Who's Who -- Francis & Elizabeth's Family

Francis O'Keefe married Elizabeth McPartland on 8 Sept 1897 in Wheatville, Genesee Co., NY. (see previous blog). I'll be posting more, including photographs, of these two and their lives later.

They had the following children:

Leo Francis O'Keefe - (5 Sept 1900 - 21 Feb 1976)
-- married Leona Fields (see previous posts)

Joseph William O'Keefe - "Joe" (16 Dec 1898 - 1930)
-- married Rita [last name unknown]

Irene O'Keefe (abt. 1905 - ??)
-- married Cletus Martin

M. Helen O'Keefe (1907-1987)
-- married Thomas Brophy

Who's who -- Leo and Leona's Family

Happy Thanksgiving! The above photo was taken on Nov. 26th, 1949 and features Leo and Leona O'Keefe and all their children. I thought the both the photo and the date that it was taken was particulary appropriate to a blog post about who's who in Leo and Leona's immediate family. First some names and then more details:

Front row (l to r): Patrick, Leona, Leo, and Robert
Back row (l to r): Edward, Elizabeth, Leo Jr., Raymond, Mary Louise, and James

From their much documented marriage (see below), Leo and Leona had the following children:
Leo Francis Jr. (b. 1923)
Elizabeth Jane -- "Betty" (b. May 23, 1924, d. Nov. 3rd, 1978)
James Joseph -- "Jim" (b. 1925)
Raymond Carl -- "Ray" (b. 1928)
Edward Michael -- "Ed" (b. 1930)
Mary Louise* -- "Mary Lou" (b. 1937)
Patrick Arthur -- "Pat" (b. 1940)
Robert John -- "Bob" (b. 1945)

*for those of you who want to know how I fit into the picture, Mary Lou is the mother of my wonderful hubby, Ed Scheel.


I'll be posting a single family in each Who's Who, plus including them in a separate label on the side for easy referral. This should help you (and me!) keep everyone straight...

A Marriage... 50 years later

This is Leona & Leo's 50th Anniversary portrait. It appeared in the paper with the following article:

O'Keefe Anniversary

Mr. and Mrs. Leo F. O'Keefe, Sr. will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on May 28, 1972. A Nuptial Mass will be said at 12:30 PM at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. A reception and dinner, hosted by the [couple's] eight children, will follow at Biagio's Restaurant.

Mr. and Mrs. O'Keefe, married in 1922 at Sacred Heart Church in this city, have spent most of their lives in Niagara Falls and reside at 6016 John Avenue.

Leo O'Keefe retired from the Union Carbide Corporation in 1965. Mrs. O'Keefe, the former Leona E. Fields, has been active in many civic organizations.

The couple have six sons and two daughters: Leo Jr. of Kenmore, Mrs. Anthony (Elizabeth) Erickson of Altus, Oklahoma, James and Edward of Niagara Falls, Raymond of Lewiston, Mrs. Kenneth (Mary Lou) Scheel of Grand Island, Patrick of Youngstown and Robert, serving with the Peace Corps in Bangkok, Thailand.

The couple have 34 grandchildren and 5 great grandkids.




There is no date nor the name of the paper on the clipping I have. From the wording of the article, I assume that it is a Niagara Paper and ran in 1972 sometime before the actual date of May 27th. One of the gifts given was a beautiful photo album put together by some of the grandkids, which I have and will be scanning before giving it to my mother-in-law (the aforementioned Mary Lou O'Keefe Scheel). There are a lot of photos in it that you will be seeing up here soon!