Charles DeRoy Fagan

Charles DeRoy Fagan
b. 20 Jan 1921, Pennsylvania
d. 26 Mar 1956, Fort Wayne, IN

What a good-looking gentleman he is, huh? I am drawn to his face, especially his eyes! Everytime I look at him, I am mesmerized and am bursting to know more about him. Though I have never met him, I feel a special connection and almost bond to him, and am saddened that I never got the chance to know him.

Charles "Chuck" DeRoy Fagan was born in Pennsylvania, January 20, 1921. At the age of no later than two*1, he was adopted by Arthur John Fagan and his wife Hannah "Anna" Therese O'Connell. This, here, is the major mystery I wish to solve; who are Chuck's biological parents, what is his heritage, and how and why did Arthur and Anna come to adopt him? I have reason to suspect that this was an in-family adoption, that Chuck's biological mother may have been one of Arthur's sisters. However he may have been the child of someone with the last name of Deroy, for there were some Deroys living in the Pittsburgh area around the time.

So much of Chuck's life is a mystery. As far as his early years go, he never spoke of them, even when questioned by his wife. As for his later years, sadly, Charles died when he was thirty-five, leaving very little memories to his children. He died in his sleep one night in March, 1956 in his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The story passed down to me is that at about a year and a half before his passing, Charles was beaten badly by a couple of would-be robbers. At the time, Chuck had taken on a secondary job driving a taxi and had overheard two of his passengers planning to rob something or someone. He reported what he had heard to the authorities who took action to prevent the robbery. The would-be-robbers were probably jailed for maybe thirties days. After their release, they tracked down Charles (I have no idea how they found out who had snitched) and beat him up, robbing him in the process. A year and a half later, he died of a seizure while asleep in his bed. Peter Jude writes,

My mother told me that the last thing my father [Charles] did before he went to bed on the night before he died was to untangle my string puppet. I think it was a Howdy Doody string puppet but it could have been a Peter Pan string puppet. My twin brother had one and I had the other; we got them as presents from my maternal grand-parents the preceding Christmas. I do not remember which puppet I got and which one my brother got. I just remember the two puppets. 

I would like to confirm the truth behind Charles' tragic death, and also shed some light on the man he once was. Here is what I have gathered so far in my search:

Chuck grew up on a farm on Meridian Road in Butler, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Butler High School. His family consisted of adoptive parents, Arthur and Anna Fagan and their daughters, Margaret Agnes, Mary Catherine, and Mary Agnes.

Margaret, the oldest, was born April, 1897 in Pennsylvania. She married at age 18 to Wilfred John "Boots" McKinnon. Margaret and Boots adopted Agnes Marie, born about 1921, so she was about the same age as her Uncle Chuck. Agnes Marie married Claude E. Cochran and had a daughter name Ellie, whom, through her message board posts on Ancestry.com from 2000 - 2002, I was able to gather this information on Arthur Fagan and his family. I have tried emailing Ellie a few years back, but have received no response. It is possible that she has a different email address now. My next step is to try to find her in a directory and give her a call to see if she can help shed some light on my grandfather.

This is Charles with
whom I believe to be
one of his sisters

Mary Catherine was born about 1906 in Pennsylvania and married Frank Trologlione.

Mary Agnes was born about 1916 in Pennsylvania and was adopted by Arthur Fagan and his wife Anna O'Connell, and, according to Ellie, she was the daughter of Arthur's brother Jimmy. She went by "Agnes" and married Frank Paytas. I know that Chuck took his wife and three boys to visit her and her family when his twins were only a year old. Agnes was living in Michigan, I believe, at the time.

Arthur John Fagan was born in September, 1870 in Scotland. According to Ellie's posts, he had at least two brothers and a sister living in Pennsylvania. Harry J. Fagan married Anna's sister Frances O'Connell. (The O'Connells were from Ireland.) James, or Jimmy as he was called, was a ladies man and had a live-in named Stella M. Ruffner in whom he may have later married.

