19. Frederick Hayes Wheeler II
Fred, the oldest of 5 siblings, attended Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, Michigan and left in 1928. He was a spoiled son. With a money gift from his father to buy an Indy 500 type of car, he took pride in it. In all his life, there was always a picture of him with the car. He had a speed boat. He traveled solo through a water inlet from New York to Ft. Lauderdale. Building trains was his another hobby.
Upon leaving his school, he was pulled to work at the Fisher Body for General Motors Company in Flint, Michigan through his uncle Dasse, the husband of Clara Wheeler, the youngest sibling of Josephine R. Wheeler. During that time, he met and married Pearl Markley from Indiana. Unfortunately he was laid off; however he was advised by his foreman that he should try employment at Tarrytown, New York. He showed a metal file at the site where many people standing by waited for a call. He waved the file in the air and got the call first to work there. This tool was used to file the seam of car body. Later he became an excellent tool maker.
He and Pearl raised two children, William "Billy" and Phyllis. Upon retiring from General Motors Company, they moved to Ft. Lauderdale to live in with Billy and family. His granddaughter Rhonda Wheeler Buckley nursed him at Billy Wheeler's home until his death at the age of 90 in 1999.
Pearl married Frederick "Fred" and moved to Elmsford, NY. Pearl was a rivet operator, building warplanes named Avenger and Wildcat at Gruman aircraft industry. Later she became a clerk at Reader's Digest in Poughkeepsie, New York.
She and Fred raised two children. When retired, they moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She had been sick and died of pancreatic cancer.
20. Florence Josephine Wheeler
"Flo" attended Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint, Michigan in 1916. She was well liked by friends and teachers at school. In 1930 she had to leave for work with a garment sewing company to support her sister and brothers with clothes. She was an excellent athlete. In basketball, she competed against Buick and Chrysler industries in Flint and won a public mention in newspapers. She enjoyed drawing the faces of famous movie stars.
She met Herman Skedsmo through her brother Fred at a social in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Engaged and married in Chicago, they moved to Elmsford, New York to be near Fred and family. They had two children: Caroline and Bobby.
In the summer of 1945 she with her family moved to Long Beach, California. She missed her brothers and sister. Later her brother Joseph "Wilson" Wheeler and sister Bessie Wheeler Cookson from Washington moved to join her. Her other brother Edwin Wheeler had his family and a good job in Washington he chose to stay behind. She was a garment sewing operator in Downtown Los Angeles and later an electronics assembler at North America Rockwell in Anaheim until she retired at the age of 62.
She and Herman made a retirement home in Palm Springs for better health. She suffered Alzheimer's disease that she had for ten years. When Herman Skedsmo had a four-bypass heart surgery, she was placed at Yucca Valley Manor where she died a short time later. Her son Bobby was at her bedside when she neared death.
Herman was born in Evanston, Illinois on April 5, 1909. Oscar, his father was 37 and Nina, his mother was 34 at the time of his birth, living by Stanley Avenue and Isabella however no more on the map. It was said where Northwestern University now stands. As per his birth certificate, his middle name was Oleson, but all the time it was known as Lawrence.
He grew up in Spring Grove near Richmond, Illinois. In 1917 he enrolled at the Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville, Illinois and left in 1929.
He worked as a dish washer and bus boy at the Thompson in Chicago during the depression. His father wanted to see Herman make his life better by moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he pursued his skills as a carpenter. He lived at YMCA. He made a friend with Mr. McGinnis, a good friend of Fred Wheeler. Through him, Herman met Fred in turn to meet his sister Florence Wheeler at her home in Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 21, 1930. Once met, Herman immediately liked Flo. He came back and started to court her on June 12, 1931. They became engaged on February 20, 1933.
Herman and she got married on December 22, 1934 and made a home in Chicago. He was in trouble with the law and put in jail. He was in a fight with a guy for passing at Flo. Florence left alone had no place but moved to live with Fred Wheeler and family in New York. After Herman was released, he joined Flo. He and Flo had two children born in New York.
