Category: Deceased

According to our sources at Ancestry.com (currently worked by her grandson James) when Loretta Rose Graf was born on January 29, 1920, in Harrison City, Pennsylvania, her father, Joseph, was 32, and her mother, Rose, was 29. She married Charles Thomas Kleiber on February 15, 1941, in Wyandotte, Michigan. They had three children in 14 years. She died on August 3, 2000, in Grand Traverse, Michigan, at the age of 80.

Loretta is James Grandmother and enjoyed traveling alot. Every Saturday there would be at least a trip to Trenton where some project or event was taken place. The evenings all ended the same way with a family game of Pinocle. They played for keeps during these games and my family was not always gracious losers when the game did not go their way.

My mother enjoyed travel outside of Michigan as well, trips to Florida, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Bahama’s, Toronto, and West Virgina were just a few of the many destinations she vacationed at. She passed away while on vacation in Traverse city.

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When Leslie Brian Landis was born on December 1, 1975, in Nashville, Tennessee, his father, William, was 47 and his mother, Frances, was 27. He had two brothers and two sisters. He died on July 23, 1998, at the age of 22.

Brian is the son of Howard and half brother to Bill and Mary. Brian passed away before James was born. We do not have many pictures of Brian so if anyone can help us out that would be much appreciated.

Mary remembers that Brian loved to play with transformers as a child and he was the ring bearer at Bills wedding. They say the hardest thing in life is when a parent outlives their child, Brian will be missed by his family.

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According to our sources at Ancestry.com (currently worked by his grandson James) when Charles Thomas Kleiber was born on April 14, 1917, in Detroit, Michigan, his father, Benjamin, was 23 and his mother, Mildred, was 20. He married Loretta Rose Graf on February 15, 1941, in Wyandotte, Michigan. They had three children in 14 years. He died on May 30, 1995, in Oakwood, Michigan, at the age of 78.

Charles T Kleiber was a WW2 Veteran and father of 3 children. He was James Grandfather but died several years before James was born. Charles was a huge baseball fan and a very good player himself. He got a single in a game against Hal Newhauser who went on to become a hall of fame player. Growing up in Lincoln Park he was a pitcher and Barney McCloskey (who played for the Tigers) was his catcher. Although he was drafted by Cleveland, World War 2 came along and he never played in the minor or major leagues. However he did lead the Ford team to several world championships during his 37 year career with the Ford Motor Company.

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When Mark Joseph Dunberger was born on November 15, 1946, his father, Harry, was 31 and his mother, Louise, was 25. He had two children with Kathy Thomas and one child with Pat. He died in May 1991 in Trenton, Michigan, at the age of 44, and was buried in Flat Rock, Michigan.

The thing I remember most about Mark was how much fun it was to be with him. He was one of those rare personalities that would liven up any party or event. He never let his injuries from the war get in his way of having fun with life, in fact, you would not ever know that he was injured unless you saw the scars on his arms from the scrapnel. Whether it was boating, camping, hunting, fishing, baseball or playing Mario Brothers on Nintendo Mark had more fun with life than anyone else I know. Mark was also the biggest Star Trek fan I remember in the family and had a huge self made video collection of some of the worst sci fi movies you can imagine.

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Jimmy is the son of Howard and Judith, brother to Mary and Bill, and namesake and uncle to James. He passed away years before James was born.

For those who don’t know, both James’ namesakes were relatives who passed on before their time, Jimmy Landis and Raymond Kleiber both died at young ages and its hard to fathom such a loss and how the parents must have felt absorbing the brunt of that loss (the saying is there is nothing worse than a parent outliving their child).

We do not have many pictures of Jimmy or Raymond so if anyone can help that would certainly be appreciated.

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These are Jame’s great grandparents who unfortunately passed away long before he was born. We don’t have a lot of pictures of them so if anyone can help please send some pics this way.

I remember my family going to see a movie called “Dr Strangelove” and I was too young, so Grandpa had to take care of me for a few hours. We had a great time and he cooked me some popcorn which might not sound like much but this was before the microwave era. when I was about 8 I remember my bicycle getting stolen (from in front of St. Albert Church no less) and my Grandma Millie calling me and offering to buy me a new bike.

They were both great grandparents and I am sure they would have loved to have met james.

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When Joseph Conrad Graf was born on November 30, 1924, in Natrona, Pennsylvania, his father, Joseph, was 37 and his mother, Rose, was 34. He married Teresa Eva Graf Pingitore in Wayne, New Jersey. They had three children during their marriage. He died on April 3, 1976, in Orange, Florida, at the age of 51, and was buried in Flat Rock, Michigan.

James dad has many fond memories of his Uncle Joe. He remembers Uncle Joe always helping with big and little projects at his home including setting up his basketball net on the garage, making a BB gun target, and fixing his train. Joe was very good with mechanical things and also very creative. Like his father, Joe would set up a Christmas display with a train and small homes. Joe liked camping and owned a camper which he put to good use every summer.

During the 70’s almost everyone in the family would vacation at Disney World and Joe took his family there in 1976 (Dad remembers taking care of Sandy’s guinea pig while they were away). Joe had a heart attack at Disney World and died shortly after. Ironically 25 years later his sister Loretta would also die while on vacation in Traverse City.

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When Rose Margaret Huth was born on September 29, 1890, in Natrona, Pennsylvania, her father, Conrad, was 40, and her mother, Bertha, was 30. She had one son and two daughters with Joseph George Graf between 1920 and 1924. She died on November 22, 1965, in Trenton, Michigan, at the age of 75, and was buried in Flat Rock, Michigan.

Joe and Rose Graf had 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and many great grand children. James would be their great grandson, although both died decades before James was born.

Rose lived the last decade of her life in the Trenton house where we visited her often. My mother would bring me over to Trenton and she always had an orange slice candy for me. She was very generous and always placed her concerns for the family and her children over herself, her kindness still lives on.

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Pappy Graf is James Great Grandfather, Father to his Grandmother Loretta.

When Joseph George Graf was born on March 18, 1887, in Schönfeld, Lower Austria, Austria, his father, Joseph, was 33 and his mother, Katherine, was 30. He had one son and two daughters with Rose Margaret Huth between 1920 and 1924. He died on January 2, 1953, in Wyandotte, Michigan, at the age of 65, and was buried in Flat Rock, Michigan.

Pappy was very creative and used to make the childrens gifts by hand. He also created beautiful miniature village displays that were so popular in the neighborhood that the press would come out and photograph them for the newspaper. All of the houses in the display he would make by hand. He would setup this display around Christmas time which created a tradition that lasted for decades in the family of having displays set up at Christmas time.

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Raymond died in World War 2 and is James Raymonds’ namesake. Unfortunately we do not have many pictures of Raymond so if anyone has anymore I would love to get them. Most of the stories about Raymond I heard from my Father. My dad used to say that Raymond had the height but not the talent to play professional ball, where as he had the talent but not the height. I have retyped his obituary and included the original clipping which is a little hard to read.

Ray was born in Detroit. He was graduated from the Lincoln Park high school with the January 1943 class and worked for the Great Lakes Steel corporation, Ecorse, before entering the army. Besides his parents, he leaves two brothers, Sergeant Charles in Hawaii and Donald at home, and two sisters, Mrs. Dorothy Sokel and Virginia Kleiber, both living with their parents.

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