Orland and Thelma

[anniegetyourgun]

Welcome to FR.

[Chief Engineer]

Actually there is very little info on either Orland or Thelma. I have been researching this since the end of November and for someone with a Phd. he has less hits than I do! I was able to track him from 1932 onward until 1953 and then he seems to disappear until 1961 when he appears as the owner of the birth announcement house. Next mention of him is as an assistant to Sen. Inouye in 1967. After that I found a paper he wrote in 1971 and some mention of various donations he made to various organizations. The first thing to come up on him is the announcement of his death July 4, 2007 followed by sparse information.

[PistolPaknMama]

for someone with a Phd. he has less hits than I do!

Wow you're right. I just googled Chief Engineer and you have 2,840,000 hits. :)

[Chief Engineer]

LOL POsting here the information which I found during my often fruitless research into Orland and Thelma.

I have been researching this since the end of November when I discovered who owned the house which is listed in the birth announcement. The owner of the house was one
Orland Scott Lefforge who died July 4, 2007 at the age of 91. His wife/companion Thelma Young died June 28,2008. Surprise, surprise.
It got interesting when I discovered he had a Phd and yet has many less hits on google than even I do!
The only thing I am waiting for at the moment is an email from the University of Hawaii at Manao advising me when he returned to teach there in the 60’s.
Below is a short bit of what I have been able to gather and again it has left me with many more questions than answers. (Seems to be a familiar story in all things Jr)
Orland Scott Lefforge born July 31,1915 in Pettisville, Ohio died July 4, 2007 in Kaiser Medical Center. He was a former Professor at University of Hawaii. He is survived by companion Thelma Young, son Daniel, daughters Andrea Harper and Mia Blake, brother Marian, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Services: 11 am next Saturday at the courtyard of George Hall, University of Hawaii at Manao. Casual attire.
Thelma Young
June 28,2008
Thelma Young, 91, of Honolulu died. She was born in Trenton, N.J. (nee Jones) She is survived by son Daniel Lefforge, daughters Andrea Harper and Mia Blake, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Private services.
Even trying to find information for the children as been frustrating! Birthdates for them are as follows:
Andrea 3/15/55
Mia 1959
Daniel 1960
There is a genealogy tree which indicates Andrea and Mia were adopted. Figuring it out Thelma would have been 43 when Daniel was born in 1960. Also Andrea would have been 6 years old in 1961 and would remember a woman and baby living in the yard. I have been unable to find much of anything on any of the three!
I was able to find that Orland graduated from Urbana High School in Indiana in 1932. He attended Manchester College in Indiana and graduated from there in 1936. From there he attended University of Wisconsin at Madison during the years 1936 to 1940 when he received his Master’s in Speech.(now known as Communication) I discovered this fact quite by chance when I came across a hit for him and the name of his thesis “Daniel W. Voorhees: Indiana Orator” which appears in a compilation along with works by others. I also received verification from UW at Madison that he received his Master’s in 1940.
Then it gets interesting. Ancestry.com has Orland Lefforge registering in the army in 1941, but the information listed is confusing.
Ancestry.com
U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records
Name: Orland Scott Lefforge
Birth Year: 1915
Race: White, citizen (White)
Nativity State or Country: Ohio
State: Indiana
County or City: Wabash
Enlistment Date: 15 Jul 1941
Enlistment State: Indiana
Enlistment City: Fort Benjamin Harrison
Branch: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Branch Code: Branch Immateria - Warrant Officers, USA
Grade: Private
Component: Selectees (Enlisted Men)
Source:Civil Life
Education: 4 years college
Civil Occupation: Teacher
Marital Status: Single, without dependents
Height: 74
Weight: 159
Now here is where it gets very interesting aside from the fact that he actually had 8 years of college and a master’s degree by the time he enlisted in 1941. I decided to google his daughter as “Andrea Lefforge Harper” and found that in April 9, 1942 he attended Officer Candidate School at Ft Sill. He graduated from OCS on June 30,1942 and no further information can be found regarding his military service. Why was this information not found when googling his name but was found when googling his daughter’s name?
He taught at Manchester College in the Speech Department for the years 1946-47 and 1947-48 before teaching at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for the years 1948-49 and 1949-50. By 1950 he is back at the University of Wisconsin with his wife the former Thelma Jones of Trenton, N.J.
From “The Capital Times” 9/27/1950 Madison WI
“University Posts and Regional Positions Bring New Families Here”
“After teaching two years at the University of Honolulu, Hawaii, Orland Lefforge and Mrs Lefforge are now living at 42 Corry St. while he is studying for his doctorate at the university.”
Wisconsin State Journal 4/9/1951
Madison News Items in Brief
Debate at U.W.
“Two University of Hawaii students will debate with Wisconsin students at 8 pm Tuesday in the Agricultural hall auditorium on the subject “Resolved: That Hawaii Should be a Commonwealth”
Masaru Funa and Shunichi Kaimura will be the affirmative speakers from the University of Hawaii. Their coach is Henry L. Ewbank, son of speech Prof Henry L. Ewbank, Sr., at the University of Wisconsin. Negative speakers from Wisconsin will be Robert Hayes, Chetak and Richard Karson, West Bend. Moderator for the debate will be Orland Lefforge, former Hawaiian coach and now a student here.
I received confirmation from UW at Madison that Orland Lefforge was granted his Phd in Speech in 1953. From 1953 he seems to disappear. He and his wife Thelma and children were the owners of 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy in 1961 and I am awaiting word from UH at Manoa as to when he returned to teach there. Something which just struck me this weekend was the interview “The Honolulu Advertiser” did with Nani Smethurst, the present owner of the address. She has the paperwork for the house and yet she didn’t recognize the Dunham name. As an archictect she would recognize the name and yet she didn’t, because the Lefforges owned the home, not the Dunhams.
From a blurb in another paper Lefforge didn’t teach for all that long at UH.
April 9, 1967 Cedar Rapids Gazette
“Washington Notebook”
“Orland Lefforge, Henry Giugni and Jack Teehan, running close to deadline for a reception for senate staff assistants, couldn’t find a cab.
They bummed a ride with a fellow in the office who was on his way home.
At the White House gate, the attendant asked the three, “Will your driver be coming back later or shall I show him where to wait?”
Which broke up everybody in the car.
At the wheel was the trio’s boss, Sen Daniel K. Inouye (D- Hawaii)”
In 1971 Orland Lefforge is listed as the author of “Inservice Training as an Instrument of Change” found at the Education Resources Information Center. He was also later an an administrator at the UH Community College Office, as well as a member of the Osher Institute. He gave donations to various institutions including Manchester College, an organization to help abused women, and an organization to assist homeless teens and juvenile delinquents. From all indications he and Thelma divorced at some point and he married again to a woman named Elaine b.1921 d. 12/27/1995. Thelma also remarried which explains the last name of Young. At some point both second spouses died and Orland and Thelma got back together again and remained together until his death. There were a number of real estate transactions with Orland and Thelma and Orland and Elaine which are confusing to follow. As I said I am still waiting to find out when he returned to teach at UH but it is definite he and Thelma and their three children were living at the birth announcement house in 1961.

