Carlean Gill at Idlewild, circa late 1950s or early 1960s. (Photo donated by Carlean Gill to the Michigan Historical Museum)

Carlean Gill grew up as the youngest of six children in a black neighborhood in Ferndale, Michigan. Her father emigrated from St. Vincent and the Grenadines (a Caribbean island country) to work at the Ford Motor Company River Rouge plant. He also farmed and built houses in his limited spare time. “Ford …. put this neighborhood up for the black people coming from the South,” Carlean explained. “We had outhouses, we had dirt streets…. you know, this was an area where they said, ‘Okay, you’re black, this is where you stay, and you work for us.”

After graduating from Lincoln High School in 1956, Carlean attended business college and worked part-time as a model. She caught the eye of Ziggy Johnson and then Arthur Braggs, who gave her a job as a showgirl in his Idlewild Revue. As a “Fiesta Doll” she wore flamboyant costumes and strutted down the runway in fashion shows. In the off season, Braggs would take his Idlewild Revue on the road in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Idlewild

Founded in 1912 near Baldwin, Michigan, Idlewild became a popular resort for African Americans seeking refuge from racist “Jim Crow” laws. At Idlewild, blacks could relax and enjoy the outdoors without the burden and humiliation of segregation. Popular black singers, dancers and comedians entertained in clubs like the Paradise and Flamingo. Notable visitors to Idlewild were Marcus Garvey, Langston Hughes, novelist Zora Heale Hurston, Madam C.J.Walker, and W.E.B. DuBois. At Idlewild, Gill met and befriended famous Motown entertainers The Four Tops and the Temptations.

An exterior view of Idlewild's Paradise Club, circa late 1950s or early 1960s (Photo donated by Carlean Gill to the Michigan Historical Museum)

The list of performers at Idlewild reads like a Who’s Who of black entertainers: Della Reese, Jackie Wilson, T-Bone Walker, George Kirby, The Four Tops, Brook Benton, Sarah Vaughan, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Sammy Davis, Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley, Fats Waller, Billy Eckstein, and many others.

“A Closeness”

“Idlewild had a closeness, and you’d see all these people come in all dressed up, on their best behavior,” Carlean Gill remembers. “They’d drive their cars up and the doorman would open the door for them. So it was like being in a big city but it was country living where you could wear shorts and just be very comfortable and people would invite you into their homes and cottages.”

Ironically, it was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that led to Idelwild’s downfall. Once black vacationers and entertainers were not segregated to blacks-only resorts, visitor numbers dwindled and the resort fell into decline. Idlewild is currently undergoing a rebirth, with the reopening of a motel, a museum and the Idlewild Jazz Festival.

Poster of a 1963 Idlewild Revue (Photo donated by Carlean Gill to the Michigan Historical Museum).

After Idlewild

After her career at Idlewild, Carlean Gill moved to Saginaw and attended beauty college before opening Carlean’s Beauty Salon. She then opened Saginaw Beauty Academy and Saginaw Barber College. She is renowned for her hair weaving technique for cancer patients, and has been honored by the City of Saginaw and the State of Michigan as an outstanding African American businesswoman. In addition to her modeling and business careers, she owned and operated a horse farm and raised a daughter.

You can read the full account of Carlean Gill’s adventures at Idlewild in the book The Sweetness of Freedom by Stephen G. Ostrander and Martha Aladjem Bloomfield, published in 2010 by Michigan State University Press.

President Andrew Jackson (Source of image: www.senate.gov)

Note: This article originally appeared in the January/February 1999 issue of Michigan History Magazine. It has been updated in two ways: 1) “State Archives of Michigan” was changed to “Archives of Michigan,” to reflect the Archives’ current name. 2) The statistic on the amount of paper in the Archives (see concluding paragraph) now reflects the current, 2012 number, rather than the number from 1999.

