2017 Making Stories Great Again

Family tragedies, while seldom occur, they are often remembered.  As a genealogist these are the stories we are able to find.  Stories which were left behind, and make us want to know more.  Who were these people in our tree whose lives were cut short so tragically? How can we keep their story alive?                                 "Down but not out," "Lost but not forgotten."

Brazil's Chapecoense Soccer Team

This past November 2016, a plane carrying 77 people, including Brazil's Chapecoense football/soccer team, crashed.  This headline in the news came just after the Olympic Games held earlier in the summer, in Rio de Janeiro.  This story reminded me of one such family tragedy I had learned through genealogy.

This story begins on my mothers branch of the family tree.  Let me begin with my cousin Chi.

2000 Olympic Games, Chi Kredell

My cousin Chi, I saw once in awhile growing up, as we are about the same age.  I always remember him at my Uncle Ivars.  Uncle Ivar had a pool, and Chi was a great swimmer. For training his father would have him go to the end of the pier in Seal Beach, jump off, and swim back.  This gave him great strength, which later would help him become the first Olympic athlete that I knew.  In the late 1980's, and all through the 1990's, Chi was traveling the world competing in water polo.  Unfortunately, for me, I missed most of this, because I had joined the U.S. Air Force about that time, and the Desert Storm War had begun.   While it probably was not the fact of Uncle Ivars pool, or that they lived by the beach.  Most likely swimming was in his blood.  His father, also named Chi, had been a lifeguard in Seal Beach as a teenager, and Chi Jr. took to the water too.

Ronald Armand Kredell "Chi" 2016 Photo by Sun Newspaper

I am not going to dare attempt to write a better story about Chi Sr.  Click on the photo to link to a recent online news article to learn more about this amazing man.

Here are a few more photos of Chi the Seal Beach lifeguard. 

As you probably just read in the attached newspaper article from August 2016.
Chi Kredell married Nancey Mellen fifty-five years ago, on 10 - August - 1961. It was an afternoon ceremony in Highland Park Presbyterian Church.

The Church is very beautiful.
Highland Park is in Los Angeles, just
south of Pasadena, near Eagle Rock.
His bride, Nancey Mellen was a former Rose Princess, and like I mentioned above, one of my mother's nieces.

Nancey Ann (Mellen) Kredell
1961 Yearbook photo Pasadena City College

From the Long Beach Independent Newspaper
January - 03 -1961

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade has been a historical event.  The photos filled pages of newspapers for generations.  Sorry for the quality of this newspaper clipping.  The paper was very large with many photos.  This one clearly highlights Nancey Mellen with her blonde hair.

Nancey was not the only beauty in Ronald "Chi"'s life.  His sister and mother were equally as beautiful.   Jacquline Barbara Kredell is Chi's sister.  She was a model in Seal Beach, and the surrounding Los Angeles County area.

Jacquline Barbara Kredell c. 1950's

Here is Jacquline doing her part to support the troops during the war!

Jacquline Barbara Kredell ~ 15th Rifle Company
Seal Beach, California

On the nineteenth of May, 1956, in Orange County, California.  Jacquline Kredell Married.
I found this announcement on page 81 of the Los Angeles Times Newspaper, on 16-MAY-1956.

She married a very handsome and accomplished young man with a bright future, John Dan Radison. Here is 2nd Lt. John Dan "Commando" Radison in 1945, a senior at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri. 

He is a former Golden Gloves Champion, former Amateur Athletic Union Champion, International referee and Judge. He also held the position of Amateur Athletic Union Official, and was associated with the International Boxing Association.  They had three children before his death.

Boxer, John Dan Radison c. 1970's

Dan was brother to Peter Radison, a well known baseball umpire that went by the name of Pete.  53- year old Dan Radison was the referee, and manager of St. Louis boxer, Lemuel Steeples.  Steeples was the leading candidate for the U.S. Olympic Boxing team.  The 1980 Summer Olympics was boycotted by President Jimmy Carter in protest to the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. 

