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Here are some fun facts about Leone Lamers, your friend/mother/aunt/gramma:
- Fred and Alice Berg had a daughter in Edgar, Wisconsin, on Feb. 19, 1915 and named her Leone Mary Berg. She had 3 brothers and 5 sisters.
- Her father later bought the Berg’s Dry Cleaning Plant in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. She went to High School but had to quit when she was a Sophomore to work in the plant with her sisters.
- She had a love of books and dreamed of becoming a writer. She also loved to swim and read.
- She met Art when he was dating her sister Irene – and they married in 1936. They had a wedding mass and a meal after which the family all went home and changed back into their work clothes and returned to work in the afternoon.
- Leone and Art owned and worked in a grocery store in Kaukauna. In 1937 Dad had to move to Detroit, Michigan to work in a Defense Plant so mom stayed behind to sell the store and then moved to Detroit to join him.
- They purchased a brick home on Greensboro Street in Detroit where Ken was born in 1938 and Dan in 1941. They lived there until 1943 when Dad developed a bad case of asthma and had to return to Wisconsin.
- They then lived in Grandpa and Grandma Berg’s Air Stream Trailer in Northside Park in Kaukauna until they were able to move into a rented house on 6th. Street in Kaukauna.
- In 1945 Dave was born and in 1946 they bought the house they lived in for 63 (+ or -) years on Taft Street in Kaukauna.
- Chip was born in 1948, Paul in 1950 and Barb in 1951.
- Mom loved chocolate, sweets and lobster. She also loved to play golf and listen to Dad sing Barbershop with his quartet and chorus. Dad and she enjoyed socializing with the quartet and their wives for many years after Dad left the chorus. She, herself never sang though her father played many instruments and in his later years she and Dad would take Grandpa in his Air Stream Trailer to camp and play with his small band. Later when he could no longer manage the trailer they would take him wherever the band was playing and sit all night and listen to the music and then take him home.
- She worked at Quinny School in Kaukauna in the Food Service section when the kids had left home. She also played cards with “Linger Longer,” a group of women
- in the neighborhood. She joined many craft classes and enjoyed various types of needle work, stitchery, knitting and sewing. She also picked up several women who didn’t drive so they were able to get out of the house and go to classes and church events.
- She enjoyed working with the Hmong people – teaching them for many years how to speak, write and read English. She remained friends with many of these families many years after she had worked with them.
- She was a wonderful cook, often trying new recipes, but never thought of herself as being good at that.
What other facts, stories, memories or thoughts can you add here? Put them in the comments!
SECOND MOM and QUEEN
Aunt Leone is my favorite, as the title to this bit likely suggests. Yes, IS. As long as I’m here, so is she. That makes for present tense. I know she is one of Mom’s and Dad’s favorite in-laws. Again, IS, for the same reason.
My earliest memory of Aunt Leone–and Uncle Art–goes to that time in 1943 or ’44 when they had finished packing the furniture up for their move back to Wisconsin from Detroit. The living room was bare except for the drapery panels at the windows. Jump ahead sixty years to the day in Kaukauna when I told Aunt Leone that I could remember the color and pattern in those panels and gave her my recollection. She said I was right. I was no more than three years old at the time of the move. What could trigger such a memory were it not for the special person who had hung those panels in the first place?
Memory becomes clear again when, in early youth I accompanied Mom and Dad–did I have a choice?–on the yearly summer trips “back home.” Cousins my age lived on Taft Street. That meant play down by the locks and poking around in the Grignon Home. It also meant, on one occassion, sleeping upstairs in that bedroom with the phosphorescent moon and stars on the ceiling. Better yet was watching Aunt Leone load up the oven with bread slices in the morning to make the toast that no small appliance could put out in an hour.
