Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

From Factory Floor to Fighting Ring: Another Eastland Story

• Natalie Zett • Season 2 • Episode 92

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This episode opens with my reflection on our podcast's year-end Buzzsprout statistics, which revealed some surprising reach - listeners in 17 countries, 49 episodes (soon to be 52--I hope!), and 1,910 downloads. I share my special appreciation for our unexpected following in Coloma, Wisconsin (population abt. 460), where an incredible 33% of the village has become loyal listeners.

 I discuss how this podcast has evolved from simply telling my family's story into a broader mission of documenting and preserving the many untold stories of the Eastland disaster. As I mention, some of these episodes seem to "write themselves," similar to Jim Harold's observation about his Campfire podcast, where themes naturally emerge and converge sometimes.

 The main story focuses on Frank Fuka, a 19-year-old Western Electric worker and amateur boxer who fought under the name "Young Hanlon." Through detailed genealogical research, I uncovered how this young man lived a remarkable double life – working as an assembler by day while making a name for himself in the boxing rings of Chicago and surrounding areas.

 I share the story of Frank's family, including the tragic coincidence that his brother Stanley also died in 1915, just months after Frank, from a reported rabies infection. The episode explores the Fuka family's life in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood, and Frank's early start in the workforce at around age 14.

 A highlight of my research reveals Frank's victory in the 135-pound division at the Irwin Opera House in St. Charles, Illinois. I explore the rich history of this venue and its significance in the local boxing scene. The episode also features a fascinating tangent about women's boxing in 1915, including society women paying $25 an hour for boxing lessons - a surprising discovery that challenges our assumptions about the era.

 The story comes full circle as I share the remarkable achievements of Frank's niece and nephew - one becoming a Bronze Star recipient and Illinois EPA director, the other a pioneering feminist who helped establish NOW's Sacramento chapter. Their accomplishments leave us wondering what Frank might have achieved had his life not been cut short.

 Key Points:

  • Frank Fuka worked at Western Electric for 5 years before his death
  • He boxed under the name "Young Hanlon"
  • His family lived in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago
  • The episode includes details about amateur boxing in early 20th century Chicago
  • Surprising connections to women's boxing in 1915
  • The lasting impact of the Fuka family legacy through his niece and nephew

Links and Sources:

Natalie Zett:

Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Why? Hello? This is Natalie, and welcome to episode 92 of Flower in the River podcast. So I'm going to read something I wrote recently on Instagram, and if you're on Instagram, please follow me and I'll follow you back. I'd like to know you. I wrote this piece and I entitled it the River Remembers, but Will we? And this was inspired by the year-end statistics that Buzzsprout, which is my hosting platform, gives to all of its podcasters, and it's pretty interesting, I wrote.

Natalie Zett:

When I first pressed record on this podcast, it was just me and my family's story and a genealogist's curiosity, but moving along and wanting to expand this world. But moving along and wanting to expand this world, I quickly realized and was quite shocked to see that the Eastland disaster held so many untold or undertold stories and, given the amount of time that passed from then till now. These stories were slipping away like leaves on the Chicago River. I couldn't let that happen. A podcast felt like the perfect vessel beyond a book, beyond another piece of writing or a blog. But the podcast. There's no borders, no time limits, and wow, what a journey this has been Listeners in 17 countries, 49 episodes. Actually, by the end of this year I should have 52. And 1,910 downloads of history that refuses to be forgotten. And this surprised me, to be honest with you, because what I was really doing with this podcast when I realized that so much had not been told and had been left. I wanted to make a record, a historical record, so anyone could locate this and it would be part of the permanent record of the Eastland disaster. It was obvious that was not going to happen unless somebody did something about it. So that's why and let's talk about unexpected gifts A huge shout out again to Coloma or is it Coloma?

Natalie Zett:

They've not told me. Wisconsin, population 460, where still, as of this moment, 33% of this village has become my most loyal fans. Whatever magic you're brewing out there, save me a cup. This is awesome. And behind these numbers is the heart of why this matters so much. In the image that I posted on various socials there is an overlay of the statistics of the podcast. Behind that image is the photo of the 2nd Regiment Armory in Chicago. It's where my grandmother joined countless families on that devastating day searching for her teenage sister lost in the Eastland disaster.