Both Radison and Steeples were killed in a tragic plane crash just outside of Warsaw Poland on March 14, 1980. Click on that link to watch news footage.  They were en route to compete in an International Boxing competition when their plane went down.  Out of the 87 that lost their lives, 31 were involved in the Amateur Boxing group.  Also aboard LOT Flight 7 was a famous Polish singer, Anna Jantar who I have discovered now has many Youtube videos with millions of hits.

You can read more about LOT Flight 7

Here is a photo of Dan Radison's St. Louis Gym. Taken the day of his funeral procession.

 The building was draped in black over the doorway entry sign which bore his name, RADISONS GYM.

His name also stands in memorial in two locations. On the west side of the road, near the west entrance to the stadium in Warsaw Poland. There is a Bronze statue of a fallen boxers listing the names of those who perished in the crash of Lot Airline Flight 007 on March 14, 1980 carrying the U.S. Olympic boxing team, one of which, Sgt. Elliot Chavis, was in the American Armed Forces. Another one of the life size castings is permanently located at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Dual meets were to be held in Cracow and Katowice, Poland. On March 14, 1980 the plane en-route was a Soviet built Polish Airlines IL-62 jetliner that went down a half-mile from Warsaw’s Okecie Airport. There had been problems with the landing gear on its first approach. On the second attempt the pilots used a special procedure to account for the faulty landing gear. However, the additional thrust used in the procedure caused one of the plane’s engines to break apart, which in turn severed the rudder and elevator control lines, which were needed to control the direction and altitude of the plane. The disaster that took the lives of 77 passengers and 10 crew members was the worst air crash in Poland’s history.  The bronze memorials were created by Colorado based sculptor A. Thomas Shomberg.
He created miniatures for each of the surviving families. Below is the inscription on the memorial in Poland:

Down but not out...

Lost but not Forgotten

Posqiecond tym

wszystkim, ktorzy zgineli

podcza lotu numer 007

Polskich linii lotnic ych w

Dniu 14 Marca 1980 Roku

Dedicated to all who perished 

on Lot Airline Flight 007 on

March 14, 1980

Reprezentacia duzyny

bokserskiej stanow

zjednoczonych na

zawody w plosce

The United States Boxing

Delegation to Poland

Kelvin D. Anderson

Elliott Chavis

Gary Tyrone Clayton

Walter Harris

Byron Lindsay

Andrea McCoy

Paul Palomino

Byron Payton

George Pimentel

Chuck Robingson

David Rodriguez

Lemuel Steeples

Jerome Stewart

Lonnie Young

Joseph F. Bland

Colonel Bernard Callahan

Thomas "Sarge" Johnson

John Radison

Junior Robles

Delores Wesson

Dr. Ray Wesson

Steve Smigiel

Fundatorzy:

Panstwa Thomas Kant

I Miedzynarodowa

Federacja Boksu

Amatorskiego

Gifted by

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Kane

and the International

Association of

Boxers

Artysta Rzezbiarz

A. Thomas Schomberg, 1984R.

Sculpture by 

A. Thomas Schomberg 1984*

The above two photos are the personal memorial sculptures that were presented to family

Referee and Judge John Dan Radison in the rink

John Dan Radison was Chi's uncle, and the subject of this story.  "Down but not out," "Lost but not forgotten."  I mentioned above that Pete, John's brother was also in sports.  He was a baseball umpire. His son Dan Radison, nephew to John D. is a baseball player, and coach.

Houston Astros, Dan Radison

I mentioned above that Ronald "Chi" Kredell was surrounded by beautiful women.  So I want to leave you with a photo of his mother, Goldia Viola (Munger) Kredell.  Living in Lesterville, Missouri during the roaring 20's I can't blame her for quickly moving to Chicago Illinois, "CHI" Town, and marrying Jack Kredell of San Antonio Texas,  but that is a story for another day!

Goldia Viola (Munger) Kredell  (1905 - 1997)