Scioto County History- Portsmouth Public Library

http://www.portsmouth.lib.oh.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=8

Scioto County History Charles Hammond

http://thehistoryofsciotocounty.com/

Thanks to Clay Vice and Charles Hammond for this interesting history of the Cultural Center of Our Universe.

My Books- Excellence in Athletics in the Portsmouth Area- Interviewees

Excellence in Athletics in the Portsmouth Area by Sam Kegley ISBN: 1-932344-78-0 A tribute to the athletes of the Portsmouth, Ohio and surrounding areas.
ISBN: 1-932344-78-0
Dick Bendinelli Robin Hagen-Smith Arthur"Skinny" Preston Tom Blackburn Ed Hall Don Queen Jerry "Skip" Bower Erica Hayes-Zinn Bob Salyers Marvin Bowling George Heller Harry Shope Dr. Chester Corbitt Dick Hopkins, Jr. Ron Shumate Stan Doddridge Joe Jenkins Jim "Flip" Spriggs Chuck Ealy Dick Klitch Ron Sturgill Lamoin Elliott Frank Litteral Mike Swearingen Jim Fout Dave Miller Carol & Clay Vice Mark Frazie Ed Miller Clay High School Dr. Keith Gaspich Howard Nance Softball Girls- Curt Gentry Al Oliver Beth McCulloch Earl "Smokey" Gibson Ray Pelfrey Mindy Winters Danny Gilbert Homer Pellegrinon Teresa Ruby Bill Gundlah Glenn Presnell Kellie Vice Kris Vice $19.97

My Books- I, God, & Country Intro

Introduction


I, God, & Country


My interview stories are an effort to emulate Studs Terkel. Mr. Terkel was ninety-five this past 16th of May. He has interviewed well over nine thousand people about a variety of topics and I have interviewed just under two hundred people about topics of my interest. I am a young seventy-four year old. Studs was interested in jazz and an early book of his was on jazz. My interests are more blue-collar in that I have played softball most of my life and still do. My third book was on softball in which I interviewed many players and managers who know the game better than me. I have also compiled posts on Kentucky basketball written by fans on internet forums.

I thought a long time before venturing into these interviews on I, God, & Country. My wife, Jeanie and I have always been Christians, although it has been several years since we have been members of a given church. She often goes with me, but her arthritis is such that she isn’t always up to the task of attending church. In my opinion, this country has wandered quite far from the Christian principles that have meant so much to it in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. I am impressed that so many sincerely are continually worshipping God and showing that they believe in Jesus Christ.

I chose people who I respect in each instance and I knew that many of them would not have the same ideas as I do. In so far as I considered that they were honest and I was interested in their answers, I arranged the interviews. Now that I am wrapping up this my sixth book, I can honestly say that I have been blessed to learn the perspectives of the interviewees whose stories appear here. No, I have not been in complete agreement with many of them; however, I feel fortunate and very grateful that the individuals have consented to sharing their thoughts with me and you, the reader.

For my second book “Acquaintances With Integrity”, George Hyrmer, who was my sons’ mathematics teacher at Westerville South High School, was included. The boys respected Mr. Hyrmer and Jeanie and I knew him better for his work at the high school ball games. George did not disappoint me with his fine story but he did surprise me with a telephone call about a year after the book was published. He said:” You know that book makes such interesting review for me because I can just pick it up and review through any one of the questions or thoughts you posted to each of us and I get new perspectives. I think he is right. This book has only three separate areas for each interviewee, but one can look at the comments on God and Country and then look further into the backgrounds of the one who comments. The book can be read through completely, but it can also be a pick and choose adventure for the reader.

I have wanted very much to meet Studs Terkel, but his health is on the wane, and he is simply working on his memoirs from his home now. He has attended his office in the Chicago Historical Society until the last year. I faxed him several messages a few years ago, but I didn’t catch his eye among the many pieces of correspondence he continues to receive. Thanks to Ina Howard, , Director of communications for The New Press who arranged for his response to an e-mail from me this year, as follows:

My message- “I've been praying, and will continue to pray, that your life may continue to your complete satisfaction, Studs Terkel. Thanks for all of your good works. I'm just one of the many throughout this world, who have delighted in reading them.

With great respect,”

Sam Kegley



----- Original Message -----
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:35 AM
Subject: not so hot


> Dear Sam,
>
> Even though how much I love to contribute to your project or share my
> ideas, I'm sorry that I can't do it anymore. I have been a little under
> the weather especially near-touching 95 and isn't really up for visitors,
> even over the phone. My mind only focus on my memoir that I'm writing.
>
> Thank you very much for your invitation and more power to your project.
>
> Yours truly,
>
> Studs Terkel
>

Believe it or not, that e-mail message from Studs means more to me than a signed home run ball from Babe Ruth would.