As years passed and my own life took me away from family, my connection to Aunt Leone was left to Mom’s references to letters exchanged between her and Second Mom. By the time I got around to “coming home” again–therein lies a story in itself–I made it a point to visit Taft Street. In fact, I told myself and everyone I ever talked to when the names of my favorite uncle and aunt came up, that I would not set foot in Wisconsin for one second if I couldn’t get to Kaukauna, even if it were for only a few minutes just to say hello. That is probably one of the few pledges I’ve made in life that I’ve kept.
I feel badly that I can no longer keep it except in the large portion of my memory reserved for Aunt. And Uncle.
Second Mom, like First, could listen. No, I doubt we ever came to sharing deeply personal things, but there never was a doubt in my mind that if I wanted to talk, She would listen. The capital S is no typo. Talks at that kitchen table, a simple one whose chair closest to the range was only for Uncle. That’s one of the rules in life that I had much respect for.
There’s plenty more to be said, but the words would not stop. They must.
Oh, Queen. Yes. Grab that photo of Aunt Leone taken not long ago. Now grab from cyberspace any more recent photo of the UK’s Queen Elizabeth. See what I mean? Aunt Leone is regal in my mind. I can’t imagine this not being so for everyone who knows her.
Yes, present tense.
Awesome Duane—thanks for adding the comment, and adding a different way for me to think about my Grandma- she is a big part of me, too. 🙂
Probably my favorite comment from Gramma goes something like this:
“I look in the mirror and wonder who that old woman is. I feel like I’m 23- 24- 25 – or something like that – on the inside, and it’s when I look in the mirror that I remember that I’m in my 80’s.”
Shell, your grandmother’s staying “young at heart” might well explain her almost completing her 99th year. Thinking I’m 40-somthing going on 27, I hope, is doing the same for me at 72.
As the back yard neighbor and the same age as Dave, I spent more time in the Lamers house than my own,
between the age of 5 to 10. Mrs. Lamers never -never had a harsh word for me. Considering everything all of us got into, that was remarkable. She will never be forgotten !!!
Mark McAndrews (Fat Mac the Darboy Doughboy)
The Lamers were our next door neighbors, too. Art and Leone were also my godparents. And, more recently, Leone became a dear and loving friend to me. While I was growing up on Taft St., my folks didn’t own a car. Countless times, Art and Leone drove my folks to church, to doctors’ appointments, and to the store. One time when my folks were off to the hospital to have another baby, Art even gave my dad a blank check to help with expenses! When my dad died, Leone saw to it that my mother had a social life and transported her to craft classes, card games, church activities and more. More importantly, Leone was a friend to my mom. She filled the void in so many ways for my mother and for that, especially, I am most grateful. After my mom passed away, my sister moved into the family homestead next to the Lamers. Leone continued her caring and generous ways even then, many times sharing her Meals on Wheels dinners with Maggie and breaking out a bottle of wine to wash it down. Another void filled! Another friendship made!
My folks were very poor while we were growing up. The only early memories I have of Christmas as a kid were of those mornings I went over to the Lamers’ to get my “godchild” gifts from Art and Leone. They made sure I got something sensible and something fun each year. I was fortunate enough to be able to share these memories with Leone shortly before Christmas this past December. She had recently been moved to the Bethany House and had been experiencing much pain for several weeks prior to Maggie’s and my visit. The day we saw her she was looking good and resting somewhat comfortably — or so it seemed! In retrospect, I’m thinking it may have been an “act.” She simply did not want us to see her suffering and did her best to hide it from us. That was Leone; she always put others first. Her kindness knew no bounds. She was definitely one of a kind and tho I am saddened by her passing and will miss her, I am so very grateful and blessed to have known her.
