Person:Francis Curtis (5)

Frank Curtis was born on January 12, 1907, in his Charles grandparent's tenement apartment at 650 E. 16th Street in Manhattan, New York. He was the first child of Frank Robert Curtis and Margaret Charles who married just 10 months before. His father was a steamfitter but was often out of work, and his mother worked various odd jobs to help support the family. 5 other children followed, and the family struggled with poverty. Yet this Irish Catholic household was remembered as being very happy and loving.

Frank was baptized at the Church of the Immaculate Conception on East 14th Street, where his parents married and where his aunts and uncles on his mother's side had been baptized. His godfather was Frank Byrnes (likely a relative of his mother) and Ann Reilly. His baptismal name was Francis Charles but eventually he went by his confirmation name of Francis Xavier or Frank X. Curtis.

The family moved around quite a bit. City directories and other records show them living off and on at 650 E 16th Street, also at 257 Avenue C, then 1608 First Avenue, 1503 First Avenue, and later, 1629 First Avenue. Frank attended Immaculate Conception for the early grades but in his own words "was a wild one and had caused trouble there". Worried about the "ferocious" Christian Brothers who taught the boys in the older grades, he transferred to St. Joseph's school in Yorkville.

As the oldest child in a poor family, Frank wasn't able to continue his education and left St. Joseph's in the 7th grade to get his working papers. When he was 12 he delivered the Bronx Home News, and helped in a drugstore on First Avenue. Eventually, he went to work for J.A. Stein at his business on 37th street, and then in 1922, went with him to Fisher Millinery Corp at 58 W. 40th Street. The company changed locations over the years (E. 36th Street, Madison Avenue, W. 23rd Street) but Frank never left, eventually retiring in 1972 after 50 years of continuous service.

Frank and his family moved out of the city to East Rockaway on Long Island in 1925 where they bought a one bedroom summer bungalow at 10 Edwin Court (Bay Park). Somehow the family of 8 squeezed into the tiny home, and Frank took the Long Island Railroad into the city for work everyday.

The move to East Rockaway enabled Frank to meet the love of his life, Rita Ruppel. Rita lived in Brooklyn but her family vacationed in East Rockaway in the summer. They met in the summer of 1930 but their romance was affected by the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. With his father out of work, Frank and his paycheck were needed at home, and so they waited four years to marry on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1934. Even then, Frank needed to give his family the money he saved for his honeymoon so they could pay the property taxes on 10 Edwin Court. Fortunately, they were able to use money received for wedding gifts to honeymoon in Washington D.C., and Rita, always to be excellent with money and savings, produced another $20 so they could stay a little longer. The trip to Washington was a dream come true for Frank, who despite his interrupted education was a voracious non-fiction reader with a strong interest in history,particularly, the Civil War.

Frank and Rita lived in Brooklyn for a few years at 680 Macon Street where their first two daughters were born. They then moved out to Long Island to a small house at 42 Lawson Avenue, just a short distance from his parents, where eventually the two youngest daughters came along. Around 1957, the family moved to the other end of town to a nice house at 247 Mill River Avenue where Frank lived until his retirement in 1972. Then Frank and Rita purchased a mobile home in a retirement community in Holiday, Florida where Frank enjoyed 12 years of retirement.

In 1983, he started to lose weight and not feel well. After a faulty diagnosis which delayed treatment, he was finally discovered to have colon cancer in March 1984, and he died at home, next to his wife of 49 years and 7 months, on Monday, June 25, 1984. His funeral was held at St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church and he was buried in Meadowlawn Cemetery in Elfers, Florida.

I always considered my dad to be a "Renaissance Man". He was one of the smartest people I knew, and his knowledge of history was immense. He was an extremely talented artist who studied under Henry Major, the world-famous caricaturist and artist. He painted many portraits and landscapes in oils. His cartoons were published in many newspapers, and were used for postcards issued during World War II. He was offered a job by Walt Disney to become a cartoonist. Frank turned down that job because his number one priority in life was his family, and he didn't want to move far away to California. He was also an excellent writer who in later years, wrote a column for a small newspaper, and he was a gifted singer. Above all, he had an amazing sense of humor.

Frank loved to travel and especially enjoyed camping. He started camping with buddies when he was just 16, hitchhiking from Manhattan to upstate New York. Later, he enjoyed taking his family camping to places like Lake George, New York. Eventually he joined a camping club, the "Nassau Wanderers" and spent many weekends each summer camping with his tent camper. He was known for leading songs around the campfire and his funny skits. The highlight of Frank's year, starting around 1955, was annual trips to Florida. Florida became the Promised Land for him, and he was so thrilled when he was able to retire there. Although Frank never traveled out west or outside of North America, he did explore just about every part of eastern United States and Canada.

Frank also enjoyed photography. From his first box camera when he was just a boy, he loved taking photos, particularly of vacation spots. He became known for his slide shows in the basement of the house on Mill River Avenue. Friends and family members would enjoy photos of his travels projected on the wall used as a screen. Another use for the basement was to store his Civil War artifacts. He had an extensive collection of Civil War guns, bullets and other items. He also had a collection of miniature soldiers arranged in a diorama. A special past time was when he projected a picture of a Civil War battlefield on the screen and armed everyone with cap-filled Winchester rifles. He'd play a record with the sounds of the Civil War and an epic battle would take place in the Mill River Avenue basement.

The walls of the basement were covered in beautiful murals Frank painted of some of the places where the family had vacationed. It was sad to leave those behind when the family moved to Florida.

With so many interests, Frank was never bored and was always happy and upbeat. He lit up a room when he entered it and he kept us laughing until the end. He was so devoted to his family and to his Catholic faith. He was an amazing man and a little light went out of the world when he went to heaven in 1984.

1. ↑ State of Florida. Certificate of Death - Frank Curtis.