As a retiree, my books have not provided a profit to me, although I am fairly close to breaking even thanks to book signings in Portsmouth. I have met and continue to meet such fine people who consent to my inquiries.

Each of these stories is presented in alphabetical order of the last names of the respondents. Please credit me that I displayed honesty in writing my story here before I conducted the first interview for the book. I also sought diligently not to affect the comments of those I interviewed. I sought their perspectives.

I have asked each of these for the interview and made the following Intro available to them:

Intro for interviewees

I …, God …, and Country



I …,


Whatever you wish to say about parents, hometown, dwelling places, siblings, friends, etc.


God …,


Whatever you would like to say about God or your concept of God


Country


Whatever you want to say about the country you dwell in or were born in or both


I am so grateful for each interview and I believe the reader can enjoy these pages.

Portsmouth OH Wikipedia link

Very interesting history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth,_Ohio

Kentucky Basketball- Coach Billy Gillispie

Graford, TX is a small town about sixty miles west of Fort Worth/Dallas. At around five hundred population, the high school was too small to field a football team, so this small town in Texas, where everything is normally bigger, focused on high school basketball. Billy's dad and mother (Wimpy) divorced a few years ago. He has sisters. Dad is a truck driver.

Billy was point guard (he now calls the position lead guard) at Graford HS. Billy grew up tough and got tougher. After finishing college and coaching HS and JR, college and becoming an assistant to coach Bill Self at Tulsa and Illinois. Billy's first head coaching on the Division I level was at Texas El Paso. He brought that school success in three years, in fact they knocked off the Harlem Globetrotters 288 game win streak there, and moved to Texas A & M where he performed further miracle seasons for two years. Kentucky hired him last year after their season ended and coach Tubby Smith moved to Minnesota.

During the 2007-2008 season, it was nearly a miracle that they had enough players each game due to injuries. In spite of that, the Wildcats finished second in the SEC East ahead of FL (last two years NCAA Champions) and Vandy.

The Tornado Tourney (SEC) in Catlanta proved eventful for a Georgia team which had won only two games during the last seven weeks of the SEC season. The tournament was moved to GA. Tech's much smaller gym due to tornado damage to the Georgia Dome. Georgia beat UK , Miss. St. and the two other top seeded teams to win the SEC Tournament Championship in three days play.

We Kentucky basketball fans look forward to the 2008-2009 UK basketball season. Billy wants very much to bring NCAA Championships back to our university and we believe he will do it soon. We are certainly indebted to AD Mitch Barnhart and President Lee Todd for bringing coach Billy Gillispie to Kentucky.

My Books-Cyber-Cat Fans

CYBER-CAT FANS



University of Kentucky Basketball Season

2005/2006




Preface:



This will be my fifth book since 2001. I’m a retired University of Kentucky

metallurgical engineer who started my books upon retirement in 1998. I’ve chosen

topics I know somewhat about, but, normally pick interviewees who know the

topics much better than I do. This will not be a team insiders’ view of the program,

rather it will be a copying and pasting of threads or posts onto my book site,

mainly, if not entirely, from the www.wildcatnation.net site.


I’ve been a fan of Kentucky basketball since my Highland schoolyard basketball playing

days (in Portsmouth, Ohio) around 1946, when Kentucky perennially led the nation in college basketball.

It is no secret that Kentucky is still a team to beat in college basketball.

Wildcat fan sites have proliferated in the nineties and the two thousands

because of UK’s continued success with a variety of coaches and players and the growth of the internet.


I’ve solicited the approval of a few UK friends whom my wife, Jeanie, and I have

met through the web sites and through attendance at Kentucky games at many

different venues. Jeanie and I were very fortunate to meet Mel McCane, the

originator of www.wildcatfaithful.com , who died in November 2005 at too young an age (in his

fifties). God, please rest our beloved benefactor.


My intent in beginning this current venture is to select pertinent and

interesting posts by the many different posters. I must apologize to those

journalists (I am not a journalist), who report every incident about a topic,

good or bad, so long as it is sensational. I am looking for the good and will

stop the project, rather than write anything which embarrasses the great

University of Kentucky or the Commonwealth of Kentucky.


I am a Portsmouth Ohio native whose dad migrated eastward about 30 miles to

from Vanceburg, Kentucky. Dad , Forest E. Kegley, Sr., was only ten years old then.

