Jane Elda Eesley

Jane Elda Eesley was the daughter of George Edburn “Bus” Eesley and Edla “Eddie” (Scaife) Eesley, and the younger sister of Richard and Daniel Edburn “Dan” Eesley. She was born 21 March 1938 in Buffalo, New York, where her father was working in the wartime-aircraft industry; she was four when he died in 1942.

Killed at twelve — Lakewood, June 1950

On a Thursday afternoon in June 1950, Jane was killed at twelve when the bicycle she was riding swerved into the side of a truck at Lakewood, Ohio. Her Fremont hometown paper carried the news two days later, on 16 June 1950, under the headline “Eesley Child Mishap Victim.” It records that she “was the first girl to captain the safety patrol at Lincoln elementary school, Lakewood, which she attended” — a small, aching detail given how she died.

She was survived by her mother, Edla Eesley, of Rosalia Avenue in Lakewood, and her brother Richard; her maternal grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Scaife of Florida; her aunt Bess Eesley and grandmother Annie Eesley of Fremont; her aunt Mrs. Jack Cassells of Toronto; and her uncle Albert Eesley of Youngstown. Her funeral was held at the Lakewood Methodist Church.

Jane is the “died tragically in her youth” named, without detail, in her brother Dan’s 2018 obituary — the loss that had shadowed the family for nearly seventy years. She is Chuck’s second cousin once removed on the paternal Eesley side.

Source: “Eesley Child Mishap Victim,” Fremont News-Messenger, 16 June 1950 (family papers, transmitted by Chuck Eesley 2026); Daniel Edburn Eesley obituary, 2018.