Monongah High has always been strong in baseball, along with Fairview with the never-ending supply of Rettons and Fairmont West with Bill Leskovar.

Monongah Mayor Greg Vandetta unearthed this photo of the 1973 or 1974 Lions diamond hitters.

They are, from left:

Ward Brent Colvin, Class of 1975.

Gregory Alan Vandetta, Class of 1975.

John R. Huffman, Class of 1974.

Mike D. DeMary, Class of 1974.

Ron Jones, Class of 1974.

There was another pretty fair Monongah High athlete in the Class of 1975: Jay Feltz, quarterback of the 1973 MHS team that won the state football title, just as his father, Coach Jim Feltz, had done in 1952 and 1955 (when Monongah also won its only state baseball crown). Jay was named West Virginia Amateur Athlete of the Year for his feat.

Brent Colvin was at the Class of 1975’s 10-year reunion at the 1985 Monongah High Alumni Reunion.

Gregory Alan nowadays is better known as Monongah Mayor Greg Vandetta, married to Debbie Manzo Vandetta, Class of 1973, Monongahfest president. Their son is Greg Vandetta II, married to Janelle.

John Huffman married Goldie Basagic Huffman, Class of 1974, and produced Erik Huffman, married to Katie, and Brooke Huffman Pethtel, married to Adam Pethtel.

John wed a former Monongah High cheerleader who pranced alongside Barbra Eller Aldridge Hanning, Class of 1974; Patty DeMary Evans, Class of 1972; Debbie Manzo Vandetta, Class of 1973, the First Lady of Monongah; and Debbie Basagic Bragg, Class of 1972.

Mike DeMary’s father also was named Mike DeMary and was one of three children of John DeMary, who started DeMarys’ Market in Rivesville, right by the railroad tracks after you drive off U.S. 19 along the West Fork River. John’s cousin is Ann DeMary Eates, Class of 1945, married to Joe Eates, Class of 1945, and living at the foot of Bridge Street before it heads up the hill and out of town.

It couldn’t find any later, adulthood information about Ron Jones. That’s too common a name to nail down, even for a 43-year newspaper editor who is accustomed to investigative journalism. If you know Ron’s whereabouts these days, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll add the information to this blog article.

But Brooke Huffman Pethtel said her father, John Huffman, recognized Ronnie in the photo. Maybe John, Goldie or Brooke can email me with the current whereabouts of Ron Jones.

Michael Loss, Class of 1969, son of the late Claire Suzanne Barr Loss, Class of 1948, and Arnold “J.B.” Loss, Class of 1947, has warm memories of his aunt, Gezala Futten Loss, who with husband Frank Loss owned a 100-acre Mill Fall farm that Michael’s parents later purchased.

As in, hot damn, that woman could bake!

Michael tells the story in his email to Rivesville's Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1950, Gezala’s niece, who directed Mike to the Holy Cross Cemetery in Fairmont so that Mike could pay his respects to his (and my) Aunt Gezala and Uncle Frank who are buried there:

“Thanks so much for helping me find Aunt Gezala and Uncle Frank. Really needed to pay my respects.  Thought about times we shared together.

“Uncle Frank passed the year ('63) after my brother Elliot.  (I was 12)  Aunt Gezala passed in '71. 

“After Vietnam, I was stationed in Germany at that time.  I loved her so much!  She was always there for me.  She always made me feel welcome and appreciated.  Spent a great deal of time hanging out with her. I was all boy and she went out of her way to amuse and entertain me. 

“As I'm sure you recall, all the Losses (JB, Frank and Bill) raised chickens.  Occasionally, she would lop off a chicken's head and let it run around. (Gross I know, but amazing to a young boy.)  Helped her process hundreds of chickens. 

“Talk about great cooks!  That Lady was the best!  Her bread and cinnamon rolls were soooo good.  Mom asked her for her bread recipe. Aunt Gezala told her she would have to spend the day with her.  Mom never baked as often, but made G's bread.  My girlfriend Susie spent a day with Mom and learned, too.  So Aunt Gezala's bread lives on.  While going through pics and personal effects, Susie found her recipes.  Will try and prepare some of her signature dishes.

