OT: Who is/was your most famous/successful blood relative?

[8893]

Wow. What set you off?

They wanted Greek pizza and cold lobster rolls with mayo.

 

[August_West]

They wanted Greek pizza and cold lobster rolls with mayo.

giving them a grave site was too generous. That calls for straight up cinder block around ankle into the LI Sound type disposals.

 

[RichZ]

My whole family is in that cemetery.

Ditto. 3 generations. but not the current one.

 

[Improviser]

Yes, I am that bored.

No names needed, but if they're dead, feel free.

For me ... One cousin was in the Olympics, my cousin Carol Vadnais played for the Bruins with Orr, Sanderson, et all. Another was a surgeon who was well known in his field. A great uncle did time in prison for rigging elections. He was on the governors council and took a dive for the top guys. When he got out, he got the first liquor license at the cape when the mass pike was finished, a license to sell insurance, and a no show job at a state college.

So who do ya got?

Well, I never met him, but a distant cousin was one of Doris Day's husband, and not a good one at that.

My mom’s adopted so don’t know much about her family, but I’m proud of my paternal grandfather.

His parents moved to America from Poland, as a kid he left school after 8th grade to work in the coal mines of western PA. Stopped mining in his 30s and took an aptitude rest that helped him get a gig to train him as an engineer. Got hired by a company and moved his family to Stamford, CT.

It’s not an uncommon story, but it’s cool that in the 1950s, someone with almost no formal education could work their way up to become an engineer.

Well, he may be more infamous than famous, but a distant cousin who I never met, was one of Doris Day's husbands, and not a good one at that.

Not that it made him famous, but my father who was an ordinary guy, during WW2 for a little bit, was the jeep driver for the actress Marlene Dietrich and for the actor John Garfield for the USO shows. I have a picture of him in uniform next to Marlene Dietrich. I know no more about it than that.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

LOL.
Excellent.

Im Eskimo Brothers with Johnny Depp

My most famous (known) Eskimo brother is Brian Bell, guitarist in weezer. My ex was a gigantic fan and would DM him and they eventually hooked up a few times. She was SHOCKED he ended up being a sleazebag despite him being 20 years older than her and being in an enormously famous band and hooking up with a fan he met online.

 

[8893]

My mother was a hamster, and my father smelt of elderberries.

 

[Dove]

My mother was a hamster, and my father smelt of elderberries.

And buried in Stratford?

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Had a relative that was the first Dewar's profile.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Related to John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame. My mom's dad's mother (my great-grandmother) was a Brown, and grew up in the Brown farmhouse in Simsbury.

Its probably not that unusual to trace ancestry to Brown here in CT, considering he had something like 20 kids and was from Torrington.

 

[Jay-Bone]

My lineage goes back to the Salem witch that got away. Thank God she did.

My wife's grandfather was mayor of a capital city for about 25 years. We don't live near there, but her extended family are basically celebrities there. He has buildings named after him.

 

[wethyhusky]

William Bradford is my ancestor. He was the governor of Plymouth and came over on the Mayflower. Supposedly he was kind of a jerk (hopefully I am upholding the family tradition). I remember as a kid going to Plymouth plantation and asking where my relative was.

 

[Battasbaby]

Dick Vitale

 

[tentoes4rings]

Nobody in our family, ha, except for my cousin’s wife Debra Ponzek who was a pretty famous NYC chef in the 90s and even appeared on Letterman. She was married to Bobby Flay at one point. My cousin saw the Letterman episode and reached out to her afterwards and they were married soon after.

 

[FairwayFlyer]

My wife's grandmother, Ruth, was Hubert Humphrey's secretary during his time as a Minnesota senator and as Vice President. She and Hubert had an ongoing affair that lasted several years. My mother-in-law spent quite a bit of time with him, and she and Ruth flew privately with him on more than one occasion. My mother-in-law was too young at the time to really understand the relationship. Ruth and her husband's marriage ended over it. I'm thankful I had the opportunity to know Ruth in her final years. At 92, she began writing her autobiography, and, coincidentally, she passed away right before the Hubert chapter. I have Hubert's vice presidential cufflinks, and a full encyclopedia set he gave to my mother-in-law with a hand written message on the first page of volume 1.

 

[temery]

William Bradford is my ancestor. He was the governor of Plymouth and came over on the Mayflower. Supposedly he was kind of a jerk (hopefully I am upholding the family tradition). I remember as a kid going to Plymouth plantation and asking where my relative was.

I had a student in the 90s who was William Bradford the 9th (can't remember the exact number). Direct descendant. Great family.

 

[Dove]

Related to John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame. My mom's dad's mother (my great-grandmother) was a Brown, and grew up in the Brown farmhouse in Simsbury.

Its probably not that unusual to trace ancestry to Brown here in CT, considering he had something like 20 kids and was from Torrington.

Ethan Hawke plays John Brown in an upcoming Showtime production.

 

[diggerfoot]

Haven"t you walked around the world, or something like that?