Natalie Zett:

Some wounds, even after a century, still echo through the generations and I can tell you that is true and in a way, I'm honored to carry on the mission of Chicago Cemetery, lady Helen Sclair, as an advocate for the dead. Their stories aren't just history, they're a part of who we are, not just us Eastland families, but all of us who have experienced this tremendous loss either in our ancestors' past or in our own. This is for you. Season three is already shaping up and I have a massive backlog of stories that I need to get to and some new ones that keep popping up. So thanks again for listening and for sharing and for helping all of these forgotten flowers in the river to bloom again. Let's get on with it.

Natalie Zett:

I was listening to Jim Harreld's Campfire podcast. He talks a lot about coincidences, since his podcast is primarily about the unexplained experiences that ordinary people have, and he said, sometimes these episodes write themselves and what he was saying is that people at the same time or close to the same time will submit their stories separately, obviously to be on this show, and the stories will have a similar theme and then, as a result, there's his theme for that particular episode. Well, it's definitely not the same type of podcast, definitely not the same type of podcast, but I also find, like Jim, that a lot of times these podcast episodes sometimes do seem to write themselves Not always, but sometimes. As I research each week, I'm looking at long-lost records, people who were associated with the Eastland disaster, people who were associated with the Eastland disaster and the only information available about them is that they were associated with the Eastland disaster, their date of birth, date of death, oftentimes their ethnicity and where they're buried. That's pretty sparse.

Natalie Zett:

The people of the Eastland were more than names, birthdates and cemetery records, than names, birthdates and cemetery records. They were real people with hopes, struggles and stories Mothers, dads, children, workers, dreamers. Their lives weren't defined by the dates carved on their gravestones, but by the love, resilience and humanity that they brought into this world, albeit very briefly. My goal in this podcast is to see them as they truly were not as date points in history. I have to say that the people of the Eastland, they are really interesting, I mean, every week.

Natalie Zett:

I just think I would love to have known you in life, because the stuff you did, the things you observed, how you lived your life is fascinating to me. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to a teenager. Yep, there are a lot of teenagers that make their appearances in this podcast, including my great aunt, who was 19 years old when she died, and I have another 19-year-old to introduce you to, and he didn't live a long time, but he covered some tracks in his life and he was part of a greater cultural thing that was going on in Chicago and in the world at that point, and I want to talk about that too, because that helps fill in what the early 20th century in the United States particularly, though, in Chicago look like. Are you ready? I would like to introduce you to Frank Fuca. The last name is spelled F-U-K-A, and I will introduce you to Frank via his obituary, but then we will go backwards. We're going to go even further back in time and you're going to learn about him and a passion that brought focus and discipline into his life. Here is his obituary from the July 31st 1915 Chicago Tribune. 1915 Chicago Tribune. Frank Fuca, 19 years old, 4253 West 21st Street, was a professional boxer fighting in the lightweight division under the name of Young Hanlon. He was the son of Frank and Antoinette Fuca and had four brothers and two sisters. He worked for Western Electric Company as an assembler for five years. The funeral was held Friday at the Bohemian National Cemetery cemetery.

Natalie Zett:

Since I research very quickly to get these episodes out to you each week, I have learned to go directly to the place where I might find information. So instead of going to official organizations where, quite honestly, I don't find very much. I usually had to find a grave and I have had the most good fortune with that when it comes to Eastland disaster victims, and that definitely was the case for Frank Fuca. And I have to say this was really incredible, because Find a Grave not only had a photo of Frank, they had photos of the grave site at Bohemian National Cemetery and photos of his family, his mom, his dad, his siblings, his nieces and nephews, and I will talk about them as well.

Natalie Zett:

And it is a reminder that when you go to a place, for example, and you just see a name or a listing, that keeps an emotional distance between you and that person. But when you see this family, when you see them in context or you might think, huh, they kind of look like my family. They're dressed differently, sure, but they resemble some of my relatives. Or hey, this guy has the same number of siblings as I have. Something like that can pull you in and it's a reminder that these people are not numbers. You and I are not numbers. We're people, were people. And Frank's life also could not be summed up by just his date of birth and death. He was a son, a brother and a part of a family and a part of a lot that was going on in Chicago for young people.

Natalie Zett:

At that point, let me tell you another place that I go to when I'm researching Eastland disaster victims. It is the Cook County Coroner's Report. But I have to clarify this for you and please hang in there with this, because it really gets confusing and that's what makes doing genealogy both thrilling sometimes and very frustrating at other times. Years ago, when I was relatively new to doing this work, I downloaded two different, or what appear to be two different copies of the Cook County Coroner's Reports for the Eastland disaster victims. I say appears, because they weren't labeled really well and when I went back to try to find them again, they seemed to no longer be on Google Books. So I'm glad I downloaded them.