The Archives of Michigan collects and preserves significant records generated by the state and local governments of Michigan. On rare occasions, however, this depository of Michigan’s documentary heritage is called upon to care for selected federal papers. There are four good examples of this unusual situation, and they all occurred years ago and at the same time.

The story of these seemingly strayed records begins in 1933, when U.S. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg discovered several interesting items squirreled away in the nation’s Capitol. In the files of the secretary of the Senate, he uncovered several original sheets of parchment that qualify as Michigan’s birth certificates.

The first of these handwritten treasures was a letter from President Andrew Jackson dated December 9, 1835. Addressed to the members of “the Senate and House of Representatives,” it notified Congress that Michigan had met the qualifications for statehood. [Editor's note: To read this letter, click Andrew Jackson, Page 1 and Andrew Jackson, Page 2.]

The next find was Senate Bill 81 from the second session of the Twenty-fourth Congress. This document, bearing the date it was reported from the Senate Judiciary Committee, December 29, 1836, was the bill granting statehood to Michigan. [Editor's note: To read this bill, click Senate Bill 81, Page 1 and Senate Bill 81, Page 2.]

The remaining two documents were the credentials of Michigan’s first two U.S. senators, Lucius Lyon and John Norvell. Both of these men took their seats on January 26, 1837, the same day Michigan joined the Union.

Believing that these manuscripts would be more appreciated in Michigan than in Washington, Vandenberg crafted and submitted Senate Resolution 341. This measure directed the secretary of the Senate “to make photostatic copies” of the noted documents and deposit them in the Senate files. This having been done, the originals were to be sent to Lansing for permanent retention and preservation.

Vandenberg’s colleagues agreed to his proposal on February 9, 1933, marking the first time any state had been given the original documents admitting it to the Union. Two weeks later, the four congressional records arrived in Lansing.

Within the nearly full vaults of the Archives of Michigan are housed over sixty thousand cubic feet of the most important papers produced by public officials at the state, county, township and municipal level. But it is doubtful that anything in this vast amount of material has more sentimental value than the four isolated sheets of paper that declared Michigan the twenty-sixth state in the Union.

President Andrew Jackson's signature on the 1835 letter to Congress. The complete letter can be read at seekingmichigan.org/discover, in the Early Documents section.

Photo from postcard, published by L.L. Cook Company of Milwaukee (Postcard donated to the Archives of Michigan by Barbara Zimmeth)

Calumet Street, Lake Linden, circa 1910-1920 (Donated to the Archives of Michigan in 1991 by Janice Beebe)

Calumet Street, Lake Linden, Circa 1935. Image from postcard, originally published by L.L. Cook Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Postcard donated to the Archives of Michigan in 1991 by Barbara Zimmeth)

Today’s blog is about Lake Linden (Houghton County), Michigan. I selected Lake Linden because it is the hometown of my maternal grandmother, Viola Baril Cimini (Today is the anniversary of her 1904 birth.).

The daughter of French Catholic immigrants from Canada, Viola migrated to Detroit, met my grandfather on Belle Isle, married, gave birth to my mother (her only child) in 1925 and built a home on the east side of the city (c 1927). That home always included extended family – from Detroit, up North, or Italy. During the Depression, Grandma became a career woman and continued to work until she was sixty-five. She loved the movies, especially if the star was Errol Flynn. She never learned how to drive and took bus vacations out West. Grandma always impressed me as someone who looked ahead, not behind. So I know very little about her Lake Linden years. However, thanks to my mother, postcard images of that village, collected by my grandmother, became part of our Main Streets Collection. We are currently digitizing images from that collection.

Calumet Street, Lake Linden, circa 1935. Image from postcard, originally published by L.L. Cook Co. of Milwaukee, WI. Postcard donated to the Archives of Michigan in 1991 by Barbara Zimmeth)

Lake Linden, which is located at the head of Torch Lake , gets its name from the linden trees surrounding that lake and lining community streets. When the area was first settled (1851), it was known as Torch Lake. In 1867, the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company encouraged community growth by establishing a stamping plant to process copper ore. The area post office, known as Linden Lake, was established in 1868. The village itself was organized in 1868, but not incorporated until 1885. By 1882, Linden Lake transposed to Lake Linden.