After attending Ohio University Portsmouth Branch for four years to obtain a year

and a half of credits for engineering, I transferred to UK to obtain my Bachelor of Science in Metallurg-

ical Engineering. After a thirty -seven year engineering career, I retired and began

by writing my unpublished memoirs for my then too-young -to-read grandchildren, with hopes

that they may read them with a little interest later on in their lives.


I have always enjoyed Studs Terkel’s writings. Studs became 93 years old on

May 16 , 2005 and has interviewed over 9,000 people to write their stories in his books.

Of course he is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a very well known Chicago author and

radio host. I’m sure that my mother must have listened to him because he was also an

actor on radio soap operas.


As a young reader, I read many sports hero’s books (such as those written by

Clair Bee and Matt Christopher) where the main character would

usually attend a small fictional college and excel to win the big game-with

small conflicts and resolutions along the way. I also enjoyed listening to

Friday night Bill Stern sports stories on the radio. My four previous books have been

interview stories of the people I have chosen, depending upon the topic I have chosen. I have interviewed just over 150 people to date.

I am 73 now, and young, relative to Studs.


The love of Kentucky basketball is, more or less, a sickness, which, when people

are inflicted with it, they are not likely to seek nor desire a cure during

their lifetime of sports entertainment. With no disrespect for the

great “esprit de corps” of the United States Marines (I was a draftee onto the

Army during the Korean conflict), I declare that Kentucky basketball fans, with their extreme loyalty

for Kentucky basketball teams, have the similar dedication I believe each marine has for our great free country.


The National Basketball Association (NBA) is attracting the most

exceptional athletes today with its big, big money, while

the college coaches must continue to swim in shark infested waters (scouts

seeking talent for the big leagues); however, college basketball always presents

better entertainment in my honest opinion. Coaching in the pros takes

special talent, but the players appear often to have condescending attitudes to their

professional coaches who are often paid a salary that is lower than themselves.


This will be a different book for me because the threads or posts by the individual posters on the

internet will actually be the story presented, rather than interview stories. If our glorious God in Heaven grants me

continued living and lets me be able, the book should not be completed and

published until the Spring of 2006 after the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) season Final Four. I know that

Jeanie and I will enjoy Kentucky basketball, but none of us knows what this season will bring the

University of Kentucky basketball team, or any other college team. We will see what occurs and how the

posters portray the events.


Sam Kegley aka SamKat -

Preface written in the spring of 2005- edited by Sam in the spring of 2006

My Books- W.C.Denison "A 20th Century Entrepreneur

W.C. (Bill) Denison:

The Man

and

His Company


I am a metallurgical engineer who went to work for Abex/Denison Division in March 1967, about four years after the death of W.C. (Bill) Denison. Mr. Denison began the Denison Engineering Company in 1931 and sold it in 1955 to American Brake Shoe. American Brake Shoe, later renamed Abex, manufactured brake shoes and owned and operated more gray iron foundries than any other company in the world.

I learned from other Denison workers that although W.C. didn’t always pay the highest wages in Columbus, Ohio, his company was well respected as a place to work. One employee said it was considered second in the city only to General Motors’ Ternstedt Division. John Fairchild, an employee for a short time in 1946 and later a sales manager for PPG, told me that a newspaper article in the late ’40s listed W.C. as one of the ten highest-paid executives in Ohio, at $275,000 per year.


My interviews of other Denison workers for this book confirmed my impression of W.C. as a benevolent boss, but one who had high expectations for each and every employee. Once, he called the plant from California, and the young operator answered the phone with a simple “H’lo.” W.C. asked, “Whom am I calling?” “Oh, Denison,” the operator replied. “Who do you work for, young lady?” W.C. asked. “Denison,” she replied again. “Not anymore, you don’t!” Bill said. “I am W.C. Denison. Please go to personnel and tell them I just fired you. I expect our operators to answer the telephone in a friendly, businesslike manner, with ‘Hello, this is the Denison Engineering Company.’ ”

I guess I had repeated that story to a few friends in and out of Denison without being sure that it was true until John Cox verified it for me. “Oh, yes,” John said. “That was a true story. In fact, the company president called me into his office and effectively said, ‘John, I want you to fire so and so,’ ” referring to the operator, who worked for John at the time. John steadfastly refused, but the operator---a good employee, according to John--- was let go.

