, Altamonte Springs, Florida 32714. 407-682-0808