On May 20th, 1887, a devastating fire, that started in a building located on Calumet and First Streets, destroyed seventy-five percent of the village. After the fire, the village council established a fire code that required buildings within certain limits to be constructed of either brick or stone and covered with metal, gravel, or slate. A portion of the rebuilt Lake Linden became part of the United States National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 2009.

A skier glides down Suicide Hill, circa 1959 (Photo by Michigan Tourist Council).

Suicide Hill’s very name intimidates skiers. The Ishpeming Ski Club, however, describes it as “fine, competitive and safe” (See the Ishpeming Ski Club Web Site). Ski jump enthusiasts hold the hill – and its rich history – in high esteem.

In the Beginning

The Norden Ski Club – renamed the Ishpeming Ski Club in 1901 – held its first formal ski jump competition in 1888. The competition site was south of Lake Angeline, near Ishpeming, Michigan. An annual tradition did not immediately follow. The Club did, however, host competitions in some subsequent years. Various hills in the Ishpeming region served as competition sites.

In 1925, the Ishpeming Ski Club launched a search for a new hill. Peter Handberg and Leonard Flaa, then officers of the Club, found what would be called Suicide Hill. The Hill is located off what is now M-28, between Ishpeming and Negaunee. The Cleveland Cliffs mining company owned the land, and a lease was quickly negotiated.

In the autumn of 1925, development work began on the hill. It proved a community effort. Local citizens donated materials and volunteered their labor. The hill was cleared, graded and shaped. Finally, the Ishpeming Ski Club announced the first competition on the hill. This occurred on February 26, 1926.

“A Little Color”

Ted Butler, a local newspaper reporter, apparently gave the hill its nickname. An Ishpeming skier named Walter “Huns” Anderson was injured a few days before the 1926 meet. Butler wrote about this, using the phrase “Suicide Hill” in his story. “Sure, it’s a good hill, but why not add a little color to it?,” he reportedly said. James Flaa of the Ishpeming Ski Club protested the name, claiming that it created a bad impression and kept skiers away.

Today, eighty-six years later, skiers are still coming to Suicide Hill. They come from many countries and gather for the annual competitions, traditionally held in February.

The annual Suicide Hill Ski Tournament will be held next on February 8, 2012. Suicide Hill waits quietly for the day, ready to challenge a new wave of daring skiers.

Sources

“Flying into the Future” by Jane Nordberg. Michigan History Magazine, March/April 2002, pp. 6-11.

Ishpeming Ski Club Web Site

For a related article, click Ishpeming winter events

25 Christmas lane on a winter's eve, circa 2010 (Photo courtesy of Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland.).

My favorite holiday movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989). Clark Griswold, (Chevy Chase), our hero, has a plan for the traditional Griswold family Christmas that includes fifty thousand twinkling outdoor lights on the roof. When Clark drags his entire family out to see his masterpiece, the lights don’t work. The frustrating, yet entertaining, effort to fix the problem resonates with me (This includes Clark on the roof checking each individual bulb.). My favorite part comes when Clark prevails, the family is impressed, and he thanks his father for teaching him about exterior illumination.

Beginnings

Wallace Bronner (1927-2008) knew that exterior illumination is essential for the holidays. We are all familiar with his enormous enterprise: Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, located on 25 Christmas Lane in Frankenmuth. Initially, this behemoth of holiday cheer started as a signage business. During the early forties, Wally worked as a sign painter and a clerk at the Hubinger Grocery Store, which was owned by his maternal relatives. Part of his job included designing window displays. In 1945, as Frankenmuth celebrated its centennial year, Bronner Display and Sign Advertising was in demand for painting signs and decorating store windows and parade floats. That year Wallace Bronner met Irene Ruth Pretzer, the woman he would marry on June 23, 1951 at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hemlock, Michigan.