Natalie Zett:

But here's what we're going to run into. We're going to run into the fact that the names and other information don't match up for our person, and that would be Frank Fuca. So I want to explain that to you. I know it can be confusing, but this is part of the story as well, and sometimes it's my theory as to why it hasn't been better documented, because it does make your head blow up. It really does, and you have to really hang in there and understand that you will make errors and you're going to have to correct those errors later on, but sometimes you have to get the information out there, doing the best you can with the best source citation you can. So that's the story behind this.

Natalie Zett:

So in one of these Cook County coroner's reports that lists the Eastland disaster victims that they knew of at that point, there is a person with the surname of Fuca. The Cook County Coroner's Report had him listed as Stanley Fuka. Was this simply a typo or is something else going on here? Don't forget, there's another Cook County Coroner's Report or something that looks like that. And what does that show us? Well, this one has a listing of Frank Fuca and it seems to be correct insofar as it matches our obituary. But we need to go back to that very first document that we found. This person is listed as Stanley Fuca, age 21, not 19. With parents, frank and Antoinette. That matches the obituary I read to you and also listed five siblings William, otto, george, antoinette and Blanche.

Natalie Zett:

So I was wondering what is going on here. Why do these two documents have two different names for the same surname, when obviously it was just the one person killed on the Eastland in that family? Or was there another brother killed? And I think there was some confusion, because Frank did have an older brother whose name was Stanley, and get this. This is incredible. Stanley also died in 1915, but not on the Eastland. He died in October 1915 at age 21.

Natalie Zett:

My current theory is that this other list was compiled well after the Eastland disaster took place and that could explain the error in the report. But what happened to Stanley Fuca? Why did he die in October? Was he on the Eastland? Was he in the water. What I did find on Find a Grave under Stanley's bio is that his death was the result of a tragic incident, and this does need to be researched further. But Stanley was reportedly bitten by a dog and died from rabies, and I do need to verify this. But what I have verified is that Stanley had just gotten married in March 1915. So Stanley gets married in March of 1915. His brother is killed in July of 1915. And then he dies in October 1915. In October 1915.

Natalie Zett:

Let's go back just a little bit in time in this family's history. The 1910 census in Chicago tells us that our Eastland victim, frank, was 14 years old in 1910, and he was already working as a clerk in an artist shop. The census doesn't give us any more details than that. It did say that he never attended school but he could read and write. He was living with his parents and his parents and his mother's parents. They all came from what is now Czech Republic. In the 1910 census there were seven siblings and they ranged in age from 17 to three years old. Again, the census. You always have to double check that against things like birth records and other records to make sure that's accurate. But that is what they have at that point.

Natalie Zett:

And here's another detour I made as I was researching Frank's life. There's another interesting detail from 1912 that really needs further investigation. So, janik Sikakowski I hope I'm pronouncing that right that was a Polish newspaper and it reported that a Frank Fuka, a man named Frank Fuka and a woman named Malgorzata Zegler she may have been Polish applied for a marriage license on October 10, 1912. So in this announcement, frank Fuka's age is listed as 21. If this was our Frank, he was only 17 at that point. And Malgorzata's story? She was 19 at the time and I tried researching her under that name. I definitely need to do a deeper dive on her because I could locate absolutely nothing other than this newspaper article. But I need to look under variations of this surname and that'll take a little more time. But genealogy people, you know what I'm talking about with this, so never fear, we'll come up with something. It's just going to take more time, that's all.

Natalie Zett:

So at the time of his death, frank's family had settled at 4253 West 21st Street in what appears to be the North Lawndale neighborhood. Their home and this is remarkable might still be standing At least that's what it looks like on Google Maps, which is really fascinating. If this is the correct home, it's a beautiful what I call a Chicago-style brick three flat, the kind that was built to maximize space on narrow city streets. So it's got the flat roof, the bay windows and intricate decorative brickwork. It's really gorgeous and those are all hallmarks of Chicago's working and middle-class housing of the early 20th century. At some point I would love to have an expert on Chicago architecture, specifically architecture from that period, come on my podcast and talk a little bit about this, because I know as much as I know from research, but I only have a cursory knowledge of this. But it tells us so much about the people and about the time that I really would like to be able to unpack that with you at some point. So, fingers crossed, I have a person in mind for that.

