Happy 40^th wedding anniversary, Larry Dan Eates, Class of 1970, known as Daniel Eates during his Monongah High days, and Frances Victor Eates, a 1971 Farmington High grad. They were wed July 6, 1974.

Which explains Jo Ann Eates Horne, married to Kyle Horne and living in Washington, Pennsylvania (“Little Washington”) with children Daniel  and Samantha; J.D. Eates and wife Julie, who live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Sarah Eates, who lives in Dormont, a Pittsburgh suburb.

Those are Larry and Frances' children.

Larry and Frances are 40th anniversary honeymooning on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida, not far from Naples.

Larry’s father was Dominick Eates (passed in 2000), Class of 1946, who got his leg broken as a Monongah High punter because his offensive line and backs didn’t do their job properly.

Larry's mother was Mary Larry Eates from Carolina (passed in 1993).

Frances’ father was John Victor, long-time basketball and football coach at Farmington High School. Both her parents taught at Farmington. 

Wrote Larry, when I asked for details about the Eates family:

“All four of my grandparents came from Italy in the early 1900's.”

That was common in Monongah. 

When the two mines exploded in 1907, killing 362 officially (Consolation Coal Company tally) but probably more than 500 unofficially (according to the gravediggers and Father Everettt Briggs), by far the nationality that took the biggest hit was Italian.

Consol's death count listed 171 Italians, 52 Hungarians, 31 Russians (many actually Polish), 15 Austrians, 11 African-Americans and 85 native-born Americans (many Polish and Italian).

Fathers would take their young sons, some only 8 to 10 years old, into the mines with them, with only the father's metal check number attached to the car after it was loaded and sent toward the tipple. 

So authorities and clergy went door-to-door to see who was no longer alive.

No matter whose numbers you believe, it's still the most fatalities in the USA for a coal mine explosion. 

If you go by Father Briggs' count, the two mine explosions in world history were worse.

The 1942 Beni, Liaoning mine explosion in what today is China, but then was under Japanese control, killed 1,549. 

The Daton, China explosion in 1960 killed 682.

Coal companies went to Europe – primarily Italy, Hungary, Poland and Turkey to get the Monongah miners – with promises of luxurious wages and easy living. 

But when the immigrants arrived, they had to pay the company for the picks and shovels they used, for the houses they rented and for the over-priced food they bought for their families (caught going to Fairmont to save on groceries resulted in being fired).

I asked Larry to tell me more about his parents’ siblings because there are so many Eates and Larry in Monongah High history that it’s difficult to keep them straight. His reply:

“I think you know most of my dad's brothers and sisters -- Nick, Mike, Mary, Angie, Joe and Tony. My mother had six brothers and sisters -- Connie, Rose, Joe, Tony, Benny and Sammy.”

When I asked Larry for details about his life after Monongah High, he wrote:

“After we were married we moved to Charleston, West Virginia for 14 years while I worked with Bethlehem Mines as an accountant and my wife worked as a teacher in Kanawha County. We moved to Washington, PA (“Little Washington”) in 1988 and are still there.

“I'm currently the Operations Manager for three Personal Care Homes, one in Washington, PA, one in Waynesburg, PA, and one in Morgantown.”

Larry is an accounting graduate of Fairmont State.

Now let’s see if I can get the Monongah High lives of the Eates and Larry families straight.

Tony Eates is Class of 1950 and we see each other every year at Mountaineer Field. He’s married to Lucy Cann Eates and lives in Fairmont. Lucy’s brother, Father Cann, escorted them to Italy. He speaks Italian fluently because he did a lot of his seminary and early priesthood there.

Tony and Lucy hope to visit their daughter, Michelle, who works for the FBI, in October when WVU doesn’t have a game in Mountaineer Field. They visited Michelle two years ago and drove north to Banff, Canada, which is in the Canadian Rockies.

Paula and I visited Banff on our way from the Calgary airport to our Jasper residence in 2011. We made the journey while WVU had an off football week, as we usually do. The elk munched on devil strip grass in Jasper while we were there. We had to deal with snow at times, even though it was September – because it’s Canada.