Lol. Sadly, no. I hope to, when my current situation passes, if there is enough time left.

As a long distance hiker I have a couple of firsts and broke a couple of records. One record, most miles hiked on the AT in one day, had stood for 20 years before I broke it (previous record was 72; I hiked/jogged 80); then someone else broke my record six months later (I believe the record now is 88). Timing is everything.

 

[Mr. French]

My father made outrageous claims like he “invented the question mark.”

 

[temery]

Lol. Sadly, no. I hope to, when my current situation passes, if there is enough time left.

As a long distance hiker I have a couple of firsts and broke a couple of records. One record, most miles hiked on the AT in one day, had stood for 20 years before I broke it (previous record was 72; I hiked/jogged 80); then someone else broke my record six months later (I believe the record now is 88). Timing is everything.

The Pacer app on my iPhone says I took 250 steps yesterday. Not a record, but I think I can beat that today.

 

[temery]

My father made outrageous claims like he “invented the question mark.”

That was on your birth certificate, under "father."

 

[August_West]

My father made outrageous claims like he “invented the question mark.”

LOL thats awesome.


My dad told me he was the whistler in the crowd at the end of Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets" when I was a kid.


I believed him for years until I learned Bennie was a studio cut with random crowd noise dubbed in.

 

[60'sfan]

My father-in-law was the only enlisted CB to spend his time as a pilot in WWII. In desperation, the CO of his unit asked if anyone knew how to fly, He had flown off a neighbors farm in Mystic before enlisting. He volunteered and received the air medal for his efforts.

Not to be out-done, I received a prize for most improvement in freshman chemistry at Uconn,

 

[Deepster]

LOL.
Excellent.

Im Eskimo Brothers with Johnny Depp

It would be even cooler if he followed you.

 

[Mr. French]

That was on your birth certificate, under "father."

How dare you!

 

[seeya27]

Nothing remotely close to a blood relative... but, my sister married a guy whose uncle was Ralph Branca, the pitcher who gave up the home run to Bobby Thompson. Sat at the same table at the wedding, and he talked baseball for hours. Nice, nice guy who had become a successful businessman.

Interestingly, Branca reached out to Thompson after their baseball days and the two became lifelong friends.

 

[CL82]

One record, most miles hiked on the AT in one day, had stood for 20 years before I broke it (previous record was 72; I hiked/jogged 80)

From where to where? The AT has sections where the elevation changes are brutal.

 

[diggerfoot]

From where to where? The AT has sections where the elevation changes are brutal.

I do not remember the start and end points ((24 years ago), but I do know that it was in southern Pennsylvania and included the Cumberland Valley section, which at the time involved a 12 mile road walk (which I jogged). I have two witnesses, one of whom broke the record six months later (The stinker! Just kidding, he’s a good friend).

Your point about the elevation changes on the AT is spot on. Out west you might climb 10,000 feet (eg, Mt. San Jacinto), but spread out over 30 miles. Out here you could go up 3,000 feet in less than 3 miles on the steepest climbs. There are some stretches on the AT that have mild elevation changes, like southern Pennsylvania.

 

[superjohn]

Thanks for posting that. We watch the American Heroes Channel on DirecTV quite often and probably saw an episode about that battle but will certainly look for it in the future.

As for me, I once saw Mickey Mantle at the Palm Too in NYC one night long after his retirement. He was so drunk he could barely stand and was being supported by a young woman who was probably a Yankee publicist or something. He'd always been my favorite sports hero and it was sad to see him like that. What if Whitey Ford and Billy Martin hadn't gotten hold of him?

My dad had several Mickey Mantle stories. When my dad was a kid he had a cousin who lived on Billy Martin's block, Billy and Mickey used to come home late at night/early in the morning plastered. Billy had an RV in the driveway where Mick slept off his drinking and he would sneak in the basement to shower, Billy would sleep in the RV when the wife was tired of him...The cousin would call my dad and say The Mick is over here again and on at least one occasion they got to play catch with him...

As a grown man my dad is alone at a bar in Manhattan waiting for a friend and Billy Martin comes in solo and takes the bar stool next to him and buys my dad a drink and they shoot the breeze. Many years later Mickey is at a bar in Waterbury and he's so hammered people have to put him in a cab to take him to the hotel. Years after that my dad sees Mickey at a country club in Northwest CT. when a super rich guy my dad is friend's with pays to fly Mick up to golf with them. He said he didn't like anything about that, Mickey was drunk and it looked like his health was catching up with him.

 

[wethyhusky]

I had a student in the 90s who was William Bradford the 9th (can't remember the exact number). Direct descendant. Great family.

Pretty cool. The road I grew up on was called Bradford Hill Rd. Since then they changed the name to something boring like rte 14A

 

[huskypantz]

I’m related to the Fuessenichs, so I have a former state senator Frederick F. Fuessenich and his son who donated the land that became Fuessenich Park in Torrington in my family tree. Raggie pride runs deep in my veins.