So in my last post, I covered the life of Edward Sheldon Crego and his marriage to Winona and the adoption of their son Dickie. I also covered the time up until Edward died and Dickie graduated from high school in 1963. So we'll pick up from there......
Edward Sheldon Crego, Jr or Dickie Crego:
In 1965, Dickie enlisted in the Navy and was released in 1971 and served overseas in Vietnam. His naturalization papers were filed in Detroit (remember, he was born in Canada and brought into the United States during the adoption). He died in Cheboygan, Wisconsin in 2002 at age 58 of colon cancer. His death certificate says that he was a tow truck driver and that he never married.
Winona Crego
So what happened to his mother, Winona, after Dickie enlisted in the Navy in 1965?
The 1954 Three Rivers City Directory says that she was the widow of Edward Sheldon and that worked at the Clymer Insurance Company. We're pretty sure she was in Three Rivers until 1965, when Dickie went into the Navy.
According to a tape recorded interview with my grandfather Hubert Hagan in 1988, Hubert stated that "She (Winona) disappeared from Three Rivers one day and no one knew where she was. Rumor was she was short in accounting to her bank in Marcellis Michigan." Hubert stated that she didn't live there, but her bank was there. No one knew where she was or where she went to. Then some years later, she was found dead in California.
Among Hubert's papers, I found a letter dated September 16, 1975 from Bill Crego to Betty Crego (my grandmother). Bill and Betty were siblings to each other and also to Edward Crego (who had died in 1951). So Bill and Betty were in-laws to Winona. Here's what Bill has to say and this is a direct transcription of the letter:
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Dear Betty, Today Carole and I visited the house that Winona lived in here in Long Beach and took possession of her properties there and those removed from the house by the Long Beach police force. It seems ironic that less than two weeks ago we had those somewhat serious discussions about her disappearance and now have found her under these circumstances. I decided, since we had those discussions, that
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you would be interested in knowing what we found out since last Friday when we first were notified of her death by Dickie. The following information was provided by a Mrs. Rizzo, soon to be Mrs. Russell.
In 1972 the Rizzo's/Russell's met Winona through an add (sic) placed on a store bulletin board advertising for a live-in babysitter and they hired her. She was living under the name of Edith Clymer.
(Jan's note - it's interesting and probably not a coincidence that she was listed as working for the Clymer Insurance Company in 1954). Apparently they all liked her so well that it sounded as though they adopted her and she them. Mr. Rizzo is in real estate and so is
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Mrs. Rizzo, apparently at Winona urging. She was great with the children, took them many places including teaching them to play golf. Mrs. Rizzo is about to marry a guy named Russell and Mr. Rizzo is about to marry someone else. All four of these people apparently took care of Winona very well and she was like one of the family. It was only during the last month or so that she became very ill. From the description given, Carole believes she died of a combination of congestive heart failure and kidney failure. The people involved did everything they could to make her go to the doctor including seeing a
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lawyer to determine if she could be forced to see one. She would not go, she talked of Striker in Kalamazoo, possibly because she did not want anyone to find out who she was. She became so bad during the last few weeks that they had to keep the children away from her. Last Thursday nite, Jim Rizzo brought her grocerys from the store and spent a few hours with her. She apparently died alone in her room that nite.
During her stay with the Rizzo family she did not once reveal her true identity. Whatever force drove her from Michigan must have been strong. Even though both of the Rizzos are in real estate, it was a total surprise
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to them finding out that she was in the same business. She talked frequently about Edward, how much she loved him, how he died, of sailing trips, etc. But not once did she mention the name Crego, or being from Michigan, or anything else bearing on that part of her life. She did talk to them of living in Chicago and how she liked to drive through Chicago's downtown district. They knew so little about her. (they knew she had a son named Dick). that thier first attempts to reach Dick was under the name Dick Clymer, based on a discontinued phone number found in her address books. About the only name in her address book was B. DeLong in Michigan and
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they were able to find Dickie through that number. Dickie requested that we pick up her personal belongings for him.
We did not get Dick's telegram authorizing us to enter the building where she lived or to get release of properties held by the Long Beach police until Saturday. The initial finding by the police was homicide, but this was subsequently changed to natural causes after the autopsy. The probable reason for the initial police report was the condition of her room. The house was nice and clean in a very quiet part of Long Beach but her room in the back of the house was in total
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disaray. It had been sealed shut by the coroner's office on the nite she died and I assume nothing had been touched. Winona apparently spent much of her time sewing for herself and the children. She had her own sewing machine and an unusually large supply of sewing materials, most of which was scattered over the entire room. Clothes were strewn around the room and piled high on the bed. She had a poodle dog which was still living in the house and there was dog food mixed in with the overall mess. Among her property was a color t.v. set, a set of golf clubs which apparently she used frequently, a stereo tape
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player, and a lot of other things and a mink coat. It took about four hours to pack everything into boxes and the total filled the back of our camper, with the exception of the studio couch she slept on and her sewing machine, both of which will be delivered to us by Mr. Russell on Sunday. Because of the circumstances of her disappearance, the stories you people told us about possible money involved, and stories Mrs. Rizzo told us how she told the kids that her parents would sew money into the lining of clothes, we decided not to discard anything until we had a chance to inspect it.
