Stork Proclaims, "August is the Coolest Month"

Statistics show that more babies are born on a Tuesday during the month of August than on any other day of any other month of the year, so it is with bated breath that we await the month of August 2012 when the families of two Fieg cousins -- Tyler and Julia (nee Schwartz) McGonigal of Fort Montgomery, NY and Brian and Emily Fieg of Acworth, GA -- are expecting additions to their families.

The dates to hold out for are the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th - all Tuesdays.  Let's not prove the statisticians wrong.

News came to your editor first that Tyler and Julia are expecting in early August.  We presume that Tyler's parents, Bobby and Mary McGonigal, who live near Rochester, will swing by the Fieg Family reunion in Cooperstown for about three minutes on their way to visit their first grandchild.  Tyler, 30,  is superintendent of the Rockland County Golf Course at Rockland County State Park in Rockland County, NY just north of New York City, and Julia is an 8th grade teacher in Ossining.  Tyler's brother, Kyle, is undoubtedly very eager to become known as Uncle Kyle; Mary reports, "We are over the moon!"

Close on the heels of this information came word of the pregnancy of Emily and Brian Fieg, expecting in mid-August.  They wrote in an e-mail to Brian's Uncle Steve, "Although we still have not yet heard the baby's heartbeat, we trust that he or she is healthy. We are almost to the end of our first trimester and are due mid August. We would appreciate continued prayers for our health and the baby's."  Great-uncle Greg Fieg asks that we also pray for a boy to carry on the Fieg name for yet another generation.

The two newest August births will carry on the tradition of birthdays in the eighth month, including Emilie Kestner, born on August 17, 1993 (a Tuesday).  Lothar Fieg Sr. was born on August 11, 1886 and his mother, Emilie Boehler Fieg,  on August 23, 1857.  Also born in August were Florence Fieg Bookhout (born in 1917 on August 11, her father's birthday), Lothar "Bud" Fieg Jr. (August 22, 1919), Liz Bookhout Boggs (August 24, 1944), Marsha Whiteside Adams (August 25, 1950), Robert "Bob" Whiteside II (August 27, 1957, a Tuesday), Max Fieg (Ed Fieg's son) and Collette Corkery (sorry I don't have the birthdates of the young'uns).  Anyone else to add to our list?

Col. Edward L. Fieg Going 'Over the Wire'

Col. Edward L. Fieg arrived at a full parking lot his hospital at Travis Air Force Base on the morning of January 26 to begin a 17 hour day in which he saw 25 patients of the 86 who came into the emergency room.  At the conclusion of the day, the doctor's car was the last of among hundreds that had been there that morning and Ed left a message for his commanding officer that he had put the Taliban on speed-dial so he could "cross the wire."

Busy Stork Delivers Baby Boy to Adams Family

William Robert Adams on his birthday, Jan. 16, 2012

On January 16 around 3:30 a.m. the stork wrangled an 8 pound 1 ounce dogie named Billy Bob and left him in the care of his new parents, Urusula Arsenault and Robert "Bob" Adams Jr., who promptly renamed him William Robert Adams.

Young Master Adams is the great-grandson of Maxine Fieg and Dr. Robert Whiteside and grandson of Marsha Whiteside and William "Bill" Adams Sr., all of Iowa.

The newly expanded family lives in a condo ("which seems right downtown, to me ----big-time town for an adopted Iowan like me," says Great-grandma Maxine) at 1830 W. Huron, #2, Chicago, IL 60622 for those of you who would like to send your regards.

Grandmother Marsha reports, "Labor and delivery went smoothly, all is well.... He is pretty darn cute!" 

The double name is a common joke in the Whiteside family.  Aunt Maxine says, "All the guys in the family fool around with the "two name" names ----often by simply adding "Joe" for the fake middle name."  This birth prompted the baby's uncle, Kevin Still, to exclaim, "Ah, we have a Billy Bob in the family," and so the name will probably stick, for good or ill.

Baby BB's uncles Bob and Jeff Whiteside, sent their congratulations via e-mail.  Said Jeff, "Congrat-ulations to all. One more plate for the Thanksgiving dinner," and Bob said simply, "Welcome Billiam Bobbert!" 

Let us hope that, with all the nicknames the kid has, we will know who is being spoken about when his name comes up in the future!

On another note, Aunt Maxine reports that Marsha and Bill have moved back into the main level of their house in Dakota Dunes, IA.  The home was flooded last year forcing the couple to move in with her parents for a few months while repairs were made.  "Arrangements are being (made) to re-do the lower level----fortunately they were able to haul (man oh man is that heavy stuff) the carpet and carpet pad to our downstairs in hope it'll be usable," says Maxine. We all wish them a speedy return to normalcy.

Child Saved From Drowning (55 Years Ago)

Midge McClenon, who is a Shields relative (Lothar Fieg Sr. married Florence Shields, Midge's aunt), sent this in an e-mail last July.  It is lightly edited, but a fascinating read!

Someone (maybe Greg Fieg...) told me about the time he went swimming - intentionally or not - at a Shields Reunion in Corbett. He got into water over his head and couldn't swim. He said he had no idea who pulled him out - some man - and he went running to Grandma. The man who pulled him out was " young" Tom Hoppey, not to be confused with his father, also named Tom Hoppey, who is Irene Shields Hoppey's husband. "Young" Tom is their son. Irene is the daughter of David and Kate (Haas) Shields. David is Florence Shields Fieg's uncle - just in case you can't follow the lineage any better than I can. I have to have the genealogy in hand!


.... I thought it quite a coincidence that Michele (VanPelt) would bring it up in a conversation at the reunion last Sunday. I had intended to ask if anyone remembered that happening but it had slipped my mind until I heard her talking to Ken Shields about it. Oh, that Ken Shields is not Irene's brother! I'm beginning to wish there were a law against naming children after ancestors! If you have the opportunity, pass the information along to Greg. If it wasn't Greg maybe it was Steven - I've had several e-mails from him.

Maybe we should offer swimming lessons at the Fieg reunion in August!

Doris Holm Recalls Weather Phenomenon

Doris Fieg Holm, daughter of Max Fieg and granddaughter of Carl and Emilie Fieg who emigrated from Germany early in the twentieth century, sent this e-mail to your editor a while back.  What an exciting memory!  Perhaps someone can answer her question.

I remember sitting in Uncle Lothar's living room on the hill in Oneonta as a kid, perhaps about 8 years old.....There was a terrible thunderstorm going on outside.  Suddenly lightning hit the house, and I saw a ball of fire run across the top of one wall and down the corner into the ground again.  I can't remember anything else that happened, except that I was one scared and shaken kid.  It was loud and so fast that it was over in a split second  No one else was in the room with me, as I recall.

So many memories....is the house really vacant?  Who owns it now? 

Doris Fieg Holm

Kay Corkery Remembered as Woman of Quieting Influence

Catherine Y. "Kay" Corkery

Catherine Y. "Kay" Corkery, a career registered nurse whose serenity and composure proved invaluable to her staff, patients and their families during dire moments of strife and uncertainty, died Jan. 3 at the home of her daughter, Kerry, in Erie, Pa. She was 75.

Mrs. Corkery was the mother of Kevin Corkery, husband of Sarah Fieg Corkery.  They and their seven children returned by auto to West Oneonta this weekend from a 600-mile round trip to Western N.Y. for the funeral.

Having lost her husband Jerry Corkery less than a year ago, Mrs. Corkery had been recently diagnosed with cancer. Until earlier this year Kay and Jerry, who had been married for more than 45 years, had been living in retirement in Pittsburgh.  Kay not long ago visited Sarah and Kevin at their home in West Oneonta, with her illness entirely unforeseen.

Her loss came as a shock not only to her family but to her many colleagues and friends at Women's Christian Association hospital in Jamestown, where she retired nearly a dozen years ago.  There she was remembered as a woman of exceptional ability who often became the tranquil center of whirling tempests of worry and doubt that commonly abound among the ailing and infirm during the most challenging and difficult moments of their lives.

Dan Tyler, administrative nurse and a member of the WCA staff for 29 years, likened her to a benign parental authority among junior, less experienced staff.

"She was like a mother," Mr. Tyler said.  "...She was very caring and very special, with a soothing voice and calming influence.  She was one who would go the extra mile, with a great deal of pride and conscientiousness in her work."

A Jamestown native, Mrs. Corkery was a 1955 graduate of Jamestown High School and a 1958 graduate of Mercy School of Nursing in Buffalo.  She formerly was on the nursing staff at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo and at Rusk Institute of Spinal Rehabilitation in New York City.

At the WCA in Jamestown, Mr. Tyler explained Kay that often worked the 3-11 p.m .shift, a duty schedule often marked by the inescapable necessity of solemn decision-making involving choices of mortality.  Mastering the circumstances, she held the position of supervisor of nurses when she retired in 1999.

"She was well loved," Mr. Tyler said. "We were happy that we had her when she was here, and sad when she left."

After being given the last rites about 72 hours before her passing, Kay spent her final hours without discomfort or complaint, much as it was for her patients, with her help, over the years.

Maren, Colette, Grace, Karoline, Frances, Seamus and Sean Corkery, all of West Oneonta, are among 12 surviving grandchildren, in addition to Kevin's siblings, Kerry and Todd.

Bill Doyle's Research Uncovers Genuine 'War Horse'

 

Statue of Field Marshal C.G.E. Mannerheim (1867-1951)
by Aimo Tukianen. Helsinki, Finland.   (Ed. note: The
horse is standing on all four feet which means that
the rider survived the battle. If one of the horse's front legs
is raised  it indicates its rider was injured in battle
and if the horse is rearing on its hind legs it means
the rider perished in battle.)

