Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Billy Morgan
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2020-061
Billy Morgan, an aide to Gov. Pat Quinn whose marriage was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: Oct 20, 2020 Location: Telephonic interview using ALPL recording studio
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Mark R. DePue, Director of Oral History, ALPL
Total Time: 0:52 / 0.87 hrs
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on March 30, 2021.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2020 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Billy Morgan, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2020-061
Biographical Information/Overview of Interview: William (Billy) Morgan was born in November 1990 in Olympia Fields, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 2013 and following graduation received a Dunn Fellowship and began working for the Governor Pat Quinn administration, assigned to Quinn’s press office. Following Governor Quinn’s defeat in the 2014 gubernatorial election, Billy continued to work for the governor, assisting him in a variety of ways. In 2015 Billy met Sandra Fernandez through the online dating site Coffee Meets Bagel. They soon began dating regularly and as the relationship progressed, Billy and Sandra traveled to Oklahoma where he met Sandra’s mother, immediately getting her approval. In early 2019 Billy proposed, and Sandra readily accepted. They began planning for a March 28, 2020 wedding, a date that landed after Illinois’s primary and well before the general election in November. They decided to hold the wedding at the Patrick Haley Mansion in Joliet.
In early February Sandra received the news that her mother was in the hospital. They immediately drove down to Tulsa, arriving early the next morning. Sandra’s mother passed away later that day from pneumonia. (They wonder to this day if she actually had the coronavirus.) Never-the-less, the couple felt they needed to move forward with their wedding plans since the invitations had already gone out to the 150 guest they had invited. While still dealing with the tragedy of Sandra’s mother’s sudden death, they also began hearing about the coronavirus pandemic. In mid-March, as the news about the virus continued to get worse, they made the difficult decision to postpone the wedding. Within the next couple of days, on March 15, Governor J.B. Pritzker mandated that all bars and restaurants would be closed to sit-down dinners, thus validating their decision to postpone the wedding. Billy and Sandra ended up being married in Billy’s parents’ back yard on July 25 with only twelve people in attendance. They also plan to renew their vows at the Patrick Haley Mansion on February 27, 2021 to celebrate with their 150 guests.
Subject Headings/Key Words: coronavirus pandemic of 2020; impact of pandemic on wedding plans; Patrick Haley Mansion; Sandra Fernandez; Governor Pat Quinn;
Notes to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955