Signs designed by Wally Bronner for the city of Clare, 1951 (Photo courtesy of Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland.).

Irene was instrumental in helping Wally land a monthly window display contract with the Jennison Hardware Company of Bay City (c. 1947) (Irene had attended Bay City Junior College and boarded at the home of G.W. Cooke, president of the hardware company.). Bronner’s work for the hardware company resulted in a referral to the town of Clare, Michigan (1951). This first municipal holiday commission was to design decorative lamppost panels. After that job, Wally hired his friend Fred Bernthal to look for new clients in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario.

Bronner also entered into contracts with General Plastics Corporation (Marion, Indiana) and Mold-Craft Corporation (Port Washington, Wisconsin). These companies provided street trims and ornaments, latex Santas, reindeers and nativity scenes. In 1952, Bronner staged two shows exhibiting outdoor Christmas decorations, one in the Frankenmuth Township Hall, the other at the St. Lorenz School gymnasium. Both were successful. However, both venues were temporary. Bronner decided to rent a more permanent building, a vacated one-room schoolhouse (formerly Frankenmuth School District Number 1). Thus, year round exhibit of Christmas decorations became possible! “At first the people of the community thought the idea to be rather unusual, but accepted it fully when Frankenmuth became known as the Christmas Town.” (Bronner’s 2005 Corporate History, page 35.)

Wally Bronner with employees. (Photo taken in the 1960s. Photo is courtesy Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland.)

“Thinking Big”

Herman Bronner (Wally’s father) was a building contractor and stone mason. He convinced his son to “think big” by changing the plans for the first Bronner-owned building from two, L-shaped, rectangular buildings to one large, square building. The Bronner’s store at 121 East Tuscola (a lot adjoining Aunt Hattie’s grocery store) opened in 1954. It was divided into two sections, one space for the sign painting business, the other for Christmas decorations.

Wally was grateful for his dad’s vision and business acumen. The municipal clientele grew to include shopping centers and commercial interiors. As buyers selected decorations for their stores and churches, their wives requested home decorations. From 1954 to 1963, Bronner exhibited at the Saginaw County Fair, which, at the time, boasted numbers of three hundred thousand people. By 1960, the company was officially incorporated, and home decorations were added to the product line. In 1964, the first billboard advertising Bronners appeared on I-75, ten miles south of Exit 136 (Frankenmuth). Many travelling up North are familiar with that sign. Subsequent ones (more than sixty located in seven states) continue to extol the importance of holiday cheer and illumination.

Source material:

Picturesque Story of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, as related by Wally Bronner. Published by Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, 2005.

The History of Bronner’s Christmas Decorations by Doris A Paul. Published by the Frankenmuth Historical Museum, 1981.

Ted Nugent at a USO Concert, 2004. Photo by Lenny Francioni, U.S. Navy. Found on www.wikimediacommons.org

Ted Nugent has been dubbed “the Motor City Madman.” He is a renowned rock musician, hunter and political activist. His views and his music are often controversial. Love him or hate him, however, he is certainly a Michigan original.

Early Years

Nugent was born in Detroit on December 13, 1948. He began playing guitar at an early age. By 1960 – when he was eleven – he formed a band, the Royal High-Boys. After some membership changes, this group became the Lourds. In his book “Grit, Noise and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock and Roll, David A. Carson quotes Nugent as saying that the Lourds were inspired by black musicians such as James Brown, Bo Diddly and Chuck Berry. The Lourds became popular in Detroit, and at one point, they opened for the Beau Brummels and the Supremes at Cobo Hall. Ted Nugent was about fourteen at that time.

Then, in 1965, the Nugent family moved to Chicago. Sixteen year old Ted had to leave the Detroit rock scene behind…at least for the moment.