John, now 96, was close to Mr. Denison because of his ability to execute W.C.’s wishes expediently. Mr. Denison was cosmopolitan and lived well wherever he traveled in the pre- and post-World War II era. Like most successful entrepreneurs, he was an eclectic thinker and did not confine his operations to the United States. John, as export manager, was extremely valuable to him in setting up a network of European distributors and also helped arrange his overseas itineraries. John established such a niche for himself that he was almost immune to direction from the man who succeeded Mr. Denison as company president.

After W.C. was graduated from Culver (Indiana) Military Academy, he worked as a salesman for the Willard Storage Battery Company in Cleveland. He met and married Naomi Wilson of Toledo before returning to his hometown of Delaware, Ohio, as general manager of Cook Motor Co. in 1921. He acquired the company---in which his father was a major stockholder---in 1925 and reorganized it under the name of the Denison Engineering Company in 1931.

Frank Norris, Francis Cavanaugh, Howard Levenhagen, and Eulala Smith were among the the company’s first employees. Frank was W.C.’s first shop foreman. His sons Bob and Paul became manager of the Delaware plant and company president, respectively. Clarence “Ducky” Hughes was an early manufacturing leader for W.C., and Ducky’s son, Jack, was later a plant manager. Among others interviewed for this book, Vic Blasutta was a vice president of Abex/Denison Division; Bill Bohannan was manager of the Marysville plant and later vice president of manufacturing; Vic Preidis was a service center manager; and Bruce Horne succeeded Paul Norris as president in 1970.




One of the company’s first products was a hydraulic pusher rod for propelling cars through ceramic kilns. The application not only solved a long-standing problem for the Denison family’s ceramic company in northern Ohio (which was managed by Bill’s brother George) but became used throughout the ceramics industry.

Bill Denison was an entrepreneur in the pure sense of the word. Beyond the pusher rod, he envisioned the widespread application of fluid power to all industrial needs. He watched hydraulic developments closely and pushed his research department for new products. As World War II began, he obtained contracts from the military and began developing an expanded line of hydraulic presses, pumps, motors, and valves to provide the “controlled muscle” of hydraulics to ships’ steering and a wide variety of military applications. Denison presses, since used by most manufacturers all over the world, were used to load shells for the military. The presses were manufactured at the 1160 Dublin Road facility. The plant and the property it sat on, in Columbus’s “Golden Finger” along Dublin Road, has since been sold and converted to other uses.

Denison’s government work served the war effort and added to W.C.’s wealth. The Denison line of piston pumps became recognized as the “Cadillac of its industry.”

Bill Denison made it a point to get into his factory and become acquainted with each worker. He would converse with longtime employees and address them by their first name no matter where he ran across them, even at the famous downtown Columbus intersection of Broad and High.

Year-end bonuses were given at the discretion of Mr. Denison. Cecil Adams’s bonuses were reportedly among the highest because of the brilliance W.C. recognized in him. Cecil was not an engineer, but he was aptly described by Ellis Born, a graduate engineer, as “an intuitive genius.” Mr. Adams was posthumously named Ohio’s Inventor of the Year in 1976, an honor Ellis himself received in 1992. Cecil held more than 100 patents in the United States and a similar number of hydraulic patents overseas.

W.C. liked to gather the employees and hand out awards. According to Bill Alexander, Art Scott, a dedicated employee, was so moved by one of the boss’s benevolent gestures to his workers that he stood up and said something like, “Mr. Denison, if you aren’t the kindest employer in the world, I don’t know who would be.” As he was sitting down after his declaration, Mr. Scott missed his chair and landed right on the floor.

By the time W.C. sold the company to American Brake Shoe, Denison had three manufacturing plants in central Ohio (in Columbus, Delaware, and Marysville), a Service Center and the Denison Research Center in Columbus, and manufacturing and/or distribution outlets in Europe and Japan. Denison products were marketed through a wide array of distribution channels in the fluid power industry.

Away from work, W.C. loved ham radio operations. Ken Goodman, Bill Bohannan, Bob Clouse, and Dan Umberger provided the ham station at Mr. Denison’s farm with many “voluntary” hours of service. W.C. later donated the station to the original Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, itself a great idea that Mr. Denison supported. COSI reopened in 2000 at a new location in downtown Columbus and remains one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world.

W.C. also loved amateur softball of the fast-pitch kind and sponsored a fine team in a highly competitive league in Columbus. Bill “Tink” Taylor, who worked in the Columbus plant and had been a star quarterback and all-around athlete for Grandview Heights High School, was one of the finest second basemen of his day and in the summer of 2000 was inducted into the Ohio Softball Hall of Fame. Mr. Denison used to invite Tink into his office to talk about softball and other interests. Tink was an affable conversationalist and knowledgeable about many things, especially sports.