“Growing up, I heard this story many times.  As a child, I fell asleep promptly at 8 p.m.  Which meant I was up at 6 a.m., fully rested and ready to go. When I was 6 or 7, Mom got up and saw me sitting on the cellar steps, happily enjoying a cinnamon roll.  She asked me where I got my roll and I told her, ‘Aunt Gezala.’  Mom said, ‘They're still in bed.’  I said, ‘That's OK, I know where she keeps them!’  Aunt Gezala just laughed when Mom told her.  So long as I live, Aunt Gezala will never be forgotten. I will cherish her memory.  Thanks again for your assistance.”

My stories about Aunt Gezala – sister of my mother, Lena Futten Olesky -- involved ice cream. She would use a gauze sieve to separate the cream from fresh milk they got from their Jersey cows. Then she put it into an ice cream maker, the kind where you had to turn the crank by hand (which I did many times). That was the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Ben and Jerry had nothing on Aunt Gezala’s ice cream.

I had to begrudgingly share the ice cream with Frank and Gezala’s children, Jerry Loss, who lives in North Olmsted with wife Elaine, and the late Robert Loss. And with my baby sister, Jackie, who is five years younger than me.

Aunt Gezala first learned to cook in Pellizzano, Italy, where she was born. Aunt Gezala, my mother and their brother, famed Fairmont barber Si Futten, came to America in 1920 with their mother, Maria Fedrigon Futten, to reunite with their father, Severino Futten, who immigrated three years earlier (World War I delayed their reunion on Swisher Hill).

On my father’s side, my Aunt Helen Olesky Kerekes, married to Steve Kerekes, was legendary for baking Christmas cookies. She would mail me a package in Ohio every year. I salivated before I opened the package, like Pavlov’s dog. Helen was the sister of my father, John W. Olesky, Sr., and Frances Olesky Fazio, who married Renzy Fazio and had the Fazio Grocery on Jackson Street in Monongah.

Michael Loss, who was in the Army from 1969-1972, lives with Susie Jett on Harter Hill. David Loss and wife Mary live on the Mill Fall property, which has several houses on it today.

 

Suzi’s father was the famous Dr. James Barr of Worthington, who delivered most of the babies in the town.  Eva Barr was Dr. Barr’s wife. Suzi’s sister, Jeanette Barr Baczuk, Class of 1940, lives in Ashland, Ohio.

Predeceasing Arnold were siblings Lucille Loss Blocker, who lived with husband Richard Blocker in Monongah; Mildred “Jean” Loss Carlot, who with husband Julie ran Carlot’s Grill across the street from Monongah High for decades; Bernard (his widow, Kathryn, lives in Monongah); Don; and Arnold & Suzanne’s son, Elliott Barr Loss.

Their parents were John “J.B.” Loss and Josephine Dieling Loss

Lucille’s children are Barbara Blocker Tennant, in Fairmont; Alan Tenant, Class of 1966, in Elkins; Scott Blocker, Class of 1968, in Clarksburg; and Victoria Blocker Nottingham, Class of 1969, in Worthington.

Rosemary Loss Hartman, Arnold and Lucille’s sister, lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Those were the days, eh?

I don’t where I first heard the collection of homes south of the UMW Hall and to the left of U.S. 19 on your way to Swisher Hill called Frogtown, but Leo Kubiet, Class of 1942, and Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, said they never heard the term used to refer to their neighborhood.

Leo Kubiet, Evelyn Kasper Boggess, Bob Kasper

Grandma Ursula Shipco had a major role in it. She had six lots which she gave or sold to others.

Her children were John, Joe, George, Walter, Blanche and Mrs. Lawrence Kasper, whose daughter, Evelyn Kasper Boggess, still lives in the Willow Road home of her childhood with husband Okey Boggess.

