LUGE'S DAUGHTER HAS A HUGE TALE TO TELL

 

Sue Ann Lipinski, Eugene “Luge” Lipinski’s daughter, has an interesting trivia.

Remember that song, “I’m My Own Grandpa”?

Well, Sue Ann has her own version.

Let Sue Ann explain it.

But first, for those who don’t remember the fanastic Monongah High School athletic brothers:

Eugene “Luge,” Ted, “Big” Jim, Joe, John, Frank, Stephanie, Henry “Cheese,” Loretta and Lyndon were siblings in the Lipinski family.

I used to turn left off U.S. 19 after passing the UMW Union Hall to go up a rudimentary street to get milk at their parents’ home which was on a large farm. They were German shepherds who sounded like they would tear me apart till Big Jim’s mother, Lena (same first name as my Mom) would say, “Friends.” Then the dogs became docile but kept an eye on me, and me on them. Hell, they damn near out-weighed me.

When I began my career at the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal in 1969 my son, John Larry, came home and said his gym teacher was Big Jim Lipinski at Bode Elementary School! When Big Jim took roll call, he saw John Olesky and said, “Did you dad live in Monongah?” That brought on a glorious reunion with James Victor “Big Jim” Lipinski. Big Jim passed away in 2011 at the age of 85 in Sarasota, Florida where he lived after retiring from Cuyahoga Falls school system.

And my daughter, LaQuita, had Loreene Lipinski, Jim’s wife, as her cosmetology teacher at Cuyahoga Falls High School. I keep running into Small World situations my entire life. Jim out-lived two wives, Loreene and Beverly Di Losio Lipinski.

Now for Sue’s Ann’s remarkable “I’m My Own Grandpa” tale:

Jim was my uncle. I am Eugene’s (Luge’s) daughter. I kept my given last name when I married. Luge and Jim were brothers. I believe Jim’s only child “little” Jimmy is still alive. Judy Lipinski Cook is my cousin. Her dad Henry was Luge’s brother. I was a later in life surprise baby —- so I went to High School with Judy’s children.

So Sue Ann attended Monongah High with her cousin’s CHILDREN. Not quite her own Grandma but going to class with a generation younger than your cousins is pretty darn close.

Wait! There’s more!

Again, let Sue Ann explain:

“Another twist to my family —- through Facebook —- I met my second cousin Nancy Kantara from the Satterfield side of the family  — lives around Cleveland. (Someone posted a picture of my great uncle Woody —- uncle to Bucky and my mom.

“We both responded: That is my Uncle! Turns out she is a Soles who used to live near my grandma Bessie on Camden Avenue. I wasn’t even born when she lived there.

“In addition to sharing an uncle —- we share the same birthday! She is a sister to Charolette Soles of Monongah. Her daughter is Debbie Soles Shaver.”

Bucky’s children are Bucky’s son, also Steven; Beth Ann and Joanie.

Joseph “Mickey” Cook, a Shinnston High graduate married to Judy Lipinski Cook, Class of 1958, passed away in 2015. In six days Judy lost her husband her sister, Henrietta Lipinskki Hawkins. Judy once was Maid of Marion chosen from among Marion County high schools beauties each year and Monongah High prom queen.

The late Goldie DeFazio Lipinski, Class of 1937, was Henry’s wife.

Sue Ann, after graduation from Monongah High, studied nursing at Fairmont State and software engineering at West Virginia University, which put up with me till my 1954 graduation for the WVU School of Journalism run by Dr. P.I. Reed (the school was renamed P.I. Reed School of Media in his honor; Dr. Reed was in the English department when he fathered the journalism school).

Sue Ann lives in Holt, Michigan, which is 90 miles west of Detroit on I-96 and about 30 miles farther from Detroit than South Lyon, where Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, lives.

Sue Ann’s parents were Mary Virginia “Ginny” Lipinski and Eugene Chester “Luge” Lipinski. Sue Ann married Walter Shelton of Morgantown but, as she said, kept her maiden name of Lipinski.

Ginny’s parents were Orval Vernon Satterfield and Bessie May Colvin Satterfield. Her siblings were Violet Irene Thompson, Orval Vernon “Bud” Satterfield, Jr., Steven “Bucky” Satterfield of the faceitiously named Gang That Terrorized Marion County that I ran around with when I was a student at Monongah High, Eleanor Louise Kennedy and Donald Neal Satterfield.

Or, as Sue Ann put it:

“My mom was Mary Virginia Satterfield. Sister of your good friend Bucky.”

Good friend, indeed, Sue Ann. Our shenanigans came before Bucky became a West Virginia Highway Patrolman and had to deal with teenagers who misbehaved the way we did. Karma can be a bitch!

Bucky lives in Cross Lanes near Charleston.

Sue Ann also told me:

“Goldie and Cheese had 4 daughters: Judy, Henrietta, Sandra and Joyce.

“I’m My Own Grandpa” was written in 1947 by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe and Lonzo and Oscar first recorded with the Winston County Pea Pickers. And later by Willie Nelson and nearly every country singer who lived and even, if you can believe it, Guy Lombardo, who certainly wasn’t a pea picker by any stretch of the imagination.

The words to the “I’m My Own Grandpa Song”:

Now, many many years ago
When I was twenty three
I was married to a widow
Who was pretty as could be

This widow had a grown-up daughter
Had hair of red
My father fell in love with her
And soon the two were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life
My daughter was my mother
'Cause she was my father's wife

To complicate the matters
Even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy

My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad
And so became my uncle
Though it made me very sad

For if he was my uncle
That also made him the brother
Of the widow's grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa

My father's wife then had a son
That kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild
For he was my daughter's son

My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue
Because, she is my wife
She's my grandmother too

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa

Now, if my wife is my grandmother
Then, I am her grandchild
And every time I think of it
It nearly drives me wild

For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my grandmother
I am my own grandpa

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa