Cathy

Today has been a year since Jonathon started this post. It went from Frank's niece? to, Franks niece, to Franks niece! I have learned so much more about my family since then, with the help of all of you. I appreciate everyone of you, even the ones who were not so believing in the beginning. I had a lot of forgiveness and bitterness to over come without knowing the whole history, and because of you, I learned some hard lessons. When your a child You feel the whole world revolves around you, nobody else's life counts except through you. At least now, that is what I am learning about myself. Being separated from my family not knowing where they were, I felt very lost growing up, and that turned into resentfulness as an adult. During my separation from my family, Aunt Agnes had a stroke and then later she had gotten mugged in Shaker heights and received a broken hip. Aunt Alice's affair ended badly and Uncle Franks health was deteriorating, and my father was very sick with cancer. All of this just coincided with our families separation. None of us forgot each other, we all just had to get by with our own life's struggles. I've also learned every family member that you interact with as a child fills your soul up with a part of them. You learn their mannerisms, a look, their stance, little pieces of every family member is imbedded in you without you ever realizing it. I read something on f/b that Aunt Alice said to a friend about her cat, I can see her saying those exact words, but what I can see most is the look on her face as she said them. The funny thing is, I give this same look to my kids when I want them to understand the exact meaning of what I say to them. I also noticed the way I teach my grandchildren to tie their shoes, I can see the same hands and hand movements as Uncle Frank had when he taught me to tie mine...only smaller in size. Jonathon's post opened a door for me on these things that I didn't know I ever cared about, to knowing now, how I ever lived without. My three year old grand daughter gives that look like aunt Alice would give...and I know now she gets it from me. I could say thank you a million times and it would never come close to the appreciation I have for all of you! Happy one year

And that is the way a free and civil society works...we wish each other well and go about our passions, be they raising children, our towns, or, our businesses.

A...

Post Script:

geez now I have to look for all my Easter icons/gifs...my pleasure

A Kantian chicken?

Frank and Ayn?

A...

Awwww, those are so cute! ~cathy~

And that is the way a free and civil society works...we wish each other well and go about our passions, be they raising children, our towns, or, our businesses.

A...

Post Script:

geez now I have to look for all my Easter icons/gifs...my pleasure

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OF MY OBJECTIVISTS FRIENDS HERE IN O-LAND! ~CATHY~

Adam,

I second that!

Michael

Thank you Michael, and Happy Easter to you, Kat, Tina and Shawn! ~Cathy~

Happy Easter to you and your family Cathy...

You joining this forum has been nothing less than spectacular for myself.

You have provided me/us with great insight into Frank's side of the family.

A...

Thank you Adam, but believe me when I say this...it has been all of you that have given me the insight. Happy Easter Adam to you and your family! ~Cathy~

Cathy,

I believe this is the link to that article:

http://www.morningjournal.com/general-news/20121027/atlas-shrugged-authors-lorain-ties-13th-street-home-houses-bit-of-history

Thanks for posting it.

Michael

Thank you Michael. I think I remember you posting this before. Jim Smith is the one I met last summer who took my sister and I to my grandparents grave site, and their home, and school. I came across this and didn't know if I posted it...but now I remember you did...sorry. ~Cathy~

Shrugged' author's Lorain ties: 13th Street home houses bit of history

Ayn Rand

By JESSICA JAMES

Posted: 10/27/12, 12:00 AM EDT |

0 Comments

LORAIN -- A small piece of history sits at 212 W. 13th St. It's a home like many that have been lived in since the turn of the 20th century.

The house was first occupied in 1909 by the O'Connor's, an Irish-American family who came from Johnstown, Penn., to work for The Johnston Steel Rail Co.

The family consisted of seven children, one of whom was named Frank O'Connor, the husband of Alissa Rosenbaum, better known as novelist, Ayn Rand.

Lorain School Board member Jim Smith has been researching the O'Connor family for several years. He said his interest in the topic has nothing to do with Rand's notoriety, but takes a closer look at the life of a family living in the International City during the early 1900s.

"The fact that I too live in Lorain and that my paternal grandparents moved to Lorain from Johnstown at the same time as the O'Connor family increased my interest," Smith said. "For all I know, the families could have known each other."

Smith's research begins at the 212 W. 13th St. home of Dennis and Mary Agnes O'Connor in 1909. Dennis was transferred to Lorain to work at The Johnson Steel Rail Co., the plants new division which at the time was one of the highest-paying steel mills in the nation. Dennis O'Connor brought home $35 for a 6-day-work-week to provide for his seven children.

The O'Connor children attended St. Mary Academy on 8th and Reid Avenue. All went on to live separate lives and moved thoroughout the country.

Frank O'Connor was the third-oldest sibling and moved to California with his three brothers. While working on the set of the silent film, "The King of Kings," Frank met Rand. She had recently arrived from Russia where she was born in 1905 growing up in St. Petersburg during the Bolshevik Revolution.