The Amboy Dukes

In Chicago, Nugent quickly formed a new band. He called it the Amboy Dukes, after a Detroit band that was no longer active (He was apparently unaware that this Detroit band took their name from a street gang in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.). When Nugent graduated high school in 1967, he quickly moved his band to Detroit.

In Detroit, the band changed its lineup, opened for the Who at Southfield High School and netted a contract with Mainstream records. In 1968, they had a hit with “Journey to the Center of the Mind.” Nugent wrote the music to this song, while bandmate Steve Farmer wrote the lyrics. Later, the anti-drug Nugent would claim ignorance of those lyrics’ pro-drug message.

Solo Career and Damn Yankees

In 1976, Nugent signed with Epic Records as a solo performer. He recorded his first hit solo album, Free for All. Then, in 1977, his album Cat Scratch Fever went double platinum. It was followed by hit albums Double Live Gonzo, Weekend Warriors and State of Shock. He toured widely and, according to The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll (Third Edition, 2001), was the top grossing tour act of 1977, 1978 and 1979.

He continued to tour and record in the 1980s. In 1989, he and Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw formed the band Damn Yankees. Damn Yankees recorded two albums, Damn Yankees (1990) and Don’t Tread (1992). The first album included the ballad “High Enough,” which became their biggest hit.

Twenty-first Century Ted

Nugent continues to tour and record. He has served as a deputy sheriff and has been affiliated with several organizations, including the National Rifle Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Drug Abuse Resistance Education. He has written books and advocated for numerous anti-drug, pro-hunting and politically conservative causes. Now at the age of sixty-three, the Motor City Madman shows no sign of slowing down!

Sources:

Makin’ Music: Michigan’s Rock and Roll Legacy by LeRoy Barnett and Carolyn Damstra

Grit, Noise and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock N’ Roll by David A. Carson

The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll. Third Edition. Holly George-Warren and Patricia Romanowski, Editors. New York: Fireside. 2001.

U.S. government poster, 1942. Click on images to view them in a larger size (Image from the United States National Archives. Found on Wikimedia Commons).

It has been seventy years since the “Day of Infamy” – December 7, 1941. On that day, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, propelling the United States fully into World War II. For an entire generation of Americans, the world changed forever.

Today, later generations may wonder how it felt to experience firsthand such a pivotal moment of history. Twenty years ago, Michigan History Magazine provided some insight. The Magazine‘s November/December 1991 issue contains reminisces on that fateful day.

Up Close

The reminiscences include eye witness accounts of the attack. Frank Peter Stock of Hamtramck recalls several Japanese planes passing him overhead. “The rear machine gun of each plane sprayed us with bullets,” he writes. “They were so close that you could almost count the stitches in the pilots’ helmets…My first thoughts were that this was a drill, and we should act accordingly. But I had never seen planes come in from this direction before.”

Ted Blahnik of Coloma also experienced the attack firsthand. He had been aboard the ship Helena. “We thought we were hearing bees,” he remembered. “Later on, when we cleaned up our gunmount area, we discovered it was actually bullets that we heard.” He also recalled post-attack conditions: “One of the most heartrending things that I witnessed was after the water was out of the Helena. The fellows went into the dry dock area, up to the gaping hole that the torpedo made, and took the bodies out from the area in which the torpedo hit.”

Back Home

Americans on the home front also held vivid memories of December 7, 1941. Many recalled hearing radio news casts. Forest B. Meek of Clare remembered The Shadow radio program being interrupted. “What kid in the eighth grade knew where Pearl Harbor was?,” he asked. “I sure didn’t, and this interruption was an invasion into my private world of good versus evil.” Mary Anderson of West Branch recalled hearing the news on a car radio. Christine Stevinson of Royal Oak remembered being at a party. “The radio was on,” she said, “but there was so much laughing and talking no one heard the news for awhile. But suddenly, someone caught a bit of the broadcast and complete silence reigned.” Others stated that they heard the news from someone else and then quickly turned on the radio. As December 7, 1941 was a Sunday, a few people reported hearing the news in church.