This book will discuss W.C. Denison’s company from its inception through 1978, when I left it. Although I have borrowed from company histories written by marketing manager Bill Alexander, I’m sure that many of the important contributors to Denison manufacturing and the fluid power business have gone unmentioned. I apologize for that. This book is not a comprehensive history, and much of it must be taken as hearsay, long-ago incidents as remembered by the interviewees, many of them, including me, now in their sixth through tenth decades of life.

Mr. Denison knew how to live well and enjoyed rich living, but he also maintained a sincere respect for those who contributed to the company’s success. I hope that the stories in this book convey that.


Sam Kegley
December 2001

My Books- Softball "It Don' Matta" Introduction

Softball

January 5, 2003



I want to write about softball people because I believe it is an understated game. Men and women of any station in life can play the game; however my oldest son, Jay, calls it a blue-collar sport. It certainly isn’t in the elite category of golf or tennis, although I have known some truly fine individuals to play softball.

I’ve made my pre-list of several people that I want to interview and I hope to get in touch with at least 30 of them, which seems now to be enough length for my books.

At age 70, I’ve nearly waited too long for some I consider to be truly great in my softball experiences. An early softball hero to me in Portsmouth, Ohio was Bill Berry. In getting in touch again after 35 years away from town, I find that the 82 year-old Bill has Alzheimer’s, but I did get an abbreviated interview with the help of his son, Jeff. Fortunately long time memory is maintained better in cases of dimentia and Bill could remember some names and teams from his experience.

Portsmouth had many fine athletes and Harry Weinbrecht was a good one who spent most of his coaching and teaching career there after growing up in Chillicothe, Ohio, halfway between Portsmouth and Columbus. When I contacted Harry, he said he would be happy to help, but he recommended that I get with Harry Swope, who started the baseball/softball Tri-State Hall of Fame, with Gary Nyland. I did and Harry has already been a tremendous help to me.

I’ve been fortunate to play with some fine people in Portsmouth, Westerville and Columbus, Ohio and watch my sons, Jay and Jeff, play in many games as well.

Years ago, I had read Lowell Thomas, the great adventurer-writer’s, 1940 book on softball. Each spring I’ve thought of these words in the book:

“…Groups of large, small, paunchy, bald-headed, misshapen gents with rare roast beef complexions and in the prime of life began collecting on the meadows of the world to make huge fools of themselves, but to have a whale of a good time.” Yes, I am bald-headed and paunchy and I’ve made a fool of myself more than once, but I have had a whale of a good time. This book is so much less about me than the softball characters I have met or been told of over the 60 years I have watched and 54 years I have played the game.

Columbus has had some of the finest Open, B and C teams in the nation over the eighties and nineties. I contacted Orfeo Angelo who gave the names of some great contributors to the game here. The Lou Berliner diamonds have 30 fields and many have been upgraded in recent years, to make it the largest and one of the finest softball complexes in the world. Orfeo claims that Lou was a 5’7” Jewish fellow who covered amateur athletics in Columbus for one of the three local newspapers in the 50’s and 60’s. Orfeo says that he will help, but he also recommends Jim Wharton, John Fleeman, the black gentleman named Gene (with the unlit stogie always in his mouth), and Shorty Lewis as well as many others.

There was a Bates Chemical “C” team in Westerville, whom my son, Jay, played for, which was managed by Michael Wasylik, the best slow-pitch pitcher I’ve ever seen. That is, admittedly, a subjective call. I want to interview “Was”. He fielded the position extremely well and always made smart and quick managerial decisions.

I brought the King and his Court up on Google. Jim Henry, Joplin Globe Assistant Sports Editor, reported in July of 2002 that Eddie Feigner, the King, was 77 years old and had barnstormed across the country for 57 years out of Richland, Washington. Feigner quit keeping track of his records three years earlier, but it is mind boggling:

· Won 8,270 games of more than 10,000 games he pitched against all comers.
· 930 no hitters
· 238 perfect games
· 1,916 shutouts
· 132,070 strikeouts, including 14,400 blindfolded

In an exhibition game in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium, Feigner struck out, in order, major leaguers Willy Mays, Willy McGovney, Brooks Robinson, Maury Wills, Harmon Killebrew and Roberto Clemente. In the Houston Astrodome, Feigner fanned Hank Aaron, Mays, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams.

At 77, Feigner’s fast ball had slowed to 84 mph from 114 mph in his prime. “I still throw as hard as I ever did,” Feigner says. “It just doesn’t get there as fast.”

