Some time around the time of the Great Depression my dad's father committed a crime and went to prison for it. During that same time period his mother ended up living at the poor farm in Fremont, his sister Dorothy & Earl were grown and on there own. George had passed away, the two younger kids, Ralph and my dad were probable around 5- 6 and became wards of the court, fostered by the Oman family in Newaygo. As the 2 boys got older they became "unruly," so other arrangements had to be made. Ralph was sent to the mental institution in Mount Pleasant and (Jimmy)my dad was sent to Oakdale, the Lapeer State Hospital. (I have never understood why the boys weren't kept together! Must be protocol!) My father did attend school at Oakdale, and did attend classes at the vocational shops. Be it, wood working or mechanical, daddy was good at both. It was in one of those vocational classes that he formed a close relationship with one of his instructors and had confided that he was to be sterilized and he didn't want that. It was one of the instructors that helped him plan his escape.
Growing up I never knew anything about my dad, he was a troubled, a cold man and I was afraid of him. When I became an adult and wanting to know things about him & his family, he would either say "I didn't have a family" or just wouldn't answer me. He was not an affectionate man and never said he loved anyone. I never understood what my mother saw in him because she was the total apposite! What little I learned about dad was from my mother. When my dad did escape from Oakdale, (probable in his late teens) after walking many miles from Lapeer, the traffic picked up he started hitchhiking and it was my grandfather who picked him up.
Daddy retired from the Fisher Body Plant in Pontiac and a few years later he moved to Central City, Kentucky. He also owned & operated a Marathon Station on the corner of Cass & Cass Elizabeth Lake Rd. in Waterford for many year, there he also did bump & painted cars. He was a master mechanic & a jack of all trades.
My father & Mother married & divorced each other twice, the first time in April of 1948. Five children were born from their union. Linda(James)Forton, Catherine(Gary)West, Mary(Richard)Fusinski, Donald James Jr.(Joyce)Hutchinson & Patricia(Mark)Higginbottom. Grandfather of Kris Ten Eyck(Jefferson)Pals, David(Renee)Wade, Neal Wade, Michael Thorp, Jeff Frisch, the late Katie Higginbottom & Ashley Higginbottom - Gelinas, Christopher Higginbottom, the late James Donald Hutchinson, & Lindsey Hutchinson. Great Grand Father of Kailey Hutchinson-Hawley & Anna Marie Pals.
Daddy remarried after he made a final separation from my mother.
* My brother placed some of our Dad's ashes in with his sons James's ashes,(The cemetery has no knowledge of this), at the Crescent Hills Cemetery in Waterford. Daddy is officially(per his death certificate)on record as being buried at the Ottawa Park Cemetery in Clarkston with his first wife/mother of all his children.
Growing up I never knew anything about my dad, he was a troubled, a cold man and I was afraid of him. When I became an adult and wanting to know things about him & his family, he would either say "I didn't have a family" or just wouldn't answer me. He was not an affectionate man and never said he loved anyone. I never understood what my mother saw in him because she was the total apposite! What little I learned about dad was from my mother. When my dad did escape from Oakdale, (probable in his late teens) after walking many miles from Lapeer, the traffic picked up he started hitchhiking and it was my grandfather who picked him up.
Daddy retired from the Fisher Body Plant in Pontiac and a few years later he moved to Central City, Kentucky. He also owned & operated a Marathon Station on the corner of Cass & Cass Elizabeth Lake Rd. in Waterford for many year, there he also did bump & painted cars. He was a master mechanic & a jack of all trades.
My father & Mother married & divorced each other twice, the first time in April of 1948. Five children were born from their union. Linda(James)Forton, Catherine(Gary)West, Mary(Richard)Fusinski, Donald James Jr.(Joyce)Hutchinson & Patricia(Mark)Higginbottom. Grandfather of Kris Ten Eyck(Jefferson)Pals, David(Renee)Wade, Neal Wade, Michael Thorp, Jeff Frisch, the late Katie Higginbottom & Ashley Higginbottom - Gelinas, Christopher Higginbottom, the late James Donald Hutchinson, & Lindsey Hutchinson. Great Grand Father of Kailey Hutchinson-Hawley & Anna Marie Pals.
Daddy remarried after he made a final separation from my mother.
* My brother placed some of our Dad's ashes in with his sons James's ashes,(The cemetery has no knowledge of this), at the Crescent Hills Cemetery in Waterford. Daddy is officially(per his death certificate)on record as being buried at the Ottawa Park Cemetery in Clarkston with his first wife/mother of all his children.