As Steven Spielberg's fictional, blockbuster motion picture 'War Horse' opens across the nation in an 11th-hour bid for an Oscar, it brings to mind the existence of a real war horse, a less known but prized, combat-tested stallion, Talisman, on whose back Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim of Finland rode into battle in numerous military engagements in the first half of the 20th century.

Bill Doyle, who, with Diana Fieg Monaco, was recently in Helsinki and viewed a statue of the late general atop the vaunted steed, is writing a book centering on the Finnish use of horses in guerrilla warfare against German and Russian invaders during World War II. Bill said that Mannerheim's life story includes a description of his horse in glowing terms, speaking of the animal as though he were human.

"In Finland, Marshall Mannerheim was George Washington, Santa Claus and Batman all rolled into one," Bill says. "He was way bigger than life." 

His horse, ironically, gets the credit for helping to launch Mannerheim's ascent through advanced field ranks during a succession of five wars.

Mannerheim, who died at the age of 96 in 1951, was the military leader of the White Guard in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defense Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, Regent of Finland and president from 1944–1946 and is generally considered the father of his country.

His thoroughbred, Tallisman, may not be as well known as Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion or Tom Mix's Tony, or even the fictional Joey of  'War Horse,'  but evidence points to an equally remarkable, real-life animal, one that stood head and shoulders above the many horses Mannerheim rode during his lenghty and storied military career.

"Despite his high mettle (spiritedness), he was the quietest horse I have ever ridden under fire,"  Mannerheim wrote as he recalled their final ride as he, then just a major, led a reconnaisance in force.  During the maneuver, Mannerheim instantly knew something was seriously wrong when the horse shuddered with a "severe shock" but remained on his feet.

"The splendid animal had been hit by a bullet but he did his duty until the end," Mannerheim said.

Because he and the mortally wounded horse were able to complete their mission, Mannerheim was elevated to the rank of colonel, the earliest of many field promotions en route to becoming a general then a field marshal.

"This honor could not console me for the loss of wonderful friend Talisman. He was a wonderful horse," the ordinarily stoic Mannerheim said with a highly uncharacteristic expression of sentiment.

In the movie 'War Horse,' the horse Joey is pressed into service during World War I and is depicted as having not only bravery and character, but cognitive reasoning.  Many would scoff at the idea of a horse being intelligent and self-aware but testimonials abound about such animals.

The silent movie star William S. Hart, who, in 1899, played Messala in the stage production of Lew Wallace's "Ben Hur,"  actually drove a Roman chariot at a full gallop on stage in the production.  The wheels were mounted on a rotating track.  He later went on to star in Hollywood westerns with his horse, Fritz, who is credited with being the first motion picture wonder horse.

The little pinto's name appears in the credits of more than a half dozen westerns and his picture hangs in the arena and stable of Fieg cousin Annie Bookhout in Brooktondale, N.Y. near Ithaca.  Annie has raised horses since she was 12 and concedes she has loved more than a few; one wonders how many she thought of as smart.

Ken Maynard's horse Tarzan unties the ropes
binding his master in Wheels of Destiny, 1933.

Cowboy star Ken Maynard's horse Tarzan could even untie ropes, but were Tarzan and Fritz really as smart as depicted in Hollywood?

Consider this: Fritz did falls, jumped over fences, galloped through fire and into rivers and out of and into buildings, to name a few of his stunts.

In his autobiography, Hart recalls 'The Toll Gate,' a film in which he deliberately rode Fritz into a river and became caught in a deep and violently spinning eddy.

"Once the animal got into it, he could neither swim out nor climb out. There was no bottom for his hind legs to reach and he could only get his front hoofs on the ledge which was six feet under water,"  Hart recalled.

"Almighty God! How Fritz did try! He struggled. He screamed. He looked at me with the eyes of a human being. He actually climbed the arched side walls until he turned himself over backwards.

"Twice we went down in those cold, whirling depts and twice we fought our way to the surface again. I knew the next time would be the last. Fritz spoke to me—I know he did. I heard him, and I spoke to him. I said, 'God help us, Fritz.' ...And God did help us!

"...As we were going down for the last time the strong current we had been fighting carried us over the ledge back toward the way we came in, and as we sank we touched the bottom and regained our feet."

Fritz is buried on Hart's charming, 85-year-old California rancho, now a public monument and park maintained by the County of Los Angeles just north of the city on land featuring a herd of buffalo used in Walt Disney movies.  His gravemarker reads: “Bill Hart's Pinto Pony Fritz—Aged 31 Years—A Loyal Comrade."

Doubters aside, Mannerheim's and Hart's deep respect for their horses and recognition of their bravery, cunning, loyalty and devotion demonstrate that many humans know what it means to love and be loved by an animal.

Spielberg's movie is based on a children's novel "War Horse" by British author Michael Morpurgo, first published in London in 1982 and produced as a play in 2007.  The movie comes highly recommended by FFN.