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)

Mr. Ross Ellison Howie

PHOTO OF JEWISH AMERICAN COUPLE SURFACES AFTER 100 YEARS

Passport photo of Abraham Emil Lessem 1921

Every time I sign into Ancestry.com I get caught up in history as a story unfolds from the documents I discover, and last night was no different.   After work I began my research on Lieb Nelick.  He was a Russian born, Jewish American Jeweler.
I have been working on this family line on and off over many years.  Ancestry is always adding new documents, so I began to look at his family members, and others in his tree to see if anything new could be discovered.

Nalick Family C. 1906 Brooklyn New York

When Lieb Nelick was born on February 14, 1900, in Pliskov, Vinnytsya, Ukraine, his father, Hershel, was 36 and his mother, Sema, was 31.  In the photo to the right you will see him as a young immigrant boy, standing in front of his eldest sister Essie.  Youngest brother Stanley who went on to become a vaudevillian actor is in the center, in front of their mother.  Albert is seen here in the second row to the right.  Behind Albert is Jennie, and at the top of the photo is Edith.

According to the ship manifest, their Hebrew names when they boarded the ship headed for the shores of their soon to be new home were: Hershel, Schime, Essie, Jasne, Judes, Elie, Leib & Schloma Nelik. They traveled on the S.S. Umbria  from the port of Liverpool to the port of New York City; leaving Liverpool England on June 30th 1906, and arriving on July 9th.

Steam Ship UMBRIA

I could go into so much more detail here, but this is a post to a blog to introduce a hundred year old photo, not a book.

Lets begin by researching more into Essie Nalick. I quickly discovered an official document titled "Deaths of American Citizens abroad, 1835-1974."

This document was a wealth of information. It enlightened me to the name of Essie's husband.  Prior to this, all that was known to me was his surname Lessem. I now had his full name Abraham Emil Lessem.
I began to read through, page by page of a very large file that was held by the State Department in Washington DC.   A paper trail which formed over months, as various American Consuls attempted to find the living relations to an American Citizen who had died in Hamburg Germany on the first of July, 1922.
It later struck me while I was preparing for bed how fortunate of a find this was. This was prior to World War Two.   All of these documents had been sent to the United States, ending up in the National Archives, thus protecting them to be discovered today. Most Jewish American history was lost forever during the war, so I decided I had to share this story, and began to write.

While all these documents in their totality held my interest with great intrigue; none as much as this next document.  A letter from Essie seeking help from the Secretary of State to investigate what had happened to the effects of her husband. When I think of the Secretary of State, I immediately think of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the 67th to hold that office.  My eyes were first drawn to her signature. Something about a signature brings a genealogist so much closer to the lives of those whom they are researching.  I then noticed that the widow was left with an orphan daughter Ruth who she listed as nine years old.  I thought that clue might bring me another family line to follow.  Unfortunately, I discovered that Ruth passed away in 1938 at the young age of 24.

Widow Lessem, also mentioned in this letter some money, and other valuable possessions.  This lead me to continue reading through this file folder.  Where upon reading the list of personal effects of the deceased Abraham Emil Lessem It was in fact true that he had money, a gold watch, and a revolver.  The Cunard Lines had sent his steamer trunk to the American Consulate in Kovno Lithuania.

He had a little over $100 in U.S. currency, and almost as much in German Marks at just under 700 Marks.  The Widow Essie was also sent an accounting by the American Consulate. The accounting included expenses for the doctor, and housing for the doctor. Total 1300 German Marks. Burial expenses, 10,322 marks. Proceeds, I guess from the sale of his Elgin Gold Watch, and other valuables, 11,887 marks.  They sent the Widow, $140.60 US.  I looked that up, and that is approximately an average months salary for the time, as people listed on the 1920 US Census an annual income of $1,200.   It does not appear that they even sent her the photo.  See the list has one framed photo.

Accounting Proceeds/Expenses

The Passport

Abraham Emil Lessem
He was born on January 6, 1879, in Lithuania, the child of Benza Lessem. He had one daughter with Essie Nalick in Brooklyn New York, 1914. He died on July 1, 1922, in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 43 of apparent Heart Attack. He became a Naturalized American Citizen in September 1914 in Kings County New York.

Abraham traveled to Kovno, Lithuania, to visit his family just after WWI, and died before the Holocaust of WWII which took the lives of so many others.

Here, finally is the never seen before photo of Abraham and Essie Lessem, c. 1914.

Abraham Emil Lessem (1879-1922) * Spouse Essie Nalick Lessem

If you would like to research more into Abraham, and possibly the family of Benza Lessem, you should start here!

More great stories for your future reading on The Jewish American Story.