[RegulatorCountry]

Someone, at some point, mentioned an apartment over a garage at the back of this same property. Have you been able to look at that, at all?

[Old Sarge]

What does this have to do with OJ, Natalee Holloway, or Scott Peterson?

If nothing, then Faux News-Obama won’t pick it up.

Any why isn’t this in Breaking News?

[Terabitten]

Pardon my density, but who are Orland and Thelma?

[Chief Engineer]

A garage was never listed even in the info found at Zillow with the assessment.(5 bedroom, 2 bathroom with small outbuilding) The only item outside of the main house is the tiny 420 sq ft “cabin” on the property. The property itself is assessed at between $685,000 and $750,000 depending on which assessment you look at. The area is known as the most expensive real estate on the island of Oahu and definitely beyond the financial reach of a mortgage administrator at Bankoh and her furniture salesman husband.(One reason it is expensive is because of its location within walking distance of the ocean)
The address given for Obama Sr is where the majority of housing is located for workers in the service industry.(625 11th Ave. in the St Louis Heights area, before moving to that home he lived at the Atherton Y.M.C.A.) Something interesting with that is we know the small single story home he lived in while going to UH was torn down sometime between June 1962 and Dec.1971 and yet no new structure was built there until 1990. During the 1970’s that area experienced a building boom to house all the service industry workers so the question is: why was that particular lot not developed?