“How much do you think Joe DiMaggio made during his best year? Or Ted Williams?” Feigner asked Doug Clark of the Spokesman-Review in 1999. “I’ll tell you. They made $125,000 a year. Well, I used to make that every month.”

It is also my intent to interview key sponsors of some of the finest teams in Columbus. I’d also like to talk with people in the various halls of fame throughout the state. We’ll see how it goes. The stories will have occasional comments by me, but will mostly be the stories of the people whom I interview.

Portsmouth OH Introduction

Many of us moved away from our home town to attend school, work, or whatever. The steel mill was nearly closed in 1950 when I graduated and the railroad was hardly hiring. I went to Columbus and got my first post high school job at the D.L. Auld company. It paid $0.78 per hour for a nine hour day, six days a week. I moved the stamped metal parts (Car emblems and appliance emblems) among various departments. Such parts were used all over the world by manufacturers. After stamping the steel emblems were chromium plated and buffed to fish before shipping.



My brother-in-law, James Dexter White, Joan's husband, helped me get a job at Columbus Coated Fabrics at $1.00 an hour shortly afterwards. After only working and sleeping in Columbus and going home and spending my little earnings on dates with Jeanette Weddington, I decided to return home and join the Navy as my slightly older friends, Don Ramsey and Paul Stamm had recently done. That required a four year enlistment during that time of the Korean War and, after talking with a few of my WW II friends, I found that not many of them had served the entire duration of the four plus years of WW II. The Army was drafting for only two years and I felt that would be enough time away from Jeanie and home. We married in January, 1952 and I was drafted in November for duty beginning on my twentieth birthday, November 13, 1952. In the meantime, I obtained a job in the shipping room of Williams Shoe Company and we set up housekeeping in furnished apartments.



After service in Japan, I returned and we lived in Forest Heights and eventually bought a house at 2114 High Street in Portsmouth. Our son, Jay, was born there and we lived there until January, 1959, when he was three. I was working then at Goodyear Atomic Corporation, mainly as a metallurgical technician in the Metallurgy Department. I resigned and matriculated to the University of Kentucky (December, 1958) and the three of us moved to Lexington, KY. I had been attending Ohio University's Portsmouth Branch for six years to obtain 1 1/2 years of engineering credit. Not a lot of engineering courses were offered at the branch and I had to recruit enough students to obtain most of my classes so that professors from Marshall U or Ohio U in Athens would make the trip to teach us.



After obtaining my Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering, we moved back to Portsmouth and GAT re-hired me for the Metallurgy Department. After short abodes in Forest Heights and Kent Street apartments, we bought a house in Eden Park from a friend, Dave Spriggs, Jim's older brother. We lived there six years until I was hired by the Abex Corporation, Denison Division as their Division Metallurgist. We moved to Westerville in July, 1967 and have lived in this same house for nearly forty-one years now.



I played only intramural sports at PHS, but began playing Church League basketball and softball when I was sixteen. We attended Central Christian Church and had some very fine softball teams there. I played some industrial fast pitch in Columbus for an American Welding tteam with a few other Denison employees. By that time it was nearly all slow pitch in Columbus. I began fast pitch Church league play and slow pitch n Westerville not long after.



Dad had died of a massive heart attack during my first semester at UK. Mom and the younger kids were still at home on McConnell Ave. and we made frequent trips down Rt. 23 to home.



We were out of Portsmouth, but Portsmouth was not out of us while living in Westerville. Jay, then twelve, would have preferred to go back and live with my mother and Jeff, only six, didn't appreciate the too frequent trips back home. As the boys became more involved in Westerville sports activities we slowly weaned ourselves away from P'Town. Jay longed nostalgically, to be in Portsmouth and, wanted, hopefully, to eventually play for the Trojans. Instead he became a good ball player of the main sports in Westerville and, through the help of Dick Klitch became a late walk-on at Miami University of Ohio.



I will continue with this at a later time, but hopefully the draw of Portsmouth to me and my family will have been established by this introduction.

Family- Ted Dunham

Ted Dunham


Ted Dunham was born to my mother, Mary Clark Dunham, after his father was killed working on electrical lines after their marriage, probably in the 1920’s.

I don’t have a copy of Ted’s obituary handy, but he must have been born about 1926 and died approximately 1986. He was sixty 60 years old at least, because I remember him saying that he may have been the first Dunham (Wakefield, Ohio family) to live to be sixty.

Mom married Forest Earl Kegley and they started their family.

When I, born 1932, was very young, Ted lived with my mother’s parents Abraham and Mary Elizabeth Clark on Robinson Ave., just west of the Central Baptist Church, which they attended, in Portsmouth, OH.