Thank you Kathy – I feel I know my grandmother better with each comment added. Cheers, – marty lamers
I am son # 2 and would like to address Leones ‘ sense of fairness. With six kids and always a limited budget, Christmas was always a challenge. We all had our wish list and she helped the younger ones mail a request to Santa to be read on the radio.[“and anything else you think a six year old boy might like’] Sometimes it was “big” things like skis or a bow and arrows and there was the underwear we didn’t order but could not be readily passed down. On Christmas morning we all had our own piles. One year there was an envelope addressed to me from Santa on my pile. It had $1.38 in it. Luv you ma.
luvdan
The more I read here, the more I wish that my own parents had moved us back to Wisconsin from Detroit in the days when employment looked rather bleak for Dad and one of his closest friends with family had already “come home.” Although born and raised 500 miles away, Kaukauna and the rest of the Fox Valley is “home.”
Aunt Leone, taking your name off my telephone speed dial yesterday was no big deal; you live in all our hearts.
I remember visiting Grandma and Grandpa when I was in Graduate school in 2005/2006, and Grandma told me to date as many people as I can, because there are many fish in the sea. I couldn’t believe I was hearing that from an about 90 year old Grandma. So sweet. I enjoyed my calls to check in on grandma and grandpa. Grandpa would always say he is “still ticking,” when asked how he was donig.
I spent a lot of lunches in the last two years at Park Visita with Grandma. I even showed her my belly button that was popping out when I was pregnant, over the lunch table. Embarassed her for sure, but innocently. I love how she wore purple, and always asked about my jobs and family. She was always trying to pawn off her candy and chocolate on any visitor. 🙂 She was able to meet my son, Calvin, 3 times, and I have video and pictures to show h im when he’s older. I feel lucky I was able to say “I love you” to her and hear it back twice on the night she died. We will miss her.
Elissa
My Gramma. Though I am so happy to have shared Gramma with all my cousins, aunts and uncles, I must admit, I have always kind of considered her my very own. I suppose we all feel like we had an extra special connection with the Gramma. Right? That’s a part of who she is.
Gramma always gazed deeply into my eyes when she said “I love you”. She loved having her great-grandkids over for a visit and some music making. In the last few years, she would sit in her chair at Park Vista, listening to Gianna and Luka play guitar for her or sing, and smile with a look of distant remembering. Watching Zora tug at Gramma’s necklaces seemed to bring her back to her early parenting days… or further back to her own childhood. I don’t know. There was a soft sweetness to her.
When I was in college, taking a biology class, Gramma once asked me about the class. I told her about what I was learning and she asked me if she could someday borrow my text book from the class. “Gramma! I thought that was against the rules for a Catholic! You’re not supposed to be curious about evolution.” And then I told her I thought that if she were my age at the time, she would probably have some different beliefs. She found that very fascinating. I LOVE that about her. She was more open in some ways than she was really allowed to be. Rock On Gramma.
My love for you is deep and pure. I am glad to now have you expanded into the cosmos, though I will miss our visits. I can feel a little closer. I can talk and you can hear me again. ….. I told you I’d buy you a turtle sunday when we return from Peru in the spring. That is what I’ll do… and I’ll bring it to the cabin to share with my family, and we will eat and enjoy it in your honor. xoxoxoxox Love you, Gramma. Forever and ever.
Lovely Leone
Your time has come to travel on
into the depths of the far beyond.
A wonderful woman who cared for all
never judging ,always loving
she’d soften your fall!
Her love is spread all through my heart
though she is gone, we shall never part.
She will stay with me for all time,
As I cling to the lessons
That now are mine.
Thanks mom for all the teachings!
Love, Trish
Today, as many days, I think about my dear gramma. Who would be 99 today!
I remember her as having always been one of my favorite people in the world, not just a gramma, but a playmate and friend and confidant as well.
I remember gramma’s skin, it could never have been softer, I had a difficult time not touching it whenever we were close. And it seemed to ways glow.
I think about her never ending curiosity. I recall her asking about tattoos and piercing and wanting the details of how it was done and what it felt like.
I remember almost every visit I had with her involved me brushing her hair or rubbing her hands, and I always was honored to do so.
I am completely grateful for having had so many wonderful years with her. May she be free and curious, and may she continue to share her presence with all of us still.
Loving you always,
Meighan