Blanche, Walter (who married Helen) and Evelyn’s mom, plus Grandma Ursula, lived there even as adults. They all lived on Willow Road as children, although it didn’t have a name when they were growing up. That came later.

I asked Leo, who retired 27 years ago as St. Petersburg Times senior vice president in Florida, to help me picture which families lived where on Willow. His reply:

“John, I'll try to answer your question about the so called Frog Town neighborhood.  We did not call it Frog Town when I lived there.

“In order, from the top of the hill of Willow Road as it was known then and now, there were the Joe Greco, Tony Domico, Lawrence Kasper, Walter and Helen Shipco families. 

“The Joe and Laura Kubiet and Layne families on the West side. On the East side were 

another Shipco family (Blanche, I believe, and her mother). Then down at the 

end, across the road from our home, was the Walter and Ivy Nichols family. 

“Their daughters were Geraldine and Pauline. Pauline married Walter Gracy (of Fairmont 

Wall Plaster). Geraldine married and subsequently moved to Clearwater, Florida. 

I talked with her by phone a time or two several years ago.

“As you already know, my family was composed of brothers Joseph, Jr., William 

"Buddy" and Francis Eugene “Sonny.” My sister, the middle one of the family, is 

Marjorie Kubiet Whitehair. She and I are the only two surviving. She lives in 

Dayton, Ohio, with her children living in that area. 

“On a personal note, my wife, Mary Jean Metz Kubiet celebrated her 90th 

birthday on September 12. We celebrated our 70th wedding anniversary on 

Wednesday, September 14 last week. (Was not much of a celebration, though, since 

she had just been discharged from the Largo Medical Center on Monday morning.)

“(Mary) Jean has been in the Memory Care Section at Brookdale Pincrest adult 

living facility for 14 months with advancing Alzheimer's. Physically, she is well 

but has a serious short-term memory condition. 

“It is now 27 years since I retired as senior vice president of the St. 

Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times after purchasing the Tampa Tribune 

earlier this year).

“My residence is on the 8th floor of a 9-story building with an excellent view of the Pinecrest Golf Course, where I can watch many golfers make the same mistakes that I made for many years.”

Pinecrest is in Largo, Florida near St. Petersburg. Leo’s wife, Jean, is a Fairmont East graduate.

I remember when Leo began his journalism career after graduation from Fairmont State and went to the Detroit Free Press. My dad heard about Leo’s salary and use of the company car and was happy when I chose journalism for a career, seeing dollar signs in his eyes.

 

Alas, my first job after my graduation from the WVU School of Journalism was for $55 a week as sports editor of the Williamson Daily News. Things did improve enough in my 43-year newspaper career to let me afford traveling to 55 countries, 44 states and take 13 cruises after my 1996 retirement from the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.

Larry and Jean’s son, Larry, passed away in 2009. He lived in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

When I read Leo’s explanation of the families on Willow Road to Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, Evelyn Boggess’ brother who lives in South Lyon and Presque Isle (Grand Lake), Michigan, he confirmed most of Leo’s recalls but added that the Jessie and Susie Sickles family also lived there, with a passel of children, during the 1940s.

Charles and Mary Jackson Layne also lived in that neighborhood with 12 children. One was daughter Judy Layne Alkire, widow of Charles Alkire. Another daughter, Doris, married the guy next door, Joe Kubiet, Jr. and they live in Monongah.

 

And they grew up playing with Evelyn Kasper Boggess, who still lives in the Kasper home of her childhood with husband Otis Boggess, and Bob Kasper, who has homes in South Lyon and Presque Isle (Grand Lake), Michigan.

Other siblings are Carol Layne Elliott of Mill Fall, married to Ronald Elliott; Shirley Layne Russell of Fairmont, married to Charles Russell; and JoAnne Layne Snider of Monongah, married to William Snider; and, all deceased, Bradley, Charles, David, Johnny and Robert Layne and Betty Layne Bowyer and Margaret Layne Faber.

The sister of Evelyn Boggess and Bob Kasper was the late Helen Kasper.