Arthur's nickname was "Pop." Jimmy's nickname was "Poog". Harry was good ole Harry, the good guy. -- Ellie

However, Ellie, in some of  her other posts, states that it was Harry that was nicknamed "Poog." As to which is correct, I have no clue. Ellie also says something about a Fagan sister who may have married a man with the last name of Coulter:

Rumor is she was mistreated by her husband and died young. -- Ellie

Could this Fagan sister have been Chuck's biological mother? Maybe she died when Chuck was about two and Arthur took him in after she died. Were there other relatives of Arthur's living in Pennsylvania that he may have adopted? What of Anna's relatives? Was Chuck related to the Fagan's or the O'Connells in anyway at all? I have no answers, only suspicions at the moment.

I wanted to mention a little something about the photo to the right. The handwriting on the back is that of Chuck's. He states that on either side of him are his two nieces Marie and Heneen. I have no clue as to who Heneen is, but could Marie be the Agnes Marie adopted by his oldest sister Margaret?

Military. Chuck served in the military in his early twenties in the Pacific. Though I have not yet begun to research this part of his life and know nothing about it. Peter Jude states that,

He served in the Philippians during World War II as a sergeant. I do not know what his job was. But while he was stationed there he would do his duty and then go back to sleep. One day an officer caught him [sleeping] and he was busted to private. 

I do, however, have these pictures. The one on the far right, Edith (Chuck's wife) loved. It would tickle her to say, 'Which one is the ass?' You can click on any image to see a larger version of them.

The Love of His Life. Chuck married Edith Rita Jacob, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 19, 1946. Chuck formally adopted Edith's son from her first marriage, and the happy couple quickly starting adding to their family, two twin boys, followed by a daughter and finally another son. From what I can gather, Charles loved both his wife and family dearly, and was very devoted to them.

Chuck met Edith while he was stationed with the Army in New Orleans in the early 1940s. Eventually, however, Chuck was called away to serve in the Philippians. During his service there, Edith married Milton Douglas Williams.

It broke Charles' heart to find out that Edith had married Milton. He wrote several letters to Edith's mother Cora (in whom he called "Mom,") and confided in her. In one letter, he stated that the biggest regret of his life was not asking Edith to wait for him. This particular letter is no longer in our possession, however, there is one letter in which he wrote to Cora that does still exist, and it is a very touching one. (Click on it to read it.) It is postmarked from Fort Wayne on January 2, 1946. I can only imagine that Cora showed these letters to her daughter. Whatever the case may be, Edith divorced Milton in Bradford, Florida sometime in 1946, and she and Chuck were married in New Orleans later that same year in November.

I believe this to be
the photo Charles
spoke of in his
letter to Cora

Edith and Chuck had nicknames for each other. Edith called Chuck "My Little Drip" and Chuck called Edith "My Rebel," because she was from the South. The story as to why Edith called Chuck "Drip," is not known by any living relatives. In fact, and sadly, very few memories of Chuck exist in the family. However, one that his son Peter Jude recalls is this:

My father taught my mother how to drive a standard stick shift automobile. If I remember correctly, it was a blue 1953 ford.

Family Life in Indiana. 

My father never missed going to Sunday Mass. He would get a laugh when he took me to Sunday Mass. There were angels painted on the ceiling of the church. I would pretend to shoot them with my fingers. My mother thought it was terrible. One Sunday when we were returning from Mass, he bought me and my twin brother a little toy with a sucker attached. My toy was a plastic Dilly Dally doll from the Howdy Doody Show. I still have it and keep it among my Christmas ornaments. -- Peter Jude

Peter Jude also recalls Chuck worked for the IRS as a collections agent, and, at least at one time, he obtained a second job driving a taxi to help make ends meet.

We were poor when I was growing up. In order to save money, my father was beginning to learn how to cut hair. He would practice cutting my older brother's hair, my twin brother's hair and my hair. I still have the barstool he would sit us on to cut our hair. I hated it because I would get hair all down my back. 

