Rose Broske spent a decade in Hawaii during her Dash Between

March 7, 2010

Rose Broske, the subject of “The Dash Between” in the March 7, 2010, edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, used to tell her children, “Go with the flow.”

The flow took her, her husband, Bud, and several other young adults from Elyria, Ohio, to Hawaii during World War II. The men went as civilian employees of the Navy shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Rose and some of the women who followed took jobs in Honolulu with the War Department.

The Broskes remained in Hawaii for a few years after the war, but their decade in the U.S. territory before it became a state left its imprint. They decorated the rec room in their house with bamboo furniture and furnishings. Rose was cooking stirfry — with pineapple — before it became a popular dish in the states and gave hula lessons to family, friends and students at St. Mary Catholic School in Elyria. (Click headline for more.)

Oberlin College’s Maggie Terry is Elyria Chronicle’s Dash Between

February 21, 2010

Maggie Terry “touched thousands and thousands of students, who came through the door in one way or another,” said Rick Panfil, general manager of Campus Dining Services at Oberlin College.

Maggie, who worked in food service at the college in Oberlin, Ohio, for 42 years — most recently running the Lord-Saunders Dining Hall at Oberlin College’s Afrikan Heritage House — made students feel at home with her comfort foods and personal attention.

“She was like their mother away from home to a lot of students, and I think they felt that,” Panfil said.

Read more about “The Dash Between” December 31, 1947, when she was born Maggie Edwards in Demopolis, Ala., and Jan. 25, 2010, when the hard-working, no-nonsense mother of two died at age 62, in the February 21, 2010, edition of The Elyria Chronicle. (Click headline for more.)

Dash Between spotlight: Ann Brand, retired Avon school bus driver

February 7, 2010

Ann Brand packed a lot of living into “The Dash Between” Feb. 13, 1924, when she was born Anna Ivka in Cleveland, Ohio, and Jan. 16, 2010, when she died at St. John Westshore Hospital in Westlake, Ohio.

She raised five kids, drove a school bus in Avon, Ohio, worked as a cashier at Discount Drug Mart in Westlake and volunteered at the Senior Center in North Ridgeville, Ohio, during her “Dash,” a.k.a. life.

Her life story is featured in the Sunday, February 7, 2010, edition of The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. (Click headline for more.)

Tom Kuns, Lorain barber, Clyde native: Subject of Elyria Chronicle “Dash”

January 24, 2010

Today - Sunday, January 24, 2009 - The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram features “The Dash Between” Dec. 20, 1941, when Tom Kuns was born in Sandusky, and Jan. 2, 2010, when the Lorain barber died at home of a heart attack at age 68.

Tom groomed the heads of many Lorain politicians, clergymen and children and could carry on conversations of interest to each of them. Politics became his favorite topic in recent years. (Click headline for more.)

Ray Church, Wellington VFW chaplain, radio/TV repairman, packrat

January 10, 2010

My feature about “The Dash Between” October 9, 1918, when Wellington VFW chaplain Ray Church was born, and December 23, 2009, when the retired radio and TV repairman died, landed on the front page of the Elyria Chronicle on Sunday, January 10, 2010.

The 91-year-old lifelong resident of Wellington, Ohio, was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service as a radio operator with the 176th Field Artillery Battalion in France during World War II.

Ray was honored in October 2009 by the Wellington Fullbackers for his more than 50 years of raising the flag at Wellington Dukes home football games. (Click headline for more.)

Two exemplary fathers are this week’s Dashes

January 1, 2010

I recently had the privilege of writing feature obituaries for two exemplary fathers: Bernie O’Donnell and Tommie Lee Jackson Sr. Their stories ran earlier this week in the Elyria Chronicle and Medina County Gazette, respectively.

Bernie O’Donnell, a retired Elyria carpet salesman who died December 6, 2009, at age 91, shared hands-on parenting chores with his wife back in the 1950s and ’60s, when changing diapers and making breakfast for seven kids was considered “women’s work.”

Tommie Lee Jackson Sr.Tommie Jackson Sr., 65, a retired foundry worker who also died in December, and his wife considered themselves the parents of 18 children. They never distinguished between those who were born to them, adopted by them or placed with them through family services. (Click headline for more.)

The walking man of Elyria

December 13, 2009

Sylvester Cooper didn’t drive a car, but that didn’t stop him from getting around.

Friends say he walked wherever he wanted to go. Perhaps you saw him, dressed in a suit, hat and tie, strolling the streets of downtown Elyria, Ohio.

Or you may have seen him in a commercial for the Elyria Public Library’s Project Read literacy program, in which he shared his story about re-learning to read.

You can read about “The Dash Between” Oct. 16, 1925, when the Harr Plaza resident was born in Ripley, Tenn., and Nov. 24, 2009, when he died at age 84, in the Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009, edition of the Elyria Chronicle. (Click headline for video and more.)

Craig Behrend, 25, subject of this week’s Elyria Chronicle “Dash”

November 29, 2009

I did not initially intend to write about Craig Behrend for “The Dash Between” obituary feature for the November 29, 2009, edition of the Elyria Chronicle.

I had seen the story potential in the obit that Craig’s family had prepared for the Busch Funeral Home website and various newspapers. Craig, 25, was a soldier who had been diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks before his scheduled deployment to Iraq - - a deployment he very much wanted.

But when looking for a subject for my next “Dash” for the Chronicle, I passed over his story. I suspected that I’d end up with a story all about how Craig battled cancer.

As an obituary writer, I don’t focus on death an dying. I write about the life a person lived.

Larry Carroll, first “Dash Between” for Medina County Gazette

November 27, 2009

After retiring from his long career as a plumber in Cleveland, Ohio, Larry Carroll moved to Valley City, Ohio, and started a dollhouse miniatures business with his wife, Mary Anne.

Mary Anne and Larry CarrollI wrote an obituary feature about “The Dash Between” January 8, 1925, when Larry was born in Cleveland, and October 27, 2009, when he died at age 84, which was published Monday, November 23, 2009, in the Medina County Gazette. You can read his story by clicking this link.

This was my first such feature about a recently deceased person from the Medina County area that is scheduled to run in the Medina paper on the fourth Monday of each month.

Similar stories about folks from the Lorain County area run in the Elyria Chronicle every other Sunday. Dashes for Leticia Chavez Fischer and Marilyn Ayster Exline have already been published. A new Dash about 25-year-old Craig Behrend is slated to run Sunday, November 29, 2009.

Latest “Dash Between” for Elyria Chronicle: Marilyn Ayster Hufford Exline

November 15, 2009

Did you know Marilyn Ayster, the daughter of John and Dorothy Ayster, when she was growing up in Gates Mills, Ohio, or studying art at Andrews School for Girls in Willoughby, Ohio?

Do you remember Marilyn from the 1960s when she was married to Ray Hufford?

Perhaps you met her after she moved to Elyria, Ohio, or after she married Jim Exline.

Even if you never met her, you may wish you had known her when you read her story in the Elyria Chronicle of Sunday, November 15, 2009. Marilyn Exline is the second subject of my new Chronicle feature, which like this column is titled “The Dash Between.”

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