Week 13 2023: Light a Candle #52Ancestors

Light a candle so a loved one can be remembered.

For my mom whose 100th birthday was this month.

Born on April 12, 1923, in Newark, New Jersey, mom was first child of Charles Peter Maier and Catherine Josephine Spencer. Her parents married two years earlier and were still living with Charles’ mother when mom was born.[1] Her brother, Charles Peter (Carl) was born three-years later. By then, the family had moved to 282 Chancellor Avenue in Newark, the building they lived in until the family moved to Maplewood (my hometown) in 1948.[2]

When mom was about eleven (1934), her dad opened a restaurant on the first floor of the building where they lived.[3]The lower part of the building had previously been occupied by a grocery store and her father’s electrical contracting and radio equipment business. Her father had been employed as an electrician in various capacities since he was in his late teens and this electrical business was in the same building (but with a separate entrance around the corner). He expanded the restaurant to include a bar/tavern, but the entire enterprise lasted for only six years or so. By 1942, Charles went back to solely electrical work.[4] I cannot imagine what possessed him to open a restaurant at the height of the Great Depression and have only a vague recollection of mom mentioning this.

At the time her dad began the restaurant, mom and Carl were attending St. Peter’s School, a short six-seven block walk from their home. St. Peter’s Church was established in 1864 to serve the German immigrant community in Newark and, at least historically, was most closely associated with the Orphanage it ran.[5]

If you knew my mom, the one thing you would always remember about her was that she was a voracious reader and that her happy place was the Jersey Shore. She must have inherited that passion from her mother (Nana) as we have many photos of her enjoying the beach in her teen years and later. Apparently, mom’s family went to the shore for the summer with several other families. The husbands visited on the weekends and would spend the entire weekend fishing. The story goes that when the men left on Sunday, the wives would take all the fish they caught and bury them in the sand. Apparently, they never had the heart to tell the guys that they could never eat that many fish! One of my favorite family photos is of my mom and her brother on the boardwalk somewhere on the Jersey shore with their dad and his German-born mother.

At about six or seven years-old, mom had surgery for mastoiditis. Caused by a middle-ear infection, today it’s usually treated with antibiotics.[6] However, before the advent of antibiotics, mastoiditis was one of the leading causes of death in children.[7] The picture we have of mom after her surgery is of a cheerful and smiling little girl with a massive bandage wrapped around her head and ear. It must have been somewhat traumatic as it is one of the few childhood stories mom shared.

In 1937, Mom was one of forty-six boys and girls who graduated from St. Peter’s. She was fourteen years old. She then attended the Benedictine Academy, a Catholic all-girls high school in Elizabeth. Mom loved the experience of attending Benedictine so much so that when I graduated from junior high she asked if I wanted to also go there (even though at the time she was no longer a practicing Catholic).

Like those that founded St. Peter’s, the Benedictine Sisters came to Newark in the early 1860’s to teach the children of German immigrants.[8] Since mom’s dad was a child of German immigrants, I wonder if he and his siblings attended those same schools when they were growing up in Newark.

Benedictine Academy was about two miles from home, so Mom walked or maybe took a bus. Active in high school, she played on the basketball team, performed in the school play and talent show, chaired the senior prom committee, and was Vice-President of the senior class. When she was a senior, mom went to the junior “promenade” of Seton Hall College with Richard Levins where she was chosen Queen. Here’s the newspaper’s description: “Miss Maier is a blue-eyed brunette, 5 feet 11 inches in height and weighs 136 pounds. Her evening gown was gold color, of jersey and net.”[9] The prom was broadcast over CBS radio and Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra were the entertainment. As a prize for being a finalist in the “Queen of Hearts” contest, she received a white gold compact, courtesy of the local department store, L. Bamberger & Co. One of her life-long friends from Benedictine was Gloria (Landry) Lee who was her sole bridesmaid when mom and dad got married.