The family also lived in three different homes in Indiana. The first home the family lived in was at 2710 Mauldin Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Charles and Edith did not have enough money for a down payment on the home, so the construction company allowed them to paint the home instead of providing a down payment.

The house in Ft. Wayne.. was grey... had two bedrooms and one bath, a small kitchen and a living room. There was a utility room next to the kitchen. It had a large back yard. My mother use to plant vegetables in the rear of the back yard. 

At the end of the street there was a ditch that froze over every winter. Pat and I would go play on the ice. Yes, we would break through the ice, get our feet wet and then get punished for it. -- Peter Jude.

They did not stay there long, however, and moved to Culver, Indiana, renting out their home in Ft. Wayne. I do not know why they needed to move.

There was a big empty lot behind the house in Culver, [and] we lived only two blocks from a lake there. Mickey, Pat and I used to go swimming there nearly every day... We didn't live in Culver long, [for] my mother hated the house [there.] So, after a very short time, we moved to Hunnington, Indiana... The house [there] was two stories. It was so big that my parents did not have enough furniture to put in all the rooms. There was one room that only had one kitchen chair in it... I do not know how long we lived there. But we finally moved back to 2710 Mauldin Dr. That is where we lived when my father died.-- Peter Jude

Charles died the morning of March 26, 1956, 2:00 AM. According to Peter Jude, Edith was asleep in one room with her two youngest children, while Charles slept in the other with the older three, the twins in their bunk.

Unfortunately, the family had no money, and Charles died without any life insurance. Edith barely had enough money to pay for his funeral, after which she moved back home to New Orleans to live with her parents so they could help raise the children.

Charles' obituary states he died of a heart attack, however, his death certificate states that he died of asphyxia, caused by an epileptic seizure. My only guess for the discrepancy is that, in getting out the news of his death, the suspicion was a heart attack and an autopsy later determined otherwise. Peter Jude seems to suspect that the seizure was brought on from a possible lasting brain injury resulting from when he was beaten by the robbers eighteen months prior to his death. A doctor had prescribed medication following the attack that Charles stubbornly refused to take. In any case, his passing was and is a heartbreaking one, not only to those who knew him well and loved him dearly, but also to his children who never really got to know him, and to his grandchildren who wish they could have met him.

Chuck was buried on Braddock Hill in his home state of Pennsylvania.

TIMELINE

CHARLES "CHUCK" DEROY FAGAN
21 Jan 1921		born		Pennsylvania
about 1923		adopted		by Arthur and Anna Fagan
about 1920s - 1930s		resided		Fagan Farm, Butler Pennsylvania
early to mid 1940s		military		New Orleans, The Pacific, possible other places
mid 1940s		resided		Fort Wayne, IN
19 Nov 1946		married		Edith Rita Jacob, in New Orleans
late 1940s to mid 1950s		resided		Fort Wayne, IN
about 1950s		occupation		IRS Collections Agent
1954		beaten		by robbers
26 Mar 1956		died		@ Age 35, Fort Wayne, IN
late Mar 1956		interred		Braddock Hill, Pittsburg, PA

The photos below are the only other photos I have of Charles. In the one second from the right, he is sitting with his adopted son Mickey. I can only image he could empathize with adoption. (Like all pictures, click on them to enlarge):

Footnotes:

*1 The actual age of Chuck's adoption is unknown; His descendants can only guess at the age.

Sources:

1. 1930 U.S. Census, Pennsylvania, Butler, Butler, District 14, Sheet 50B,

   http://search.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=an&dbid=6224&iid=PAT626_2009-0685&fn=Anna+T&ln=Fagan&st=r&ssrc=pt_t2611931_p-1333805203_g32768&pid=50056058

2. Random Bulletin Board Posts on ancestry.com, by Ellie Cochran.

3. Oral and Written Histories, Peter Jude.

4. Edith Jacob's Family Bible.

5. Peter Jude's Baby Book

6. Newspaper Obituary (Publication and Date unknown)

7. Death Certificate, Charles Deroy Fagan