Some time around the time of the Great Depression my dad's father committed a crime and went to prison for it. During that same time period his mother ended up living at the poor farm in Fremont, his sister Dorothy & Earl were grown and on there own. George had passed away, the two younger kids, Ralph and my dad were probable around 5- 6 and became wards of the court, fostered by the Oman family in Newaygo. As the 2 boys got older they became "unruly," so other arrangements had to be made. Ralph was sent to the mental institution in Mount Pleasant and (Jimmy)my dad was sent to Oakdale, the Lapeer State Hospital. (I have never understood why the boys weren't kept together! Must be protocol!) My father did attend school at Oakdale, and did attend classes at the vocational shops. Be it, wood working or mechanical, daddy was good at both. It was in one of those vocational classes that he formed a close relationship with one of his instructors and had confided that he was to be sterilized and he didn't want that. It was one of the instructors that helped him plan his escape.
Growing up I never knew anything about my dad, he was a troubled, a cold man and I was afraid of him. When I became an adult and wanting to know things about him & his family, he would either say "I didn't have a family" or just wouldn't answer me. He was not an affectionate man and never said he loved anyone. I never understood what my mother saw in him because she was the total apposite! What little I learned about dad was from my mother. When my dad did escape from Oakdale, (probable in his late teens) after walking many miles from Lapeer, the traffic picked up he started hitchhiking and it was my grandfather who picked him up.
Daddy retired from the Fisher Body Plant in Pontiac and a few years later he moved to Central City, Kentucky. He also owned & operated a Marathon Station on the corner of Cass & Cass Elizabeth Lake Rd. in Waterford for many year, there he also did bump & painted cars. He was a master mechanic & a jack of all trades.
My father & Mother married & divorced each other twice, the first time in April of 1948. Five children were born from their union. Linda(James)Forton, Catherine(Gary)West, Mary(Richard)Fusinski, Donald James Jr.(Joyce)Hutchinson & Patricia(Mark)Higginbottom. Grandfather of Kris Ten Eyck(Jefferson)Pals, David(Renee)Wade, Neal Wade, Michael Thorp, Jeff Frisch, the late Katie Higginbottom & Ashley Higginbottom - Gelinas, Christopher Higginbottom, the late James Donald Hutchinson, & Lindsey Hutchinson. Great Grand Father of Kailey Hutchinson-Hawley & Anna Marie Pals.
Daddy remarried after he made a final separation from my mother.
* My brother placed some of our Dad's ashes in with his sons James's ashes,(The cemetery has no knowledge of this), at the Crescent Hills Cemetery in Waterford. Daddy is officially(per his death certificate)on record as being buried at the Ottawa Park Cemetery in Clarkston with his first wife/mother of all his children.
Growing up I never knew anything about my dad, he was a troubled, a cold man and I was afraid of him. When I became an adult and wanting to know things about him & his family, he would either say "I didn't have a family" or just wouldn't answer me. He was not an affectionate man and never said he loved anyone. I never understood what my mother saw in him because she was the total apposite! What little I learned about dad was from my mother. When my dad did escape from Oakdale, (probable in his late teens) after walking many miles from Lapeer, the traffic picked up he started hitchhiking and it was my grandfather who picked him up.
Daddy retired from the Fisher Body Plant in Pontiac and a few years later he moved to Central City, Kentucky. He also owned & operated a Marathon Station on the corner of Cass & Cass Elizabeth Lake Rd. in Waterford for many year, there he also did bump & painted cars. He was a master mechanic & a jack of all trades.
My father & Mother married & divorced each other twice, the first time in April of 1948. Five children were born from their union. Linda(James)Forton, Catherine(Gary)West, Mary(Richard)Fusinski, Donald James Jr.(Joyce)Hutchinson & Patricia(Mark)Higginbottom. Grandfather of Kris Ten Eyck(Jefferson)Pals, David(Renee)Wade, Neal Wade, Michael Thorp, Jeff Frisch, the late Katie Higginbottom & Ashley Higginbottom - Gelinas, Christopher Higginbottom, the late James Donald Hutchinson, & Lindsey Hutchinson. Great Grand Father of Kailey Hutchinson-Hawley & Anna Marie Pals.
Daddy remarried after he made a final separation from my mother.
* My brother placed some of our Dad's ashes in with his sons James's ashes,(The cemetery has no knowledge of this), at the Crescent Hills Cemetery in Waterford. Daddy is officially(per his death certificate)on record as being buried at the Ottawa Park Cemetery in Clarkston with his first wife/mother of all his children.