[Chief Engineer]

Orland Scott Lefforge and Thelma Jones Lefforge Young were the actual owners of the birth announcement address of 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy in 1961.

[LongIslandConservative]

Is there any chance that the 420 sq ft cabin was rented out?

[JRios1968]

I like cheese

[Chief Engineer]

I have no idea, I wonder if the two daughters used the “cabin” as their very own “playhouse”. It is curious that Orland and Thelma’s oldest daughter would have been six in 1961 and would remember if a woman and baby were living in the little cabin in the backyard and yet nothing can be found about her. I also have not received any word from UH regarding when Orland returned to teaching at UH. I received word from UW at Madison less than 12 hours after I sent my query which was sent the same day I sent my query to UH, now more than a week later.
Even the memorial at UH for Professor Orland Lefforge is extremely sparse numbering perhaps 6 lines while memorials for other deceased faculty are multiple paragraphs.
Finally, the house is located over 7 miles from the closest hospital (Kapiolani) which would be an odd choice for a pregnant woman faced with a drive to give birth. Even the home for unwed mothers on Oahu was located less than a mile from the hospital.

[MHGinTN]

There would be IRS records of income for rental property, if the ‘cabin’ (it was an out building, perhaps a 21 x 20 structure, more likely a storage building) were rented out.

[RegulatorCountry]

I’m not suggesting this at all, just winging it with the various info you’ve gathered ... but, could there have been an intent for Stanley Ann Dunham’s baby to be privately adopted? Two adopted children at this address.

I honestly think the grandmother had a hand in the birth announcement, and went for a showy address out of vanity, myself. Trying to impress her banker coworkers or something. The announcement also said in no uncertain terms that they were married, when the reality seems to be a little vague.

[LongIslandConservative]

Are you in Hawaii or are there FReepers in Hawaii who could help with the University data? Would a FOIA request release a copy of the title transfer to Orland when he purchased the house?
In my home state it is possible to get info as to who is paying the property tax of a parcel since tax info is public information. That might reveal when it was purchased.
Do you have the names of the grandchildren? Since the oldest Andrea is hard to find maybe one of her children or nieces or nephews could point to where she is.

[Chief Engineer]

I thought of the adoption angle myself but the birth announcement negates that. I also thought perhaps the Lefforge family moved into the home at the end of August which would mean that the home may have been in the closing process but would provide a safe address for the registration of birth and birth announcement. Madelyn Dunham was the mortgage dept at the bank! I don’t think the registration and birth announcement were placed with a thought to a run for the presidency but simply to preserve the honor of the daughter and to provide a cover story of legitimacy for the child who would sooner or later begin to ask questions. I have not yet received any word from UH as to when Orland Lefforge returned to teach at UH after his stint there in the late 40’s.
Madelyn’s co-workers did not know she was a grandmother until Jr showed up there in the 70’s. Grandpa was the driving force behind Jr being accepted at Punahou and he took Jr to Punahou for the entrance exams in 1970 and he also accompanied Jr to Punahou on his first day of classes in 1971.

[Chief Engineer]

Sorry I am not in Hawaii(sure wish I was away from the cold that has arrived here and seems to want to stay!) I will be resending my request to UH regarding a pioneer in the Speech Department and the date when he returned to UH after he was granted his Phd.
As for the children and grandchildren I have not found out whether Andrea, Mia or Daniel were the ones who have children or who is the grandparent yet. Information is extremely difficult to find on them!

[RegulatorCountry]

So, was the house new and unoccupied in early-mid August, 1961, or was it an existing home that had been vacated?

[Gemsbok]

I have a list of active Island FReepers and will mail them to you.