Close to Fred Wheeler as his apprentice, Herman learned a body and fender repair skill that became his lifetime trade. He worked in Brooklyn, New York. The trade was hard on his health because of New York's wintery weather leading him to move to Long Beach, California with his family in the Summer of 1945.
He had a close death call after visiting her sisters and mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1953. He had an auto accident near Holbrook, Arizona. He suffered a neck injury and partial paralysis. Since not capable to work, he managed to do light work part time.
After Flo's death, he lived his son Bobby in Union City, California in the San Francisco Bay area for 5 and a half years. He moved to an assisted living quarter near Bobby's. Afflicted with diabetes he never knew, he had an accident. He fell down and hit his head on the floor. Since being incompetent, he was moved to Walnut Manor nursing home in Anaheim, California where there was a signing staff to communicate with the patients. Two years later he died of common complications at the age of almost 83.
Notes:
The following cities were where Herman and Florence lived.1. Chicago, Illinois in 1934
2. Manhattan, New York in 1936
3. Elmsford, New York in 1936
4. Jersey City, New Jersey in 1938
5. Brooklyn, New York in 1942
6. North Long Beach, California in 1945
7. Compton, California in 1950
8. Cerritos, California in 1970
9. Palm Springs, California in 1978
10. Cathedral City, California in 1985 (Florence passed away)
11. Union City, California in 1985
12. Fremont, California in 1991
13. Anaheim, California in 1991The following cars are what Herman had.
1. 1926 Ford in Chicago - 1931
2. 1932 Cord in Elmsford - 1936-38
3. 1931 Ford Victoria - 1940-1943
4. 1935 Oldsmobile - 1944-1947
5. 1940 Plymouth used - 1948-1949
6. 1949 Mercury - 1949
7. 1950 Nash Rambler - 1950
8. 1952 Nash Ambassador - 1952
9. 1947 Chevrolet used - 1953
10. 1954 Nash Rambler - 1954
11. 1955 Nash Ambassador - 1955
12. 1956 Lincoln used - 1957-1959
14. 1960 Chevrolet Monza - 1960-1970
13. 1959 Cadillac De Ville used - 1960-1964
15. 1962 Chevrolet Corsair used - 1965-1967
16. 1968 Chevrolet Impala - 1968-1977
17. 1970 Cadillac de Ville used - 1977-1980
18. 1980 Buick Regal - 1980-1984
19. 1983 Buick - 1985-1987
20. 1987 Mercury - 1988-1990
Bobby, a war baby, did not look like an actual born Brooklyn guy. He grew up mostly in California. He attended California School for the Deaf in Berkeley for four years and then transferred to California School for the Deaf in Riverside until he graduated with a honor in 1963. He left Gallaudet University after three years to pursue a career as a civil engineering technician at Caltrans in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In addition, he was an avid cyclist that kept him fit and competitive.
As a child, Bobby's mother Flo often watched him riding his tricycle on the sidewalk from the kitchen window and one particular day she became alarmed when the earthquake hit but Bobby, was having the time of his life riding along with the earthquake's rolling motions. His interest in cycling grew when his father often took him and sister Caroline to see a motorcycle race every Friday night. Into his teens, his close friend, Bert Hall and he would go on a fun dirt motorcycling every weekend. Bobby then participated in track and basketball at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside. He was an outstanding player due to his love for competition and determination to be the best. Next he joined the Gallaudet College's cross country and track team leading him into the 1965 Deaflympics team as a 800-meter runner with the best time at 1:58.6. He received a Hall of Fame award in recognition for his outstanding achievements in track at high school.
He took the opportunity to watch the bike race events; thus the birth of interest in trying out for the USA cycling team. He made the team to three Deaflympics in Belgrade (1969), Malmo (1973) and Bucharest (1977) and did well but without some well-deserved medals. He was a founding father of the United States Deaf Cycling Association, Inc. that was established in 1975.