The two were married in 1929 at the Los Angeles City Hall. Throughout their marriage, Frank played the role as house husband and Rand was the bread winner.

It is believed Rand only visited Lorain once in 1938 to attend the funeral of Dennis O'Connor and drafts of her book, "The Fountain Head" were encased in her luggage.

Frank appeared in 13 films throughout the 1920s and 30s. He died on Nov. 9, 1979, from a heart condition. He and Rand were married for more than 50 years despite her long-term affair with a family friend. Rand died three years later in March 1982. They are burried in Kensico Cemetery, in West Chester County, N.Y.

"My interest in his project began when I learned about Ayn Rand and Frank O'Connor," Smith said. "That interest would have been short lived if I had not read Ellen Donohue Warwick's (niece of Frank O'Connor) memoir, 'M.O.M.' and read a recent biography of Ayn Rand."

The film depiction of Rand's famous novel, "Atlas Shrugged" is currently in theaters.

I don't know why it says that my aunt and uncle only came to Lorain when my grandfather died. But as you already know they came to Lorain many many times after that.

IF ANYONE READS THIS I NEED TO KNOW IF ANYONE ON THIS SITE IS A PEIRCE COUNTY GEORGIA ATTORNEY. I NEED SOME INFORMATION. EITHER MESSAGE ME HERE OR INBOX ME. ITS VERY IMPORTANT! THX INADVANCE ~CATHY~

Go to justia.com and search "pierce county"

--Brant

initial legal consultations tend to be free

Thank you Brant! ~Cathy~

IF ANYONE READS THIS I NEED TO KNOW IF ANYONE ON THIS SITE IS A PEIRCE COUNTY GEORGIA ATTORNEY. I NEED SOME INFORMATION. EITHER MESSAGE ME HERE OR INBOX ME. ITS VERY IMPORTANT! THX INADVANCE ~CATHY~

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone. This was my father's favorite holiday, he must have known something I didn't

Happy, Hoppy, Huppy, Hippy, Heppy Birthday, Cathy!

--Brant

LOL Thank you

Now I have to admit, that brings back some great memories, some profound and some profane...

Thank you

Happy birthday girl!

Thank you Jules ~Cathy~

Thank you Michael & Kat, Its been a pleasure knowing both of you! Another year older and another year wiser (really)! Oh boy, what I have learned in this past year...I hope I have many long and happy years coming my way to, but just turning 29, I should ;) Hope you two enjoy Valentines day! ~Cathy~

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Birthday Aunt Alice and Ayn Rand...

Here you go!

This is great Ninth...thank you so much! As most of you know, my father and Uncle Frank looked like twins when I was growing up. My father was 56 when he had me, so I never knew him young. By the time I could remember any of them, to me they were really old. This gives me a chance to see what my father may have looked like young. I never seen pictures of my father...ever...but I found 2 that I didn't know where they came from or how I got them. But he was with me and my sister in the picture...so he was old. Thanks again Ninth for all your help ~Cathy~ p.s. I was very exited to get these picture!

Ninth Doctor wrote:

If you want you can email them to me, and I'll load them to my account and then post them here. Not that it's hard to do yourself. I'll send you a private message with my email address.

end quote

Hello Ninth. I haven't read you in a while. Cathy might be afraid to answer someone with an avatar like yours. What happened to the better one?

Nothing scares me `Cathy`

How do I get an attachment that was sent to me by email on here. There are some pictures of Uncle Frank I would like to put here. HELP! ~Cathy~

Cathy, perhaps someone has already given you a copy of this (maybe Shoshana did), but if not, I could send you one. It is a review of the autobiography of the silent film star Lillian Gish, a review by your uncle (age 72) as told to your aunt. She published it in her journal in November 1969. The beginning is:

As a very young man—shortly after World War I—I worked my way from Ohio to New York, for the purpose of getting a job in the motion picture industry. It had been my single purpose since childhood. . . . One day, when I had reached New York, I read in the newspapers that two young actresses whom I admired in Griffith movies would appear at a flower show at a famous hotel. I went to see them.

There was a line of people waiting to get in. We were admitted to a gallery over an enormous ballroom. We looked down at a formal garden, with long walks winding among beds of living flowers. There was music playing softly while we waited for the stars to appear. I saw them come in, in the distance, at the end of the garden. It was so startling a transition from my vision of them in black and white, on the screen, that it seemed almost like a resurrection taking place before my eyes. They were so different from the people around me, so much more alive—and so beautiful . . . They walked down the garden, stopping to look at the flowers. Their movements were natural, unaffected, perfectly poised; they did not seem conscious of the audience, they acted as if they were alone in the garden, as if it was their proper, natural setting. The blonde one looked as young and frail as she did on the screen, only radiantly alive and happy; the other one seemed a little timid. On the screen, they had always played suffering heroines, persecuted, downtrodden, browbeaten. Now I experienced a strange kind of relief: the feeling that they were safe and rewarded. . . .

