Personal experiences with Our Lady of the Angels School Fire on December 1, 1958

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Personal Experiences with Our Lady of the Angels School Fire

If you have a personal experience, recollection or opinion about the December 1, 1958 Our Lady of the Angels school fire, whether you were present at the fire or not, you can relate it here. Any story or information is welcome as long as it relates to Our Lady of the Angels school fire.

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Stories 696 to 687 Stories 676 to 667

Posted by:

Mike Holoka

On:

8/7/2019

ID:

686

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Detroit

I was 8 years old and remember the fire vividly in the news. The nuns at St Agnes in Detroit told us about the fire. 90 plus dead and three nuns a horrible unthinkable tragedy. My mom just cried all night when this happened. Well as it turns out we moved to Chicago and I attended OLA in 1960 as a fifth grader. I realized it was the same school that had burned down. I think it just opened in 1960. Very nice structure and no one messed around during fire drills!Some in our class had lost relatives in the fire. Rarely talked about it but occasionally details would come out. Not many families were not touched as this was a very close mainly Italian parish. My heart still aches when I think about the tragedy that occurred. I went to school with the lady that started this page.

Posted by:

Carol Ford

On:

5/16/2019

ID:

685

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Chicago, IL

I am writing on behalf of my mother, Carol Ford, formerly Carol Kostelny. She was a registered nurse and took care of a young boy named Leroy (Digiglio?)and a young girl named Louise Loveless. She fondly remembers Louise as being the bravest little girl at 10 years old, with over half of her body burned. They were very close and my mother is now 82 years old and I thought it might be neat to somehow plan a reunion. If anyone happens to have any way of contacting Louise Loveless or her family, we would be much obliged by any news :) She also asked about Leroy and I just can't seem to find any information on either of them. My name is Christi and I can be reached via email at christiciani@gmail.com. Hoping someone knows anything! fingers crossed.

Posted by:

peg

On:

1/7/2019

ID:

684

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	After	n/a

I was recently researching on ancestry.com and found my moms sister grace everman and her husband bart who on 1940 census records show them working and living at the convent of Olga. I remember pictures of her working in an institutional type kitchen..and made some awesome chocolate chip cookies.It shows her as bei g the dietitian and bart as something to do w the roof 'tinner'? it also list of course the nuns that were present at the convent in 1940. if anyone does remeber grace everman please let me know. bless u all for being here today to share your stories.

Posted by:

Don Kuss

On:

12/5/2018

ID:

683

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Norwood Park-NW side of Chicago

I am in the process of reading the book TO SLEEP WITH THE ANGELS. It is just absolute horror but I want to get through it because my church RIVER CITY COMMUNITY CHURCH is located at 3709 W. Grand Ave. Our adopted school is Cameron Elementary at 1234 N. Monticello. The kids come to our church after school for tutoring. The kids from OLA lived all around where our church is located. The thought of what happened 60 years ago has made me fall in love with our young people from the community who now live in those homes or apartments that these angels from 1958 lived in, it made me fall in love with these kids all over again. It's a different community now and guns and drugs are the major form of danger now. Hopefully we can save many as those folks outside the school and inside did 60 years ago. Also, I was wondering after the fire were there any families that relocated to the Norwood Park area. If you did please get in touch with me-Donald Kuss on Facebook.

Posted by:

Jayne Kranc

On:

12/3/2018

ID:

682

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Edgewater nrighborhood

When I worked for ABC Great States, later Plitt Theaters, I got involved with the Theater Historical Society and wrote a paper about the Iroquois Theater fire. That got me started on researching fires that led to changed in fire codes which led me to OLA, which shook me to the core. I've never been able to get past the way the tragedy made me feel, especially at this time of year. I never finished my book on fires that changed fire codes, but I did write a fictional story that was based on a family affected by the OLA fire. If anyone would be willing to read it to check the facts for me, please let me know.
jaynekranc@yahoo.com

Posted by:

Rosalie (Guzzo) (Lutzka) O’Brien

On:

12/2/2018

ID:

681

Enrolled on 12/1/58?	Present on 12/1/58?	Injured?	Age	Grade	Classroom	Teacher
Yes	Yes		13	8	209	Sr. Davidis

It’s taken me 60 years to put my thoughts in writing. I’m writing this after going to the 60th Anniversary mass. I do love seeing my friends and classmates of OLA.
I was in 8th grade Sr. Davidis room on the day of the fire. I thank our beloved nun who did a great job trying to keep us calm in a horrible situation. She told us to open the windows to get the attention of the other classes across the courtyard. I got out like my classmates through the back window. Father Joe and Sam Tortorice helped me get on the small ladder that they put on a small canopy below our window. My twin brother Frank and I were very fortunate to escape with no physical injuries. Many of my friends were not as fortunate. One in particular was my friend Nancy Pilas who I saw before entering my classroom after lunch. I told her I would see her after school. She was in the room next door to mine room 211 that lost 25 students. Nancy was one of them. I unlike Nancy was able to
continue on with my life. Got married and had two children. Lost my first husband after forty years of marriage.
Went to many OLA reunions and was fortunate to marry again to a former classmate Bill
O’Brien. He was the love of my life. Unfortunately he passed away after almost two years of marriage. I treasure all my family and many friends and know as our faith tells us we will be reunited with those we have lost living this life.

Posted by:

Marianne Kwiatkowski

On:

12/1/2018

ID:

680

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Milwaukee WI

My thoughts and prayers are with the OLA community on this milestone anniversary. Those who were lost and those who survived are not forgotten.

Posted by:

Gail Telchuk-Turnes

On:

12/1/2018

ID:

679

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No	Before	Keystone and Augusta Blvd.

I doubt there was any area near OLA that wasn’t affected by the fire. Several people in my neighborhood lost a child in that tragedy. It was something we all knew about, but no one ever talked about.
My brother was supposed to go to OLA. Fortunately my parents hadn’t registered him in time. As a result he ended up at St. Francis of Assisi for that school year. My parents were blessed to have him with them for a few more years. He was taken from us in a fiery car accident. Life is ironic.
In those days we didn’t play by the houses of those who had lost their children. As if that would spare them from remembering their loss. I doubt it did. Nothing could. Instead in my mind it must have been a constant reminder. Almost a forced exile from life itself. A mark on the door post saying here is where no children play, no joy heard.
I myself would have welcomed the laughter of a child, to remind myself of the joy I had, even if the time I held that life near to me was just a memory.
To those parents, many who have since passed from this life to the next, my you experience the joy and peace of an eternity with those you loved so dearly.
Though out my life my father would tell me of that day, never forgetting what he saw. He came home without a coat that night, having laid it on the body of a boy who was taken way to soon. So many lives were changed that day in ways that are so different to put into words.

Posted by:

Patricia Turner

On:

11/30/2018

ID:

678

At OLA on 12/1/58?	Born before or after 12/1/58?	Where Lived on 12/1/58?
No

I was a nine year old fourth grader in a newly built school on Chicago's Southside when this terrible tragedy took place. Even now, it is something that brings sadness each year at this time. I read every horribly sad accounting of this story as it unfolded in the Chicago American (our evening newspaper), and also on T.V. I was hardly able to sleep at night and would spend time even in my practically brand new classroom wondering how safe my surroundings were. I had always been frightened of fire so the knowledge of what those children, their families and the school community were experiencing made this tragedy that much more real...yet I kept reading. As an adult, I became an elementary teacher. I found that too often students took planned fire drills for granted. There was too much talking and playing and very little regard for the serious purpose of the drill. These children had never heard of or experienced an actual school fire. I always took this opportunity to recount to my students the tragedy that took place on December 1st, 1958, and why it was important to be quiet and follow the rules and directions of those that were giving them without fail. It was always a sobering history lesson for my seventh graders and served as an effective deterrent to foolishness, and a clearer understanding of why the fire drills were important. I still feel much empathy for those who suffered such losses at Our Lady of the Angels on that fateful day and for the survivors who were left with probably the most horrible remembrances of their lives.

Posted by:

Mark

On:

11/18/2018

ID:

677

Enrolled on 12/1/58?	Present on 12/1/58?	Injured?	Age	Grade	Classroom	Teacher
Yes	Yes		8	3

As I was looking at the 60th anniversary memorials, i remembered an experience 28 years ago. When my daughter was in first grade in 1990 at Lowrie Elementary in Elgin, IL i was going to attend a parent teacher conference. As soon as I entered the building I froze. Lowrie was very similar to OLA. Not only my memories of OLA but, more importantly, for my daughters safety I was very uncomfortable. My wife reassured me that my daughters room was next to the fire escape. A few years later the school district wanted to close Lowrie. I related my experience about a neighborhood anchor closing and how it affected the neighborhood. With other input and information the district decided to keep the school open. A couple of years later a multi-million dollar addition was added.

For many years I repressed most of my memories about the fire. I thought I was in the second grade when the fire occurred. With help I remembered what grade is was in then.

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