U.S. Navy sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor of the U.S.S. West Virginia, December 7, 1941 (U.S. Navy photo from the National Archives. Found on Wikimedia Commons).

Reactions

Elizabeth Anesi of Portland stated that “My roommate and I had the same reaction: we didn’t really believe it. My roommate said, ‘The only thing I remember hearing about the last war was the shortage of sugar,’ so she went into the kitchen and made a batch of fudge.”

Disbelief is, in fact, a common theme in the recollections. Other reactions are noted as well. Margaret Greene of Marshall stated that, “Our first reaction was disbelief, then outrage.” Virginia Weaver of Lansing remembered some fear. “Everyone in the house feared the future,” she said. “None of us slept well that night.”

One thing is certain: The Pearl Harbor attack changed America and the world. As Duane T. Brigstock of Battle Creek wrote, “For many of us, our lives changed forever, creating such a division in our life that we still speak of ‘before the war’ and ‘after the war.’”

The Michigan Soldiers Home, circa 1905 (Click on the image to view it in a larger size)

A Home for Veterans

The Michigan legislature established a home for disabled soldiers, sailors and marines by passing Public Act 152 on June 5, 1885. This institution was part of a national effort to provide domiciliary care for Civil War veterans. The Michigan Soldiers’ Home, in the words of Major and Supreme Court Justice Allen B. Morse, “was a testimonial to the worth and services of her [Michigan’s] sons in the war for the suppression of the Rebellion and the re-establishment of a United Government . . . a home for disabled and enfeebled veterans who lost their health and energies in defense of our homes. May it stand forever.” (Baxter, History of the City of Grand Rapids.)

Close-up on Uriah Gress (standing, with cane)

The Grounds

The Board of Managers created by Act 152 chose to build on the Nelson Farm, which was located north of Grand Rapids. The citizens of Grand Rapids purchased 132 acres for $16,500, and deeded the property to the State of Michigan. Saginaw architect F.W. Hollister drew up the plans, and the construction contract of $99,667.57 was awarded to builder Charles Tiedke (also of Saginaw). Ground breaking occurred on March 15, 1886; the Michigan Soldier’s Home was completed and dedicated on December 30, 1886. The State also established a cemetery on the grounds in April of 1886. The Civil War veterans in today’s blog were photographed, circa 1905, on the grounds of the Michigan Soldiers’ Home. The veteran with the cane (far right-hand side of photograph) is identified as Uriah Gress, who was Soldiers’ Home applicant #4107.

Uriah Gress

At the age of twenty-three, Uriah Gress enlisted in Company A, 6th Michigan Infantry. He received a disability discharge from New Orleans on December 21, 1862. In 1864, he re–enlisted in Company H, 28th Michigan Infantry, but was again discharged for disability at Alexandria, Virginia, on May 19, 1865. After the Civil War ended, Gress returned to Lake Township, Berrien County, Michigan, and married Lucy J. Heathman in 1867. The couple had one son, Martin, who was born in Iowa in 1881. Lucy died in 1883.

Post card image of Michigan Soldiers Home, circa 1905 - circa 1915

Uriah Gress entered the Michigan Soldiers’ Home on September 24, 1903 at the age of 64. On his application, Gress attested that he was of sound mind, but was suffering from a double hernia, broken hip and the piles. Like all veterans, he agreed to abide by the rules of the Home, perform all of the duties required, and turn over all money received by him in excess of $5.00 per month. (Gress received a pension of $12.00 from the United States government.) When Gress died of heart disease at the Soldiers’ Home Hospital (February 18, 1917), his account was $17.35 (2010 dollars: $292). His casket cost $15.00 and the remaining money was sent to his son, Martin L, Gress of Williamston. Both Uriah and Lucy Gress are buried at the Spaulding Cemetery in Williamston, Michigan.

