Today marks the 5th anniversary of the passing of my Mom, Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin. She was known as Margaret Ann by most people, as "Gertann" by my Dad, and as Marge or Margaret by some others.
Mom was born in Cleveland on November 10th, 1923, the baby of her family. Her older siblings were Al, Julia ("Dudie"), Fenton ("Skip"), and identical twins Dick and Don. Her Dad was John ("Jack") Francis Fitzpatrick, born in the quarry village of Bluestone, Euclid Township, Ohio, and Margaret Ann Sullivan, born in the quarry area of Brownhelm Township, Lorain County, Ohio. Jack worked for the railroad as a yard conducter and Margaret was a homemaker.
My Mom first lived on East 169th [1188, E. 169th, I believe]Street, in the Euclid Beach-Grovewood area of Cleveland. As a toddler she started speaking Slovenian because of her daily contact with Slovenian speakers in that neighborhood. I think that was a signal for her parents to move! And they moved just about a mile away to a house on Tarrymore Road, a stone's throw from Lake Erie (I think the current address of that home is 17513 Tarrymore Rd., Cleveland, OH 44119; http://www.zillow.com/ gives the date the house was built as 1926). That's where she grew up, and that's where her mother died on March 18, 1940.
My mother was baptized as St. Jerome's Church in Cleveland, and attended Holy Cross Church and school after the move to Tarrymore Drive. She attended Villa Angela Academy for a while, but left that school (she might have been kicked out over a trivial issue, like playing hookie one day--it's not exactly clear to us). Thereafter, she attended Notre Dame Academy on Ansel Road in Cleveland, and graduated from high school in 1943. She loved the Notre Dame nuns and handled the long two-streetcar ride to school with no problem.
I think after high school Mom lived with her sister or brothers in various places, including Willoughby, Ohio. Some time around 1946, she met my Dad, Robert ("Bob") Paul Coughlin, who grew up on Hayes Avenue (nowdays the address is 1136 Hayes Ave., Willoughby, OH 44094) in Willoughby-on-the-Lake. They were married in August of 1947, at Immaculate Conception Church in Willoughby, and I, their firstborn, was born in June of 1948.
Mom and Dad made their first home at 1120 Windermere Drive, in Willoughby, about 200 feet west of my Coughlin grandparents. Their home was a tiny bungalow, maybe 700-800 square feet in size. Denny was born in June of 1950 and the house was beginning to feel crowded so they began thinking of getting a bigger house. Dad's first job after getting out of the Navy (he served on small ships in the South Pacific 1942-45) was in the Cleveland Trust Bank in downtown Willoughby. When he told the bank that he wanted to get a mortgage to build a new house (we're talking a $9000 house here--brand new), the bank told Dad no, that he didn't make enough money to get a mortgage loan. At that point Dad probably told them goodbye (but not in such polite language) and went off looking for a new job. He finally secured a job as an electrician at New York Central Railroad in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. I have no idea how Dad talked himself into that job. He was no more an electrician at that time than I am now. But when you have a growing family, you do what you have to do to get a job. New York Central was near Mom's old neighborhood, and her brother Skip lived practically next door to the NYC yards and worked there as a welder/machinist. Dad's brothers Fran, Jack, and Bill also worked there, as did his in-laws Skip and Al Fitzpatrick. NYC must have been an Irish-mafia operation back then! Check out this link with all the Fitzpatrick relatives aboard a train at the Collinwood Yards: http://www.fitzpatrickrailserv.com/HISTORY.htm
Mom was born in Cleveland on November 10th, 1923, the baby of her family. Her older siblings were Al, Julia ("Dudie"), Fenton ("Skip"), and identical twins Dick and Don. Her Dad was John ("Jack") Francis Fitzpatrick, born in the quarry village of Bluestone, Euclid Township, Ohio, and Margaret Ann Sullivan, born in the quarry area of Brownhelm Township, Lorain County, Ohio. Jack worked for the railroad as a yard conducter and Margaret was a homemaker.
My Mom first lived on East 169th [1188, E. 169th, I believe]Street, in the Euclid Beach-Grovewood area of Cleveland. As a toddler she started speaking Slovenian because of her daily contact with Slovenian speakers in that neighborhood. I think that was a signal for her parents to move! And they moved just about a mile away to a house on Tarrymore Road, a stone's throw from Lake Erie (I think the current address of that home is 17513 Tarrymore Rd., Cleveland, OH 44119; http://www.zillow.com/ gives the date the house was built as 1926). That's where she grew up, and that's where her mother died on March 18, 1940.
My mother was baptized as St. Jerome's Church in Cleveland, and attended Holy Cross Church and school after the move to Tarrymore Drive. She attended Villa Angela Academy for a while, but left that school (she might have been kicked out over a trivial issue, like playing hookie one day--it's not exactly clear to us). Thereafter, she attended Notre Dame Academy on Ansel Road in Cleveland, and graduated from high school in 1943. She loved the Notre Dame nuns and handled the long two-streetcar ride to school with no problem.
I think after high school Mom lived with her sister or brothers in various places, including Willoughby, Ohio. Some time around 1946, she met my Dad, Robert ("Bob") Paul Coughlin, who grew up on Hayes Avenue (nowdays the address is 1136 Hayes Ave., Willoughby, OH 44094) in Willoughby-on-the-Lake. They were married in August of 1947, at Immaculate Conception Church in Willoughby, and I, their firstborn, was born in June of 1948.
Mom and Dad made their first home at 1120 Windermere Drive, in Willoughby, about 200 feet west of my Coughlin grandparents. Their home was a tiny bungalow, maybe 700-800 square feet in size. Denny was born in June of 1950 and the house was beginning to feel crowded so they began thinking of getting a bigger house. Dad's first job after getting out of the Navy (he served on small ships in the South Pacific 1942-45) was in the Cleveland Trust Bank in downtown Willoughby. When he told the bank that he wanted to get a mortgage to build a new house (we're talking a $9000 house here--brand new), the bank told Dad no, that he didn't make enough money to get a mortgage loan. At that point Dad probably told them goodbye (but not in such polite language) and went off looking for a new job. He finally secured a job as an electrician at New York Central Railroad in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. I have no idea how Dad talked himself into that job. He was no more an electrician at that time than I am now. But when you have a growing family, you do what you have to do to get a job. New York Central was near Mom's old neighborhood, and her brother Skip lived practically next door to the NYC yards and worked there as a welder/machinist. Dad's brothers Fran, Jack, and Bill also worked there, as did his in-laws Skip and Al Fitzpatrick. NYC must have been an Irish-mafia operation back then! Check out this link with all the Fitzpatrick relatives aboard a train at the Collinwood Yards: http://www.fitzpatrickrailserv.com/HISTORY.htm
Here is a funny story my Mom used to tell me about the Willoughby-on-the-Lake neighborhood: One day when I was a baby or toddler, she was walking me around the neighborhood when a crow landed on my shoulder. My mom was real frightened and left me on the sidewalk and ran into the house. It turns out the crow could talk! It was a tame crow owned by someone in the neighborhood. I think it's just an unsubstantiated rumor that the crow uttered "nevermore!"
Some time around June 1951, a fateful accident happened in that Willoughby neighborhood that affected my Mom, Dad, me, Denny, and, I imagine, the whole family not yet born:
[more coming]
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