After graduating from Benedictine Academy, mom attended the College of St. Elizabeth (now Saint Elizabeth University). Founded in 1899 by the Sisters of Charity, St. Elizabeth is located in Convent Station, NJ.[10] An all-girls college, it wasn’t until seven years ago that the school admitted men and just three years ago it transitioned to a university. Its current president, Gary B. Crosby, Ph.D. is the first male and African American to serve in that position.[11]

Again, it looks like mom made the most of her school years. A four-year member of the College Government Association, the Athletic Association and Home Economics Club (Vice-President her senior year), she was also co-chair of the Junior Tea dance held at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. A newspaper article published during her college years noted a trip to Avon (NJ Shore) she took with her buddies, Audrey Bitter and Carlotta Fugazzi.[12] I got a copy of her St. Elizabeth’s yearbook on eBay (not sure why the family didn’t have it) and was struck by the description of her in there: “Tall, slender, impeccably dressed; regal bearing … fun loving and enthusiastic … our candidate for Miss Vogue 1945.” Goodness! No wonder she had a lot of beaus to choose from (so said Nana). The yearbook mentioned her nickname was “Reggie.” Must have been a college nickname as I never heard her called that.

Although she had graduated from in 1945 with a B.S. in Home Economics, I don’t believe she ever taught school. Mom remained active in the St. Elizabeth Alumnae Association until her death. She was so close to classmates Margaret (Flaherty) Gillen and Carlotta (Fugazzi) Winslow we kids referred to them as Aunt Margaret and Aunt Carlotta (who was also my Godmother).

The 1950 U.S. census shows her working as a manager for a department store (which I know to have been Bamberger’s). She and dad married in 1953 and six years later, they moved back to Maplewood (which was also dad’s hometown).[13]They had five children in the span of six years (yikes!), so I guess that was the end of her fun-times. Or maybe just the beginning?

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[1] New Jersey, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Mary Regina Maier, birth certificate, 12 April 1923.

[2] “19 Girard Place,” “Maplewood Real Estate Files,” Maplewood Library (http://www.digifind-it.com/IDIViewer/web/viewer.html?file=/maplewood/data/realestate/GIRARD%20PLACE/19%20GIRARD%20PLACE.pdf : accessed 22 April 2023). “U.S. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947,” images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 April 2023), Charles Peter Maier, Jr. serial no. 243C, order no. 12513C, Local Draft Board 16, Maplewood, Essex County, New Jersey; citing WW II Draft Registration Cards for New Jersey, Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, Box 407, National Archives, St. Louis Missouri.

[3] The Price & Lee Co., Newark [New Jersey] Directory, 1934, 582; image, “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 April 2023).

[4] The Price & Lee Co., Newark [New Jersey] Directory, 1942, 789; image, “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 22 April 2023).

[5] “Diocese of Newark,” Official Catholic Directory (New York, NY: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1920, 475“Chronology of Parishes,” Archdiocese of Newark (https://www.rcan.org/offices-and-ministries/history-archives/chronology-parishes : accessed 20 April 2023). St. Peter’s Church was closed in 1974.

[6] Wikipedia.org, “Mastoiditis,” rev. 09:26, 29 January 2023.

[7] “Mastoiditis,” University of Florida Health (https://ufhealthjax.org/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contentID=001034&projectTypeID=1 : accessed 21 April 2023).

[8] “History,” Benedictine Sisters, Elizabeth, NJ (https://bensisnj.org/history : accessed 21 April 2023).

[9] “Judges Choose Regina Maier Prom Queen,” clipping from unknown paper.

[10] “History,” Saint Elizabeth University (https://www.steu.edu/meet-seu/history : accessed 20 April 2023).

[11] Ibid.

[12] The 1945 Elizabethan, College of St. Elizabeth (Convent Station, New Jersey, 1945), 119. “Miss Audry Bitter,” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City), 31 August 1942, p. 9, col. 2.

[13] “100 Harvard Avenue,” “Maplewood Real Estate Files,” Maplewood Library (http://www.digifind-it.com/IDIViewer/web/viewer.html?file=/maplewood/data/realestate/HARVARD%20AVENUE/100%20HARVARD%20AVENUE.pdf : accessed 22 April 2023).