Joan, 1928, and Forest (Bud), 1930 were the next born to Mary and Forest Earl Kegley. We

lived a while on Murray Street, then Tenth Street across from Tracy Park. I was five
and Ted must have been twelve or so when the 1937 flood hit Portsmouth and many towns along rivers. I remember that the waters came to the attic of our tenth Street house. I don’t know the timing of Grandpa and Grandma Clark’s move to Vinton Ave. just above the Dreamland Pool and well above the flood stage. I vaguely recall our family living there with them.

A sad story, I hadn’t heard, until just a few years ago from Sharon and Sandy was that Mom was downtown with my younger siblings watching a parade. She noticed a ragged kid sitting on the curb across the street. Sadly, she discovered it was Ted and it broke her heart. She and dad then took Ted into our house, then on McConnell Ave.

Grandma and Grandpa were in their late seventies or eighties when they began raising Ted. Grandma Clark, after Grandpa died, had a one bedroom, kitchen and shared bath with us kids on the second floor of the McConnell Ave. home until she passed away. Mom and Dad gladly shared their home, which was crowded with us kids.


Ted and I had a close relationship when I was young. He got me into lifting sash weights as a body building technique. I was proud of him as my big older brother. Ted was tough enough and must have lived a lot on the streets of Portsmouth.

While Ted was living with us at home, I don’t recall a lot of interchange between him and Dad. I believe they had as solid and respectful a step-relationship as can be had. It didn’t appear to me that there was any difference. I credit all- Ted, Mom, and Dad for that.


Anyway, Ted was bright, very well read, and worked in Dayton at Wright Patterson in Dayton for a short time after graduating from Portsmouth High School. Dad drove the family to visit him there and I was so amazed at the size of those WW II aircraft of that day. Wheels much taller than a man.

Shortly after, he went into the Army. The Army sent him to Lake Forest College in Illinois outside of Chicago because of his high aptitude scores on entry tests. As many youngsters do upon college entry, he must have played a little more than he studied. He may have been a late teenager or just into his twenties. I don’t know the circumstances then, but he took basic training in Texas and shipped overseas, shortly after. That was the case during those years when all able bodies were needed for fighting the war.

Ted must have got to Europe as the American troops were invading the continent. I can’t recall from his censored e-mails and they weren’t allowed to reveal any hint of where they were. I believe he was in the Rainbow Division. He shared a few horror stories of war in that his job, as a medic, was to go to the wounded on the front lines and administer first aid and arrange to get them back to safer areas. He saw all types of injuries and death and was in the lines of fire. He was in Germany for occupation for a while after their surrender.

I don’t recall that Ted ever became a Christian, but I will leave that part of his life to him and God. I know he never stopped reading.


It was great when the war ended in 1945 and Ted returned safely. He was married already to Helen Keyser Dunham and they set up housekeeping. They had RoseAnne and Robin in about the same time that Mom and Dad were having the last of the Kegley kids, Sharon and Sandy. Ted was proud as any father could be.

George, Jim, Mary Lou, and Paul had joined Mom’s and Dad’s family from 1937 through 1948 and Ted had lived away from the family much of that time.

He was able to enjoy the freedoms here in America for the remainder of his life, although many of his fighting compatriots were not afforded that opportunity, or, if so, in a somewhat disabled fashion.

I thank my brother, George, for reminding us that we had never thanked Ted for his WW II efforts. That was, after a recent tribute e-mail for those of WW II that are dying due to their old age now. I appreciate that we were not raised as German or Japanese slaves in bondage, but have enjoyed our lives of freedom and as proud Americans.

I pledge to Ted and all old warriors that I won’t forget their valiant efforts. I will fight to the end to protect those freedoms they assured for us in the Big One.


I welcome my siblings to make any additions or deletions and corrections to this brief history of our older brother, Ted Dunham.




Sam Kegley

Family- George Kegley

George Kegley is four and a half years younger than me (birth date: March 7, 1937). George was born with both feet turned sideways- club feet. Of the ten kids to my mother Mary Clark Dunham Kegley, he was the only one with a deformity, although my young sisters, Sharon and Sandy, tell me that mom had a couple of miscarriages between me and George. Otherwise, there was very close to two years between each of us ten kids.

Dad- Forest Earl Kegley- worked as a conductor on the Norfolk and Westerm Railroad between Portsmouth and Columbus. While George was still a baby, they took him to Columbus to a doctor who operated and put his feet in braces. He didn't walk at the normal time a youngster would; however he became very athletic. During the time I was in the Army, 1952- 1954, George was in high school. He had played all sports at Highland Grade School and played freshman football at Portsmouth High School.

