By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 26, 2000
It was unusual for Terry Steczo to go out for lunch. He usually grabbed a sandwich from the snack shop in his office building and went back to eat at his desk.
But on this day 2 1/2 years ago, he took his secretary’s advice to step out for a change of pace. On his way back from lunch, Terry noticed a sign in a window announcing that Kitty Loewy from WCKG-FM (105.9) would be doing a live remote broadcast from there the next day.
“I thought to myself, `It would be nice to say hello and see how she’s doing,’ ” Terry remembers. “So I made a point of getting back there the next day to see her. I’m sure my secretary was shocked that I left during lunchtime two days in a row.”
Lest you think Terry was an obsessed fan, fear not. He just wanted to say hi to an old friend.
Back in 1971, when Kitty was a senior at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, her brother was in his last year at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. She enjoyed visiting him there, partly because she liked the freedom of being away from home, but also because his good-looking friends were nice to her, especially a guy named Terry.
They went on a few casual dates, but Terry says he always regarded her as Jack’s kid sister and his best friend Joel’s cousin.
“I always had a huge crush on him,” Kitty says. “He’s the first man that I ever fell in love with, but he had no clue. I just assumed that he would’ve realized that I liked him and that he must not care for me. But guys are kind of dense, especially at that age.”
Terry agrees.
“We are kind of blockheaded.”
They went their separate ways and didn’t see each other again until 1980 . . . at her wedding.
So when Kitty saw a familiar face staring at her during her broadcast, she did a double take.
“I recognized him immediately,” she says. “I had always loved his eyes, and he was staring at me intently. So I mouthed through the window, `Omigod! Is that you?’ And he nodded his head back at me. During a break, I went outside and gave him a big hug.”
Two weeks later, the couple began dating. For real.
Engaged 1½ years ago, Kitty, 46, and Terry, 50, plan to walk down the aisle May 21.
“Today, Terry is an administrator in the assessor’s office and also the Democratic committeeman for Bremen Township,” says Kitty, who is an on-air personality at WXCD-FM (94.7). “My four kids are excited about the upcoming nuptials, and we all think it’s pretty cool that we hooked up again.”