Tony and Lucy’s other children are Anthony, who lives in Charleston and works for the West Virginia Supreme Court and is married to Jennifer, a doctor, who is from Fairmont; Monica, a WVU journalism graduate like me, living in Pittsburgh and working for PNC Bank; and Antoinette, an attorney living in Washington, D.C.

Notice that both a son and a daughter have some version of dad Tony’s birth name, Anthony?

Tony and Lucy attended the 2010 Monongah High Alumni Reunion with 1950 classmates John Olesky, Bob Kasper of South Lyon and Presque Isle, Michigan, Donald “Jake” Halpenny of Fairmont, Bernice Grandstaff Maranville of Kernersville, North Carolina, and Pat Meredith Wills of Fairmont and St. Augustine Beach, Florida.

Tony and Pat Meredith Wills, also Class of 1950, have joined John Olesky as the committee to try to round up as many living and ambulatory Class of 1950 members as possible for the 2015 Monongah High Alumni Reunion, which will be Saturday, May 23, 2015 at the Knights of Columbus on Mary Lou Retton Drive in Fairmont.

Joe Eates, Class of 1945, lives on Bridge Street in Monongah with Ann DeMary Eates, also Class of 1945. They are the godparents of my son, John Larry Olesky, world-wide manager of Advanced Manufacturing/S Cellular Processing Engineering for Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems in Akron, Ohio. John Larry keeps busy setting up and streamlining Meggitt facilities in Fresnillo and Queretaro, Mexico; Coventry, England; Singapore; and Kentucky and Akron in America. 

If you fly commercial jets or military aircraft for the USA or Israel, those probably are their brakes making the plane stop when you land.

Michael Eates, Class of 1948, whose main claim to fame in Monongah High lore was over-filling the oil in the car of Donald “Jake” Halpenny’s father at the service station where Country Club Road and Locust Avenue meet in Fairmont. Mike kept telling Jake that he still was low, even after adding quart after quart of oil. Must have been a faulty dipstick (take that any way you want).

Nick Eates, Class of 1935, who always complemented my parents on their garden behind our Church Street home in Monongah, which probably is why my mom, Lena Futten Olesky, was so effusive in her praise of him and considered Nick a prime candidate for husbandhood. 

Not for her – she was content with my father, John W. Olesky, Sr., the first of five John Oleskys in our family (John Jr. – me – John Larry, his son John Richard, and JR’s son, Brett John, roughhousing with his brother Bryce in Mogadore, Ohio, not far from my Tallmadge home). But Mom thought the gals of Monongah were missing a good bet by not landing Nicholas.

Mary Eates (I didn’t find her name in the year-by-year graduation lists provided by Greta Martin Mike, Class of 1922, who rounded up names and then-current addresses when Greta was responsible for the first Monongah High Alumni Reunion in 1923; the MHS Reunions have continued ever since, and Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, who lives in Monongah, added to the yearly graduation lists with and after Greta).

Angie Eates (didn’t find her graduation year).

As for Frances’ Larry side:

Rose Larry Burkett, Class of 1947, who once lived in Akron, Ohio.

Tony Larry, Class of 1955.

Benny Larry, Class of 1943.

Connie Larry (didn’t find her graduation year).

Joe Larry (didn’t find his graduation year).

Sammy Larry (didn’t find his graduation year).

There are other Larrys in Monongah High’s history:

Ruth Larry Johnson, Class of 1942.

Lena Larry Michelozzi, Class of 1944.

Virginia Larry Zaccagnni, Class of 1944.

Jean Agnes Larry DiLaura, Class of 1950, a former Powers model living in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada, with her daughter, Linda DiLaura Cassesse. She was one of my first crushes, although she didn’t know who gave her the box of chocolate candy in Monongah home room till I revealed my secret several years ago, and sent her another box of chocolates from a Henderson chocolatier.

Carolyn Larry Manley, Class of 1966.

John Larry, Class of 1967, not to be confused with my son, John Larry Olesky, of Tallmadge, Ohio.

Linda Moorehead Larry, Class of 1968.

See, I told you it’s not easy to keep track of all the Eates and Larry family members in Monongah High history. I probably missed some. If I did, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com with their full name, including maiden name, graduation year if you know it, current hometown if you know it and whether they are living or deceased.