We recently went to a birthday celebration! A NINETIETH birthday celebration for “the cemetery lady,” Helen Kelly Brink. (Her 99 year-old cousin was also there.)
Helen “wrote the book” on Steuben County cemeteries, driving 4000 miles within Steuben to document over 400 burying grounds… all laid out town by town, with location, history, and current status. She’s also been an advocate for the neglected cemeteries, inspiring neighbors, municipalities, and Scout groups to clean them up.
Before writing her cemetery book Helen compiled the letters of her great-grandparents from Fremont, John and Mariett Kelly, from when John was off with the army in the Civil War. Families preserving their soldier’s letters is not unusual. But it’s very uncommon to have BOTH sides of a correspondence, since soldiers normally carried as little with them as possible.
Helen also gives tours of the Tiffany sanctuary at Bath Presbyterian church, and volunteers every week at Steuben County Historical Society, where she also was president for several years.
As part of her celebration I decided to look into what was going on in Helen’s birth year of 1929… a fateful year for the world, but it had its good sides too.
There were 123 million people in the U.S. – about a third of what we have today. One out of every ten of those Americans lived in New York state, which was a third bigger than its closest rival. Less than 83,000 of those Yorkers lived in Steuben County.
Herbert Hoover became our president in 1929 (succeeding Calvin Coolidge), and Franklin D. Roosevelt became our governor (succeeding Al Smith). Hoover’s term started out well, with the stock market reaching the highest point it had ever hit in its history. But it wouldn’t get back to that level until 1954, as a calamitous September crash ruined millions, and helped usher in the Great Depression.
Prohibition was still on, and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre rocked Chicago. Gangsters who wanted tidier conditions (and less public attention) met in Atlantic City to form the National Crime Syndicate.
On the other hand, color television had its first public demonstration, and Grand Teton became a national park. Wings won the first Academy Award for best picture – the only silent movie that ever did so. And the Museum of Modern Art (or MOMA) opened in New York City.
Stalin drove Trotsky out of Russia, and Mother Theresa arrived in India. German rigid dirigible Graf Zeppelin flew around the world in 21 days.
The Great War was still a bleeding sore in people’s memories. Hemingway published A Farewell to Arms, while Remarque published All Quiet on the Western Front.
Other famous people born that year included Martin Luther King, Max von Sydow, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Frank, Jackie Kennedy, Bob Newhart, Barbara Walters, Grace Kelly, Dick Clark, and Popeye the Sailor Man. Wyatt Earp died in 1929.
The Seeing Eye was established, bringing joy to the blind. A nine-day gusher at Spindletop proved the Texas had oil – LOTS of oil! A four-man team led by Balchen and Byrd made the first flight over the South Pole (and returned safely).
And, amidst all that other excitement, Helen Kelly Brink came into the world, making that world a much, much merrier place.