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thoroughly. After leaving the house we went to the Long Beach Police department to collect the property they had, including three one hundred dollar bills found on the bed the nite of her death. The property here included an assortment of costume jewelry, a few pictures of Dickie, a small quantity of loose change, an assortment of keys, an address book with only a couple of addresses not related to much of anything, an old old letter and not much else. In all of this property, notably missing was such things as bank book, drivers liscense, I.D's of any kind, letters or other correspondence and social security cards. We did find scribbled down in three separate
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places what we believe to be hers and Edwards social security numbers. We did find a wig which Mrs. Rizzo did not know she owned and some grease pencils used for make up.
Now you know as much as we do. However, if you like mysteries and want something to discuss while sitting at the river in Constantine, then I will give you a few non facts which are interesting:
1) Winona never received letters, yet it was Mrs. Rizzo's belief that once a month she sent a letter to Chicago with a sum of money enclosed. She based this partly on observation and on the fact that Winona once loaned her
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money and then asked for the return of the money at a very specific time later in the month. Who was she paying off?
2) Winona, about two weeks ago, told John Russell that she was getting low on money and that he would have to soon take her to the bank. They discounted this because she had never gone to the bank before. Yet three one hundred dollar bills were found on the bed. She had no apparent need for money, she had three hundred dollars, and yet needed to go to the bank?
3) We found coffee grounds strewn around the room and in the bed. J. Russell helped her clean her room the nite before she died, yet the room
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was a mess and we found no coffee can or source of the coffee grounds in the house. In fact, we drank instant coffee while there. Obviously, there was something hidden in the coffee can and some thief abscounded with it (not the Rizzo's since they were totally honest and could have claimed much of the property recovered as theirs with little chance of discovery - they would have been found out however since Winona scribbled and hid a list of items in the house belonging to her before she died;
4) If, as Ruth and Dickie claim, Winona left Michigan with considerable money, where is it? She obviously did not spend it during
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the time spent in California. Her room and board was paid for, she had no car and only minor other needs, and she received some pay for babysitting.
5) We found a receipt from Sears in Cerritos, Cal. for two foot lockers. We have keys for two foot lockers. We only found one foot locker.
6) Why the stories to the kids about sewing up money in the lining of clothes.
7) What does a banks deposit key look like. The county public administrator says he sees them in all shapes and sizes. We have an assortment of 20 some keys but only one or two
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possible banks to consider. Carole will look into those later in the week.
Probably the above speculations are in bad taste considering Winona's recent death. However, how can we help it considering the stories we hear about her disappearance while in Michigan. It is inconceivable to us how she could be as close as she was to the Russell family and Rizzo family and yet reveal nothing of her past. Carole commented to me that she had little property for sixty some years of life. Yet, what she had represented only that accumulated over three years of a whole new life, a life where she apparently was very happy and well liked by the people who knew
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her. I suspect that we will learn little new about her life here in Cal. and felt that I should let you know. Some of what I told you, I would not like Dickie to know that I told or what I said. It might send him off on a tangent. we will be sending to him all of the properties he requests, having given him a listing over the phone. we will also do what we can to discover any other assets which might exist, within reason. I am certain that the current expense of the funeral, etc. must be a big burden on him which he apparently must bare alone (we found no insurance forms). If
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anything else turns up of significance, I will let you know. If you have any ideas, let us know.
Bill
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According to the
www.familysearch.org database "California Death Index, 1940-1997", there is a death certificate for Edith W. Clymer with an alternate name of Edith W. Crego. She died September 11, 1975 in Los Angeles California. She was born on July 11, 1911 in Montana.
According to a taped interview with me by my grandfather Hubert Hagan in 1988 (Betty's husband mentioned in the above letter), he said that "they brought her (Winona) back to Michigan for burial in the Riverside Cemetery. But her name is not on a marker anywhere. Dickie never got around to putting his Mom's name on a gravestone. After Winona's funeral, Dickie disappeared. "
All persons involved in this tale have been deceased for quite a number of years, so I felt it okay to list all the details in this blog post. There would have been no obituary and in all likelihood, we will never know what truly happened.
