Dorothy : God's Gift

I'm doing pretty good at this challenge and I'm only a bit behind. I've been putting off writing this one. Mostly, I have a lot to say - or I don't know what to say. How do you begin to write about a woman you greatly misunderstood in life but came to understand in death?

Dorothy is a Greek name and it means God's Gift. Click your heels? No, no - she was my grandmother.

Grandma was born in June 1917 and had an older brother, Bob. Her father was HJ and her mother Isabel. During the 1929 crash the family continued to do well due to HJ's business skills but do not mistake that she was very much a child of the depression.

They went to Europe often. Grandma had a run in with the Gestapo. My father says it didn't happen, my Aunt Linda says it did.

After she died I was able to read her diary. She received a diamond ring for her HS graduation. She graduated Ohio Wesleyan. Her mother died during her college years. She married my grandfather after college and they settled in her native Cleveland Heights. Grandma was a Librarian and kept the schools plants. She carted them home each school break to care for them.

As a child, I thought she was a hoarder. It was her depression upbringing coming into view. Bread bags were lunch bags, stocking held onions, etc.

Grandma loved arts : Ballet, Orchestra, Opera, Museums, etc. She adored the Nutcracker, something that makes me miss her more around Christmas.

She hated pictures, I'm assuming because she literally buried every member of her family (and in-laws) over her life. All she had left was the family she created - children and grandchildren.

We all miss her, I wish I would have known her better but she died a few days after my 14th birthday in 1999.

Dorothy, Isabel, and HJ.

Isabel

Isn't it funny how with some we recall the end of their lives but not the life - or how they lived for that matter.

Shortly after my Uncle Dave died, my Aunt Robin mentioned my father had a 5 year diary my late grandmother kept. I asked him to to read it and he sent it out.

She began authoring it around 1934, her junior year of high school. It was a line a day. The diary chronicled things like camping, dates, graduating high school, her mother's death, and graduating college. Her mother's death was quite interesting to me. Her mother, Isabel, wasn't a woman I knew much about except she had been ill.

Isabel, Dorothy, and Robert Leisenheimer. Passport photo, note her signature at the bottom.

In early January 1938 my grandmother writes that her mother is going to have an operation to remove a tumor from her brain.  A few days go by and she writes that "mother is now at DeVand's funeral home" and later she counted the exact amount of flowers at the funeral home. I'm not sure if she was really that detached, the diary was limited, or maybe it was a combination of things.

Isabel's Obituary.

But yes. Sadly Grandma Isabel died on the operating table at age 46 or 48 (depending on the source).

The Recruiter at East Tech

Yesterday I learned that Congress designed May as Military Appreciation Month in 1999.  For that reason, I've decided that my entires for the month of May will focus on Veterans.

While researching some of the Veterans in my family it became clear that some had more "glamorous" service than others. Some sat on the sidelines, some never even left the city, some went across the globe to fight, some never came back, and some returned hoping to just forget the war.

My paternal Grandfather was, a US Navy Yeoman, Sterlie Miles of Cleveland, Ohio.

Circa 2004 I was taking PSYCH 101 at Mesa Community College. Coincidentally, the adjunct professor was a working Psychiatrist at the Phoenix VA Hospital. Even now, I can still recall the day she said something in lecture that clicked with me - it explained my grandfather's military service, more to the point, why. I had heard from my father why my grandfather never left the city during the war but I couldn't imagine it was systematic.

She started by saying the military previously used a policy of not sending educated individuals into combat. Off hand I want to say it was Alpha Something Policy but I'm grasping at straws with the name. Those individuals, that enlisted or were drafted - and had completed an education level higher than HS were kept out of combat as a matter of policy. There were instances where those with a higher education were sent into combat but it was very rare. Primarily, this occurred during WWII. A few years ago, I learned this same policy kept my grandmother's brother out of combat as well.