Sources:

Baxter, Albert. History of the City of Grand Rapids. New York and Grand Rapids: Munsell and Co., Publishers, 1891.

Records of the Michigan Soldiers’ Home, Uriah Gress, #4107, 1903.

Death Record of Uriah Gress (1917) (seekingmichigan.org)

Civil War Descriptive Rolls, 6th Michigan Infantry and 28th Michigan Infantry.

Find a Grave (Web Site)

1886 Souvenir Album of the Opening of the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (Web Site)

November is a month of traditions – Thanksgiving and the first colonists, harvests and breaking bread with others.   It’s Native American heritage month, some families are winding down deer camp or attending a Thanksgiving Day parade.  Football has been a long-standing Thanksgiving week tradition in Michigan from the Lion’s Thanksgiving Day game to the last regular season college football games to high school football championships.

I distinctly remember Thanksgiving, 1980.  My oldest brother’s team, the Okemos Chieftains, were undefeated and headed to the Michigan High School Athletic Association state championship game at the Pontiac Silverdome.  Our Thanksgiving Day afternoon was spent watching them practice in the snow at MSU’s Spartan Stadium in preparation for the Saturday game.  For a child, the pomp and circumstance surrounding the game and the community’s general excitement were mesmerizing.  This was a coming out party for a former farming-community-turned-suburb.  We genuinely thought we were participating in a long-honored tradition.  As it turns out, it was only five years old.

From the 1954 Kalkaska High School Yearbook: "Pictured is Kalkaska High School's new football uniforms. It is the hope of the school and the community that these uniforms will be put into use next year. The team will learn the fundamentals of football and possibly play a few games with reserve teams in this area."

The Mythical Championships

College football is annually criticized for the various polls that rank teams and give them a chance at the “National Championship.”  The Associated Press, Coaches poll, BCS, ESPN all have polls that jockey for headlines to declare which team is the champion.  No playoff system exists, so ultimately a poll (albeit now run by a computer formula) picks the contestants for the championship game.  High school football in Michigan followed the path of the Associated Press Poll for decades; however, no championship game was played.  Press members simply voted a team the champion at the end of the regular season.

In early 20^th century Michigan, football was a popular but nascent sport compared to baseball and basketball.  Surprisingly, the early adopter of a statewide playoff system was high school basketball, holding statewide championship tournaments beginning in 1925.

But football is expensive.  Communities like Kalkaska in Northern Michigan wanted the status of a football team but had to ease into the expense of the sport.  In 1954, the yearbook optimistically announced the purchase of some uniforms in anticipation of fielding teams in future years (see image).  Perhaps these expenses and the slow organization of various school teams resulted in Michigan only having “Mythical Champions” or those determined by a press poll for much of the 20^th century.  It was not until 1972, with the formation of the Michigan High School Coaches Association, that the idea of a state championship became a reality.  In a 1975 newsletter, the association announced that the first state championships would be held that November in order to improve high school football.  The games were held at Western and Central Michigan University football stadiums, as the new Pontiac Silverdome didn’t open until December of that year.  In 1976, moved to the Pontiac Silverdome until 2002, when the finals moved to the new home of the Detroit Lions, Ford Field.

More Information

For more information on the history of the Michigan High School Athletic Association or Michigan High School Football, please visit these links:

The Michigan High School Athletic Association website:  http://www.mhsaa.com

General Michigan high school football teams and records:  http://michigan-football.com/

History of the mythical championships: http://bit.ly/sCIYVe

Charles and Ardith Westie with baby Judy, circa 1942 (The quotation was added years later by either Charles or Ardith)

D-Day

On June 6, 1944, Charles “Chuck” Westie prepared for the Normandy invasion. He found time to write his wife, Ardith. “Where ever I am,” he wrote,”I will be thinking of you constantly – and living only for the thing to end and be back with you.”