Natalie Zett:

So I already shared Frank's obituary with you, but I found another article. Check this out Frank. Like many of us, he had a side hustle. He was living a remarkable double life. So by day he worked as an assembler at Western Electric, where he had been employed get this for five years. He was a young teenager when he started working. No wonder he applied for a marriage license at age 17, because probably in his life experience he was an adult already, even though he wasn't an adult chronologically by our standards, but he was already carving out a name for himself in the boxing ring. So this article is actually part of a larger article that appeared in the Interocean and I'll read you the headline, although you're going to feel as if you came in the middle of a movie. But the headline is Richie's manager balks on H Stout as referee. That's the first part, and then the subheading is Harry Foley declares he will not stand for Milwaukee man in bout with wool gas Thursday night. I'm not sure what all that means, but that's not germane for what we're talking about here, and I'm going to read to you the very last paragraph that talks about some boxers.

Natalie Zett:

Lewis Carroll won from Ed Finkelstein in the 115-pound class in the finals of the amateur tournament held at the Irwin Opera House in St Charles, illinois, friday night. In the 125-pound class, the bout between Frank Smart and James Stepp was so even that after four rounds of fast work the judges couldn't pick a winner and it was decided that each should receive the first prize medal. Frank Fuca that's our Frank was the winner over Jack Finkelstein in the 135-pound division, while Jack Lindgren defeated Ed Bala in the welterweight class. The special bout between Charles Koston of St Charles and Ivan Denich was won by the former with a KO in two rounds. The club will stage another tournament the latter part of the month. This is the only article that I could find about Frank Fuca in his fighting role, but there it is and I thought that was pretty cool. And also here's another thing that I searched. And also here's another thing that I searched. So this Irwin Opera House was located in St Charles, illinois. That is a city located approximately 35 miles west of Chicago, and here's a little bit of history about this place. The current population is around 32,000, so it's not a huge place is around 32,000, so it's not a huge place. The largest entertainment venue until the 1920s was the Irwin's Hall, which held around 450 people. This venue was located on the third floor of a structure at the end of Irwin's Block, now a parking lot next to Szechuan and Forever Yogurt now a parking lot next to the Szechuan and Forever Yogurt.

Natalie Zett:

William Uncle Bill Irwin came to St Charles in 1840 and was known to be extremely eccentric. He owned and kept the North Cemetery and Ice House and purchased an entire city block between First and Second Streets. He aimed to construct buildings that would stand the test of time, and did so almost. He got to work as soon as he arrived and it was said that parts of the buildings remained unfinished when he died in 1900. His friends from England and Johnson families were the only ones to assist Bill.

Natalie Zett:

While being the personal residence of the Irwins, the block also housed merchants and businesses of all kinds. The largest and most impressive building was Irwins Hall at the block's end, near 2nd Street and Route 31, 3rd Street, the longtime home of Fritz Carlson Clothes Store. The third floor of the building was constructed for the sole purpose of entertainment. In 1883, the building was remodeled with wood inlays and a roller rink was installed. The roller rink doubled as a pedestrian oval and velodrome for speed walking they were ahead of their time and bike races. It was renovated again in 1905 and was also the longtime home of Fritz Carlson Clothiers. Sadly, in the wee hours of June 30, 1958, a fire erupted in the back of the building, then occupied by Kroger Drugs, white Shoes Repair and Nanny's Tailoring Shop. Using the old wooden elevator shaft as fuel, the fire leveled Irwin's hall. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, but Irwin's most impressive building was no more, and this is from the St Charles History Museum.

Natalie Zett:

So what a story. I want to talk a little bit. Actually, I want to talk a lot about boxing. Boxing played a significant role in immigrant communities in Chicago during that period. I focus on 1900, give or take a few years until around 1920, because that's the era that the Eastland disaster took place and that's also the era where so many things were going on with the various immigrant communities. So I'm going to paint with a broad brush here and share that boxing was especially prominent in neighborhoods like the Maxwell Street area, back of the yards and Bridgeport. Boxing gyms often served as important social institutions where young immigrant men could train, socialize and potentially find a path to economic mobility during a time of limited opportunities.