Leo’s phone number is (727) 400-4249 and his email address is leokubiet@tampabay.rr.com  

His address is

1159 8^th Avenue S.W.

Pinecrest Place

Unit #2817

Largo, FL 33770

Boggess keeps Shenasky building alive

Evelyn Kasper Boggess’ son

Adam Michna, the extraordinary Monongah historian, re-posted this 2015 Goldenseal Magazine article about John Boggess.

His parents are Evelyn Kasper Boggess, Class of 1953, who lives in her Frogtown childhood home with husband Okey Boggess, a retired coal miner. Frogtown is on the left as you’re driving south on U.S. 19 toward Swisher Hill.

John bought the former P.P. Shenasky Grocery building on U.S. 19 next to Thoburn School and across the street from the former Manzo and Hanus groceries, the PNA Tavern and Joe Hanus Garage.

Amelia Shenasky Zentz, the blonde daughter of Pete and Nell Shenasky who often worked behind the counter, is closing in on a century of living on Shenasky Lane. Its entrance is across U.S. 19 from the store.

Amelia golfed, bowled and danced, good enough to be invited to New York City to perform.

Al Williamson, who delivered groceries for the Shenasky store, brings them to Amelia nowadays. His home is next to Amelia’s. It’s the house Carrie Shenasky lived in; after her death, Al moved into the house.

Last time I checked, Al was in the produce department at the Shop & Save Store in Shinnston.

Al’s parents were Ruth and Doug Williamson. His sister, Kathy, is Class of 1978; his brother, Johnny Williamson, worked at Meffe’s bar on Jackson Street. Doug Williamson worked for years at Alasky’s in Farmington.

Margaret Salabor used to help Amelia out. Now her helpers, for the last three years, are Casey Cunningham and Casey's husband, who cuts Amelia's grass.

Evelyn’s brother, Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, has been my best friend since first grade at Sts. Peter and Paul School in Monongah. Bob lives in South Lyon, Michigan and has a summer home on Grand Lake in Presque Isle, Michigan where I join him every summer for a week of golf on the Rogers City golf course.

Bob, who we called Satch during our teen years at Monongah High, visits me at our Tallmadge home every fall and goes to a WVU game in Mountaineer Field with me.

We have exchanged the same two Christmas cards since 1955, and the names on them each year reflect births, marriages and deaths.

The two cards are living two-family history documents. When one of us goes to That Great Holler in the Sky first, the other will have a treasured remembrance.

Bruce passed away years ago. Irene Shenasky, widow of Amelia’s brother, dentist Dr. John Henry Shenasky, passed away last December.

 

Irene was the piano teacher who convinced my mother to “save your quarters” and stop paying the Sisters of the Auxiliaries of the Apostolate nuns 25 cents a week for my piano lessons. Irene listened to me perform “The Black Hawk Waltz,” after five years of lessons.

My mother sold the piano the next day.

If you have memories of the Shenasky store, email me at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com or just click on the No Comments or (numeral) Comments below this article and type away. When I approve it, it will show up on this blog.

I remember when Nell would give us a piece of candy when were young and we came to the store with our parents. I'm sure others have fond memories of P.P.'s store.

When I was a kid we played baseball on land behind the garages that housed cars from those who rented Consolidation Coal Company’s homes on Thomas Street in Monongah.

Our ballfield was between the long row of garages, under one massive roof, and Camden Avenue (U.S. 19) and the Lawrence and Regina Boone Godby home, where their children, Sonny and Jackie, lived.

Along came the Catania brothers, Angelo and Alex, trying to make a living after serving in World War II. So they paved over our Paradise, not to make a parking lot, but a Sinclair service station.

In April Angelo, 90, and his daughter Paula Catania visited the site of Angelo and Alex’ business venture.

Reports sister Mary Catania Heywood, who lives in Covina, California where the clan moved from Monongah near seven decades ago:

“Angelo and Paula were in Cleveland in April for our great-nephew’s wedding and, from there, went to Monongah for several days.