Charles wanted Ardith to know that he loved her. At the same time, he believed in the necessity of fighting the war:

Perhaps you will think someday that I can not have loved you enough and still believe all the things that I do. I guess that it is not fair to you to say that the most important thing to me is not coming back – but in being worthy of this job – now – and for all my life. I would alter that – I think – if I could – but I just couldn’t and somehow can’t for long entertain the thought that my life is more important than the fighting against the things that may take it from you.

Meanwhile, in Lansing, Michigan, Ardith was writing her own letter to her husband. Her letter – also clearly dated “June 6, 1944” – shows the special stresses of a soldier’s loved one.

I turned on the radio about 6:45 this morning and heard the news for the first time. I did my praying then, darling. You know at first hand the strain and tension of the wait – and it has been much in evidence here, too. As a consequence, the news has packed a terrific emotional wallop. The whistles blew and banged at ten this morning, the signal for silent prayer all over the state.

Wounded

On July 28, 1944, Charles was wounded in action. He was evacuated to England and placed in a hospital. On August 5, he wrote to Ardith and explained his experience:

The brief yet hour long minutes of the action in which I was hit are re-occuring nightmares at times – It is all very confused. Most horrible were the cries of the wounded – for “medics” and for God. I would start to cry to God and would then remember that I had no right to – and then all the thoughts of home and you. It’s all over now…though really, I suppose, it will never be over.

In Lansing, Ardith anxiously awaited news. Charles’ letters were being delayed. She did not learn of his wounding until August 12 – two weeks after it occurred. That day, she wrote to Charles, telling him that she was thinking of him. She stated that she had “no one to talk about it to…”

In the late 1970s, Ardith, at the request of her adult daughter, thought back on that day. At that time, she wrote a lengthy memoir of her experience. She notes that she had been at home with daughter Judy (then just a few days shy of her second birthday) when she heard the news.

When Chuck’s letter arrived in early August telling me he was wounded and in the hospital, I was still twenty-two. I was stunned and alone. I think it was a Saturday, so I was home with Judy. I didn’t know what to do! I tried to have my disbelief and my anger and my sorrow all inside me, because the only person there was Judy, and how could she understand if I acted out how I felt? She was such a dear little person. You cannot imagine. I cannot imagine – I only remember when I read the letters I wrote Chuck – how she took good care of me in her baby way when she thought I felt bad or had hurt myself.

On this occasion, I went through the day trying to go for the walk and do the usual Saturday things. I knew my parents were coming the next day and felt I could wait until I saw them to tell them. Knowing how horribly afraid Chuck’s parents were for him, I hesitated to call them. I thought I would wait for the War Department telegram or for another message from Chuck – I do not remember what I actually did, except that I probably didn’t tell them until after I told my folks. I just don’t know.

When Judy went to bed, I thought, “Now, I can cry.” I did, but could cry only a little bit. Crying is a very social act, and the only person I could cry with and cry for was not there. I don’t remember if I slept or how long Sunday morning was, until my parents arrived around noon, and I met them at the door and immediately said, “Chuck has been wounded!” and started to cry and cry.

Aftermath

Charles’ wound was serious, and he saw no more combat. He was shipped back to the United States and spent the remainder of his service in Army hospitals. Eventually, his leg had to be amputated. After the war, he became a sociology professor at Central Michigan University. He and Ardith lived in Mount Pleasant for many years.

Charles Westie died on June 5, 1994. His death occurred fifty years – almost to the hour – from the time that he boarded the ship to Normandy. The wounds Charles suffered in combat ultimately caused his death. They affected his blood circulation, which in turn caused diabetes. Charles died of complications from this disease.

Ardith Westie has survived him. Recently, she donated her and Charles’ war letters to the Archives of Michigan. Now, these letters can be preserved and made publicly available, a testament of the courage of these two remarkable members of America’s greatest generation.