Natalie Zett:

Also, there were amateur boxers and professional boxers, and that too is kind of controversial. At that time period the line between amateur and professional boxing was somewhat fluid, especially in the smaller venues outside of Chicago like this one in St Charles. So while amateur boxers weren't supposed to get direct payments for fights, there were various ways they could earn money through the sport. A lot of times prize money could be disguised as expense reimbursement and side betting was common even in the amateur bouts, and some boxers would maintain amateur status for official tournaments while taking paid fights under different names maybe Young Hanlon. Sometimes companies like Western Electric had their very own factory boxing team. I'm not sure if Young Hanlon, aka Frank Fuca, was part of that, but that means some more research needs to be done on his life and on the history of boxing during that time period. For someone like Frank, working at Western Electric, boxing was more likely a serious hobby rather than a significant source of income. The Western Electric Hawthorne Works was considered a relatively good employer for the time, and a steady factory job would have provided more reliable income than the uncertain world of professional or amateur boxing. So regarding the Irwin Hall Opera House it was called different things, by the way, these types of venues they were common in smaller towns around Chicago, hosting everything from traveling shows to local boxing tournaments. They offered a more controlled environment than some of the rougher Chicago venues, making them popular for amateur events.

Natalie Zett:

So you might be thinking as I did that's great for the young men, but what about the young women? But in 1915, how could it be possible for young women to partake of boxing. Well, as I was researching the day book, and that was published out of Chicago, well, I'm just going to read the headline and read the story to you. This article is from the day book published in Chicago May 4th 1915, same time period. Women pay prize fighters $25 for boxing lessons Great way to reduce. Miss Caroline Bauman, professional boxer who performed for Nixola Greeley-Smith, photographed as she landed a left jab on the jaw of Eddie Toy, the old lightweight who is her instructor. The article is by Nixola Greeley-Smith. This is from New York, but what happens in New York often happens in Chicago and vice versa.

Natalie Zett:

Quote I have just come from a prize fight. I have just shaken hands battling Levinsky, young Aaron, the Brooklyn Dancing Master, knockout Brown, jack Britton, tom Kennedy and other lights of the pugilistic world, and life holds no further mysteries for me. I have seen them box. Don't be shocked. You will betray the fact that you are behind the times if the thought of a woman in a boxing bout gives you the tiniest shiver. New York women are boxing mad After we got tired of tangoing and fox trotting. Need worry no more. They know the answer now we are going to box. Already, many society. Girls are taking lessons in the manly art, and between matches, the young hopefuls of the prize ring are giving them boxing lessons at $25 an hour.

Natalie Zett:

In Paris, of course, women have been going to prize fights quite openly for years. Their husband and brothers take them. They wear full opera dress and the ring is banked with palms and tropical plants, and there are rare Turkish rugs about the stage. Boxing has not reached that state of luxury in New York as yet. Brown's Gymnasium, where I met the cream of the local prize ring, is a bare, dimly lighted place, and the men and women who composed the invited audience and sat about the ring on chairs or benches wore their everyday clothes. Most of the women were veiled, moreover, and wore a furtive air.

Natalie Zett:

Caroline Bauman is the woman boxer I saw. She is now a professional, but is said to have been a Washington DC debutante a few years ago. She looks like Annette Kellerman Not sure who that is. By the way, at the end of a three-minute go-round with Eddie Toy, referee Jack Adler walked to Ms Bauman's corner and lifted her right hand high in the air as a token that she had won the bout. You should have heard the women present applaud and the men cheer. Maybe that bout in which the women won was a frame-up, I don't know about that, but I do know that the three rounds which followed between Jack Britton and Johnny Rice were painfully real.

Natalie Zett:

Knowing nothing of the fine points of the manly art, I did not realize at once that this poor young chap was hopelessly overmatched with Britton, who the man alongside me said is one of the most scientific lightweights now alive. I did notice that Johnny Reese fought head down like a valourious but unscientific small boy, with much arm-waving and plunging, and that he never landed a blow. And I did observe that Jack Britton seemed to float about him and away from him with the airy grace of a pavlova and that he landed where, when and as hard as he pleased on his poor, bewildered, bull-headed opponent. What impressed me most was the amazing swiftness, the startling physical grace of these young fellows. I had spent the afternoon before at a private dance in Isadora Duncan's school, and the flash of white flesh was everywhere as her bare-armed, bare-legged young students surrendered themselves to the silent, visible music of motion. Yet the girl dancers, as I recalled them, were heavy, cumbersome, almost awkward when compared with these slender boxers in their sketchy red, green and purple sweaters as they flashed in lightning rapidity around the ring.