. . . I think I was the last one to leave; I wanted to hold that image as long as possible. From then on, I always saw these two stars as I had seen them in person, in that garden, in reality—not as I saw them in the gray shadows of the screen.

Their names were Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

Mr. O’Connor’s recollections of this part of his life return me to mine and to a sort of kinship of feeling in my parallel recollections. I grew up in Oklahoma. After college my lover and I eventually found work at the bottom. It was physical and grueling work, but we reached the point of supporting ourselves. When a job for summer months was ending, I got on a train to Chicago (1972). They carried my bike for free. I had $84 to my name, in my pocket, and the one-way ticket was $32. I arrived on Labor Day, and the downtown was pretty empty. I walked to a park by the lake, sat down by a grand fountain, and looked over my beautiful city. I have so many vivid memories from those days. I found an unskilled labor job from the newspaper, my lover came then, and we had $5 dollars extra each week. But it was beautiful, and we had our dreams and each other.

One night we got tickets to a benefit concert at Orchestra Hall. They were filling as many seats as possible. We sat on the stage. The old master pianist walked past me on my left, in an aisle left for him to reach the piano at the front of the stage. His name was Arthur Rubinstein. His entire program was Chopin, and that night is forever.

Thank you Stephen, its funny that you brought this up because Shoshana just sent the booklet to me a few weeks ago and I had just read it last week. My uncle thought very highly of the Gish sisters. It must have been amazing for him coming from the silent black and white screen to seeing these sisters he had admired in living color. What a transformation that would have been for him and I can see how it stuck out in his memory, just how your memory of the orchestra is so vivid in yours. I had to laugh when he took in the scenery and mentioned the live flowers...it is so typical him. But I love that kind of thing to and can plant and grow anything. By reading this article I knew how much integrity my uncle had, but I had always known this, and in my father also. They were good men in their own right. I am also learning my aunt's philosophies (never to late, right?), its funny, now that I am giving her a chance, I am agreeing on almost everything...except Atheism. Not that I totally disagree, I can understand her logic of evidence, or lack of any. But to me, there is enough circumstantial evidence to at least makes me realize there is something there. Its enough for me to weigh the scale in that favor anyway. I do however believe religion is a controlling factor in the world today and through out history that I don't believe in that aspect of it. I do believe in Capitalism and individualism...laissez faire and all that. I have just started reading "Atlas Shrugged" (God help me) and I wish that my father would have made all this known to me at a young age, my train of thought is so different just knowing the little bit I know now...Thank you Stephen, I love hearing about my uncle, it gives me a break from hearing and reading all about Aunt Alice (Ayn Rand) ~Cathy~

Michael, as you know I am just now getting use to computers and websites. Sorry, I just seen this post. I didn't know it cost to have a site such as this and I don't want any of you to lose this site. Is there a monthly bill? I would like to donate once a month...is that possible? Your site has helped me tremendously and I would like to pay back out of gratitude. I am sending a donation now, which isn't to much because I just seen your post...its at the end of pay week But I will be sending more. Thank you so much for this site and for all yours and everyone else's help ~Cathy~

Cathy, I suppose I should add that Marsha and I had the pleasure of talking with your uncle on several occasions in the seventies, when he attended some public lectures with his wife. He was always friendly and charming.

Thank you so much for letting me know that. He was such a great man and I love to hear nice things about him. Uncle Frank and my father were the sweetest men I have ever known. Thank you John

John,

Great to see ya'!

Cathy,

John and his wife Marsha are pretty big dogs in O-Land. And they are great people.

This ain't confetti. They are hard working good solid people whom it's an honor to know.

Kat and I keep saying we need to get closer to them, but life always seems to happen.

Here's a special message to them: So hey, let us say, we'll find a way. Do you want to play? We will see you some day.

John is an eminent practitioner of the literary arts. People like that always bring out the brat in me.

And moi?

As a poet, I'm inchoate, so I might blow it.

MichaelLOL Michael that's funny! Thank you for introducing me to John. Hi John and Marsha it is very nice to meet you ~Cathy~

Cathy, hi. I hope people will excuse me for jumping in with a sort of unrelated question, but do you have a cousin named Kyle Carroll? She worked as an actress in Chicago, about a decade ago. I saw at least 2 plays she performed in. My wife and I had a conversation with her once in which she said, if I recall correctly, that she was a grand-niece of Frank O'Connor's. Also, I apologize if someone already brought this up.

Thank you, John Enright.

No john...unless it was her stage name.... but I only know of Mimi's children 1 daughter louise, Marna children 2 daughter's Abby and Marta (Marta died in the 70's) they grew up in the Chicago area...but I don't know how many children Ellen had. But Ellen has lived in Boston for a while now. I will be hearing from Ellen soon and I will ask her and post it here I hope if she is related to me she was creative and nice ha ha! Oh and beautiful ~Cathy~