“Your ballfield, as you call it, was something he found very changed. He just couldn’t believe how different it looked.”

Mary added:

“They saw so many changes. They had a great time.  They brought back pictures of the houses on Thomas Street. Hard to believe the changes. However, he said they all looked nice.”

It was Angelo who convinced his siblings and father Mandala Catania to make the move from Thomas Street in Monongah to Covina, which he discovered and fell in love with during his Army Coast Artillery training days of World War II.

Alex Catania, Class of 1944; Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945; Josephine Catania, Class of 1952; and their father, Mandala, much like the Conestoga Wagon families before them, joined Angelo, Class of 1943, in the expedition to a new land and a new life. For Mandala, widower of Schiro Catania, it was a reminder of his native Italy.

Today, Alex and Josephine – closest to my age and therefore a playmate during our childhoods – have passed away. So did Pauline Layne Catania, the Monongah girl that Angelo married.

Angelo’s sister, Carmella Catania Allard, Class of 1947, wound up in San Antonio because her husband, Omer, still was in the Air Force when the Catania migration took place. He retired after a pair of decades in The Wild Sky Yonder branch. But Carmella made it to Covina for Angelo's fire-hazard 90th birthday candles-lighting several months ago.

Mary’s husband, Arthur, is in a wheelchair.  

Mary closed with:

“It's beyond me how many hours you spend doing the MHS blog.  Without contradiction, it is excellent, very newsworthy and what a wonderful updater.”

Coming from a Catania, I consider that one of the highest compliments I have ever received. I do spend hours EVERY day scouring the Internet, Facebook in particular, looking for items about Monongah High alumni to share with each other.

I think God, Sister Agnes and Mary Turkovich, who embarked me on my 43-year newspaper career, were just preparing me to pay back with this Monongah High Alumni blog venture, 19 years after my 1996 retirement from newspapers in Charleston and Williamson, West Virginia, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dayton and Akron, Ohio.

He works in not so mysterious ways, too, you know.

Among this gathering of 1981 Fairmont State biology majors were two Monongah High graduates, Anthony “T.J.” Saverino and Gary Morris, in the final graduation class of 1979. The next year, Monongah joined Fairview, Barrackville and Mannington into the North Marion consolidation. Farmington was added later.

T.J. came by his biology interests naturally. The original T.J. Savereno, Class of 1948, who lives in Florence, South Carolina with wife Lynette Saverino, is a former Extension Associate at Clemson, where he studied Wildlife Biology after his Fairmont State College and Monongah High days.

The elder T.J. is a son of Tony Frank Savereno, Monongah's mail carrier for many years.  Tony’s siblings were Christine, Orlando (Lundix), Jean, Frances and Mary.  Tony’s mother is Harriet (Hattie) Savereno, who is 90 and lives on Camden Avenue in the house T.J.’s parents moved into in 1950. 

T.J.’s siblings are Linda (Class of 68), who married Fred Moorehead, and an older brother Mark (Class of 70).

Major Tony F. Savereno was US Army Air Corps/US Air Force Reserve in 1943 in San Antonio, Texas.

T.J.'s aunt is the late Frances Savereno Pulice, who married John Pulice from Idamay way before TJ was born in 1961.  T.J.’s sister is Linda Savereno Moorehead, Class of 1968. Frances was a cheerleader at MHS.

Frances' sisters, Jean and Mary, live in Morgantown.

A flashback to our teen years at Monongah High

This 1920s Ford at the classic car show at The Villages, Florida remnded me of the car that Frank Franze's father owned and Frank drove the gang around in. The Franze car had THREE pedals -- one for accelerator, one for the brake and one for shifting gears.

Frank was a 1950 graduate after driving people like Sonny Godby, Bucky Satterfield, Tony Eates, Donald Halpenny, Duane Harbert, Judge Starcher, Joe Manzo, Phil Diamond, Bob Kasper and myself around. When Frank drove his dad's truck, everyone mentioned could climb aboard on the same trip.