Natalie Zett:

After the fights were over, I talked with Dan Morgan, manager of KO Brown, levinsky and several other fighters. You wouldn't believe how many applications these boys have from young girls here in New York who want to take boxing lessons. He said Some of them have been paid $25 an hour. Mrs Harriet Edward Faze, who sent out the invitations to the bouts, I attended as one of the New York women who have taken up boxing. Quote. It beats dancing as a reducer, she told me, and it's the most blended exercise for increasing the circulation of the blood. I feel 20 years younger since I learned to box. You have no idea how many women in society are learning to box. End quote. At the sport carnival which will be held under the auspices of the Marshall Stillman Association for the benefit of the unemployed in New York City, two young women amateurs who have taken lessons from Jack Britton have promised to box three rounds if they are allowed to appear on the stage masked. I promised them that, but I will not give out their names. End of article.

Natalie Zett:

Okay, don't forget. This is of its time, 1915. However, have you ever heard of women taking up boxing in 1915? I have not, and it's also interesting that although this appeared, this was originally published someplace in New York. The Day Book included it for its Chicago audience.

Natalie Zett:

This is another piece of history that I think ought to be researched, or maybe researched again, because I had never heard of this either. So just looking at 1915, it's interesting to me how something like boxing, which seemed to be of the immigrant community, working class community, made its way to high society quote, unquote. And of course these types of things don't travel linearly, they go back and forth. There's cross fertilization travel linearly, they go back and forth, there's cross-fertilization. So it is fascinating now to learn that women who were thought to be constrained by society found all kinds of ways to break out of those constraints. I hope you enjoyed that. But before we close, I promised you that I would tell you about the niece and nephew of Frank Fuca. These are the children of Frank Fuca's sister, antoinette. These stories also make me wonder what could have happened if Frank had gone on longer in his life. Obviously he had a drive.

Natalie Zett:

Here's the obituary for William Lawrence Blazer. He is the nephew of Frank Fuca and he is the son of Frank's sister, antoinette. William L Blazer died peacefully on February 26, 2018, in Walnut Creek, california, at the age of 94. He is survived by his wife and children. He served in the Navy during World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star After the war. He graduated from Northwestern University and attended Harvard Law School before beginning a career in business. He was a turnaround president for companies as diverse as a chocolate factory, a carpet company, an orange juice processor and a tile term. Later he was appointed by Governor Richard Ogilvie to be director of the Illinois EPA in its formative years In retirement. He was an avid grower of orchids and was active in the Springfield Orchid Society and the Springfield Lake Shore Association.

Natalie Zett:

Let's learn about William's sister now Again. She is the niece of Frank Fuca and her name is Patricia Ann Blazer. Halliday Halliday Patricia Blazer, born August 22nd 1933, died June 27th 2014. Patricia grew up in Brookfield, illinois, the youngest of three children of Antoinette Fuca and William John Blazer. Pat's father died when she was 13. Pat's interest in psychology led her to the University of Wisconsin At 19,. Pat married and soon was a mother of two children and full-time homemaker. The family moved to Fair Oaks, california, in 1962. Pat helped found the Sacramento chapter of the National Organization for Women, also known as NOW, in 1970. She played a major role in the women's movement in Sacramento and she played a major role in the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in California. Her license plate was simply the word equal and it underscores her commitment to equality and empowerment of women.

Natalie Zett:

I'll end there and having learned all this from such a small slice of Frank Fuca's family, obviously this is a very special family and of course I often turn it back to my own family and I wonder about my often turn it back to my own family and I wonder about my Aunt Martha. She already seemed to be a bit of what we call a spitfire at age 19. What could she have done? I don't know, but I have the feeling sometimes that I'm channeling bits and pieces of her as I tell her story and the stories of the other people who joined her in death aboard the Eastland.

Natalie Zett:

Next week I'll have more stories for you from the Eastland and I want to thank you again for joining me. I'm touched that you care about this topic and you care about these people enough to want to know their stories and that you realize that there are so much more to them than just their names, dates of birth and dates of death, and I hope you enjoyed learning about the world of boxing in the early 20th century, in Chicago and beyond. Take it easy, hey. That's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes, and for more information, please go to my website, that's wwwflowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.

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