He became a coach of the USA cycling team and won the most medals in the history. Later he received another Hall of Fame award from the US Deaf Sports Federation for his outstanding performance as a coach. Later he was appointed to be the Technical Director for Cycling by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf and oversaw the Deaflympics for twenty years. In 2001 he became an honorary member of the Kappa Gamma fraternity at Gallaudet University.
Upon his retirement, he presently has quality time for motorcycling, golfing, cycling and now is doing this research on the family tree. He has a wonderful wife Francine whom he has known since his childhood days at school. Not only this but there are two wonderful Yorkshire Terriers keeping him on his toes. He has no children to carry on his surname in USA.
Francine attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley for two years and then transferred to the California School for the Deaf in Riverside until she graduated. She graduated from Gallaudet University in 1968 and became a teacher at the Montana School for the Deaf, Michigan School for the Deaf, and Selaco-Downey High School in California. After California, she became a Rights Representative for the Division on Deafness within the Department of Labor in Michigan. While working there, she was an advocate for a statewide relay service and later was offered a job as the manager of the Michigan Relay Center by Michigan Bell/Ameritech. She met Bobby at one of the Deaf gatherings and they reminisced the good old days of Berkeley and Riverside. They corresponded and love blossomed. She gave up her job in Michigan and moved to California and became a teacher at the Fremont School for the Deaf. They married in 1998. Now that she is a retiree, she sits on the board of the California Relay Service Advisory Council, sub teaching and do a lot of traveling.
Edwin was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1914, the fourth sibling in the family. He enrolled at Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint and left in 1935. In all his childhood, he was suspected to have a mental condition never diagnosed, but he was lucky to have been immersed in American Sign language. He was raised in an uniquely all deaf Wheeler family. He met and married a woman of Kamloops, Canada, Sarah Garrett. Edwin worked as a wood cutter at some saw mills around Tacoma, Washington. He and Sarah had four children: Isabella, Ruth, Gordon and Timothy. He made many totem poles. He loved to tell jokes. He died of Alzheimer's disease.
Born in 1916, Joseph "Wilson" the youngest of 5 siblings graduated from Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint in 1936. He went to New York to seek work. He had an affair with his brother Fred's wife, Pearl, and had a child named William.
No luck in finding work in New York, Wilson went to Texas where his aunt Cora Wheeler lived. Cora helped him find work; a fate brought him to meet Evelyne Franks who became his wife in a two-week rush. Aunt Cora was upset, thinking it was his big mistake, but once she met Evelyne, she loved her.
Wilson and she moved to Seattle, Washington, following Bessie Wheeler Cookson. Brother Edwin Wheeler moved straight from Michigan; they sought work during World War II when hiring the Deaf was in high demand. Bought a piece of land in Parkland to build a home, Wilson and family lived across the street from Bessie. They had four children: Joe, Cora May, Joyce and Sandy "Kurt".
Wilson and family moved to North Long Beach, California where they lived near Bessie and Flo. Work was more opportune then for him. He built two homes in Artesia. Working as a painter for different companies, he finally settled with a steady painting job at Pacific (later changed to Lanterman) State Hospital in Diamond Bar.
Wilson was an executor of Sister Bessie's death and the estate.
Upon Evelyne's death, he married again to a woman named Tammy he met in Oregon. Evelyne knew her from the same school in Texas, but his marriage did not last. He befriended Emmaline until his death of dementia in January 2001.
William Hynek was so darn drunk and was killed when a streetcar ran over him in Seattle.
Grace married two more times. All husbands died. William was among the original settlers in Alaska (1935). He experimented whether communism worked or not.They settled in Palmer (Nakusoma Valley) before he quit and moved to Seattle.
Leona married again and lived in Buchanen, Michigan near St. Joseph.
1 or 2 years old