He and I played a lot of sandlot- Mound Park and our back yard- together earlier and played on Central Christian Softball Teams together as adults. When we went one on one in anything, he definitely did not want to lose. He would compete to the very end and you darned near had to kill him to beat him. I had an advantage in age and size, but he was definitely the harder competitor.

I had married Jeanette Weddington in 1952 before being drafted for service during the Korean conflict. George met and married Helen Walker Kegley and they proceeded to have five children, Connie, Eddie, Steve, and twins- Linda and Lisa.

George worked two jobs while in Cincinnati, Ford Motor Company and his own gasoline station. He also attended the University of Cincinnati at the same time. Shortly thereafter, he obtained a sheet metal union card and began working construction jobs at various sites across the country. George and Helen are settled now in Plant City FL after living a few other sites in the Gator state.

Connie and Linda live nearby in FL, Eddie in eastern Kentucky, Lisa in the Portsmouth area and Steve in Colorado.

George and I are the closest friends now, being closer in age than Jim and Paul, who are more and more friends as we each age. The age difference as youngsters shrinks in maturity.

My Books-

I have had interviews of Portsmouth OH people in each of my six published books. These are the dear hearts and gentle (not always gentle great athletes) people who who mostly live and laugh in my home town.

For the topics I have chosen, I have normally offered my input. In my 2002 Denison book, I had stories by Marvin Keyer and myself.

For my 2002 Integrity book, I included stories by Dick Klitch,Scott Rawlings, Dr. Myron Taylor, Cy Whitfield and myself.

I dedicated my 2003 Softball book to Wayne widdig and Don Lundy and had sories by: John Baker, Jeff and Bill Berry, Mick Kornhoff, Gene Myers and Shay Myers, Al and Rocky Nelson, Howard Newberry, Bill Newman, and Harry Shope. Jim Wharton had also served as a Sports Editor for the Portsmouth Times and was in the Softball book.

The 2004 Excellence book was all about Portsmouth area people, including: Dick Bendinelli, Tom Blackburn, Jerry "Skip" Bower, Marvin Bowling, Dr. Chester Corbitt, Stan Doddridge, Chuck Ealey, Lamoin "Bugs" Elliott, Jim Fout, Mark Frazie, Dr. Keith Gaspich, Curt Gentry, Earl "Smokey" Gibson, Danny Gilbert, Bill Gundlah, Robin Hagen-Smith,Ed Hall, Erica Hayes-Zinn, George Heller, Dick Hopkins, JR., Joe Jenkins, Dick Klitch, Frank Litteral, Dave Miller, Ed Miller, Howard Nance, Al Oliver, Ray Pelfrey, Homer Pelligrinon, Glenn Presnell, Arthur "Skinny" Preston, Ron Sturgill, Mike Swearingen, Carol and Clay Vice, Clay High School Softball girls, Harry Weinbrecht, and Jack Young.

Cyber-Cat fans in 2006 had chronological posts on a couple of University of Kentucky basketball forums- www.wildcatnation.net and a private message board. None, but from myself- SamKat- were from Portsmouth people there.

My latest book, 2007- I, God, & Country had stories by Frank Golden, Helen Kegley,Jenny Lavender,Laura McDowell, Sarah DuPuy Rapp, and myself.

I have been kicking around an idea for an additional book or just this SamKat blog and T.J. Dupuy has given me sopme valuable nuggets.

I am not too keen at reading and following instructions for computer help, but Shawn Baird, the youngest son of friends Dan and Arelis Baird, recently helped me a lot with the organization of this blog and I am currently workiong to improve it with his guidance.

Family-Tobey Kegley

Tobey Kegley is the nearly 12 year old daughter of Jay and Terri Kegley. Her birthday is July 12, 1996. Her dad is Sam's & Jeanette's, (Jeanie) oldest son, Jay (52 on December 16, 2007).

Tobey is becoming taller and slimmer and is an excellent student in the sixth grade at Upper Arlington Jones Middle School. She works awfully hard at becoming a fast pitch softball pitcher and is on the Watterson's Eagle traveling team this summer. She plays nearly all sports at St. Agatha in Upper Arlington. Softball and volleyball are her favorites. She had piano lessons early and plays a horn in the Jones and St. Agatha bands.

Tobey's nearly 9 year old sister is Ida Scout. She is very much like Tobey in so many ways. Both girls are well-known in UA through sports at St. Agatha. Scout is a student now at Tremont Elementary in UA.

Family-