My Grandfather's mother Estelle was the daughter of Bohemian (Czech) immigrants. The family immigrated during a period of Czech discrimination. They undoubtedly faced slurs as "Dirty Bohunks". This, by all accounts, caused Estelle to stress the importance of education and propel my grandfather's education.

He was sent to East Technical HS in Cleveland, Ohio. The first trade school in the city. East Tech opened it's doors in 1908, the same year my grandfather was born, and counts many famous alumni such as Olympian Jesse Owens. For years, the school was an athletic powerhouse locally. In 1926 my Grandfather graduated and that same year became an employee of the Cleveland Board of Education.

After graduating from East Tech, his movements become a bit blurry. The below photo was taken circa 1927 at Patrick Henry Jr. High in Cleveland. My grandfather is the only adult in the photo. Of note, the student over his left shoulder is my grandmother's brother who would later become his brother-in-law.

Per the East Tech Scarab newspaper, my grandfather was teaching AV classes at Patrick Henry during this time. Perhaps he was trying to earn money for college tuition or was simply taking a gap year.

Circa 1928, he began his studies at Case (before it merged with Western Reserve to become Case Western Reserve) University. He earned a BS in political science and a MA in Science & Math before 1942.  In 1935 he began teaching at Patrick Henry and was hired on at East Tech in 1939 to teach social studies.

On September 29, 1942 he enlisted in the US Navy as a recruiter. The Navy promptly moved him to another office in the school while he performed his recruiting duties. That's right, my grandfather never even left his physical workplace (from before the war) even though his employer changed.

Since he was a teacher he was " prized for his affinity to connect with the target group ".  For the duration of WWII, my grandfather, worked as Navy Recruiter in the halls of East Tech HS.

During the war, he met and later married my grandmother Dorothy.

In March of 1946 he was discharged and resumed full time teaching duties. My grandparents went on to settle in Cleveland Heights, OH and raise 4 children. He was very involved in his Masonic Lodge. He was a 50 year Master Mason and served as a Grand Master of his lodge. Grandpa went on to retire from East Tech and died in 1988. 

The Wheeler & Dealer

Tonight's blog may get a bit long and I apologize in advance for that! There is just a lot to say about Henry John Leisenheimer. Known in my family circles as Grandpa Henry or simply HJ.

HJ was my great-grandfather.

He was born on May 26, 1893 to George Leisenheimer & Katherina Bey in Cleveland, Ohio. Both of his parents were German immigrants from Spiesheim, Germany. As an only child, he was given much love and attention but his true talents were to be found in selling.

Unknown date, early photo of HJ

He began working for what is now known as CLE-TRAC or the Cleveland Tractor Company. He traveled with his brother-in-law Mr. George Mora to sell tractors abroad. And boy could he sell them. CLE-TRAC records list him as being a 20 year employee of the company. 

He managed to amass quite a fortune, although the extent of that is unknown to me, based on my grandmother's college diary. At the height of the depression his son Robert (Bob) & daughter Dorothy graduated. Dorothy was my grandmother and her diary revealed that when she graduated high school she was given a diamond ring and her brother Bob was given a brand new car. HJ paid for both my grandmother and Bob to attend 4 years of college which they both graduated from. They also made many family trips during this period of time.

According to one article he and George travelled to Russia to help sell tractors to promote the  collectivization. Although the article is much too long to post here, it's quite interesting. 

When I began researching my family I was very confused why I found so many entries of HJ entering the US. This is due to his selling abroad. My father has boxes of full passports from the Leisenheimer's and their travels. 

After his wife, Isabel, died he married Grandma Leota. Towards the end of his life he set up a profitable export business in his own name run out of Cleveland and New York. His remarks on selling to industry abroad are held by the library of congress. 

Curiously, his obituary omits the names of his children. This included my grandmother Dorothy and her brother Robert. 

Initially I asked my Aunt to write about HJ as she was about 6 when he passed away but she wasn't able to get me something.

What I can share is that he is a highly regarded man by my family - and many others!