Tribute to Mike Kleiber

We lost Mike Kleiber this year, Uncle Don’s oldest son. Mike was born April 16, 1954 and most of my recollection of him was Christmas Eve and Grandma and Grandpa Kleibers. I remember my sister always teasing him about the length of his hair during those days. Mike was a longtime employee of Detroit Edison. I had a chance to meet Mikes kids (Jason & Scott) at the funeral and they are great and fun to be around, just like Mike was. Mike was buried at Our Lady of Hope Cemetery.

The flash presentation below is courtesy of Martenson Funeral Home, who also buried Aunt Louise, Cousin Mark, and my father, Charles T. I guess if our family had an official family funeral home, they would be it. They come highly recommended to all who view this page.
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Edited: June 26th, 2009

Tribute to Virginia

Aunt Ginny as most of the family knew her, was the daughter of Ben and Millie, sister of Charles, Raymond, Dorothy, and Donald. Some of my fondest memories of Aunt Ginny was her taking to Tiger stadium for my first night game as a boy and every Christmas eve she would have pizza for us at Grandma and Grampa Kleibers.

We do not have many pictures of Virginia so if you can contribute something that would be great.
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Edited: July 9th, 2008

Military Tribute to Charles T Kleiber

Here’s pictures of Charles in the military during World War 2. Charles was father to Peg, Criss, and Chuck and grandfather to James. He died several years before James was born. He was very proud of his military days, displaying his honorable discharge on his desk until the day he died, yet he was very bitter about the war because he lost his younger brother Raymond (one of James namesakes) during the conflict.

Raymond was a paratrooper and was wounded in action. The plane returning the wounded home was shot down and there were no survivors. The military could not guarantee that the body buried was that of Raymond, but Great Grandma Millie Kleiber said it did not matter, she was sure where ever Raymonds body was it was getting a proper burial and love, just like she was doing for whoever’s son she was burying.
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Edited: December 31st, 2007

Tribute to Loretta Kleiber (color)

These are colored pictures of Loretta so they are later on in life than the black and white ones. Loretta is James Grandmother and enjoyed traveling alot. Every Saturday there would be at least a trip to Trenton where some project or event was taken place. The evenings all ended the same way with a family game of Pinocle. They played for keeps during these games and my family was not always gracious losers when the game did not go their way.

My mother enjoyed travel outside of Michigan as well, trips to Florida, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Bahama’s, Toronto, and West Virgina were just a few of the many destinations she vacationed at. She passed away while on vacation in Traverse city.
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Edited: December 31st, 2007

Tribute to Loretta Kleiber (BW)

This is a tribute to Loretta Kleiber, all the pictures are black and white so most of these will be Loretta in her younger days. Loretta was Mother to Peg, Criss, and Chuck, Sister to Louise and Joe, and Grandmother to James although she passed away a couple years before he was born.

My mother and sister Criss look very much alike, I remember finding a graduation picture of my mom and telling her that I found a picture of Criss. She laughed and said “Don’t you know your own Mother” and then my father chimed in with his usual grace and stated that I should remember this moment and to always “look at the mother” when I am dating because thats “what you will end up with”. A typical childhood memory in the Kleiber household. I always wondered how my mother could have so much grace and style and my father have very little of either. I guess opposites do attract.
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Edited: December 31st, 2007

Tribute to Raymond Kleiber

Raymond died in World War 2 and is James Raymonds’ namesake. Unfortunately we do not have many pictures of Raymond so if anyone has anymore I would love to get them. Most of the stories about Raymond I heard from my Father. My dad used to say that Raymond had the height but not the talent to play professional ball, where as he had the talent but not the height. I have retyped his obituary and included the original clipping which is a little hard to read.

Private Kleiber, a paratrooper was killed in a plane crash on Leyte while enroute to the United States. The Plane was evacuating wounded men from the Pacific, and Kleiber was being returned home for further hospitalization after having suffered head injuries February 28, when he landed with the 503rd parachute infantry on Corregidor. He had been overseas 18 months and during that time had participated in several major battles from New Guinea to the Philippines.

Ray was born in Detroit. He was graduated from the Lincoln Park high school with the January 1943 class and worked for the Great Lakes Steel corporation, Ecorse, before entering the army. Besides his parents, he leaves two brothers, Sergeant Charles in Hawaii and Donald at home, and two sisters, Mrs. Dorothy Sokel and Virginia Kleiber, both living with their parents.

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Edited: December 28th, 2007

Tribute to Charles T Kleiber

Charles T Kleiber was a WW2 Veteran and father of 3 children. He was James Grandfather but died several years before James was born. Charles was a huge baseball fan and a very good player himself. He got a single in a game against Hal Newhauser who went on to become a hall of fame player. Growing up in Lincoln Park he was a pitcher and Barney McCloskey (who played for the Tigers) was his catcher. Although he was drafted by Cleveland, World War 2 came along and he never played in the minor or major leagues. However he did lead the Ford team to several world championships during his 37 year career with the Ford Motor Company.
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Edited: June 29th, 2007

Tribute to House on Tulane

There are over 50 years of memories in this house. James’ Grandma and Grandpa Kleiber bought the house before it was even a city. It has undergone many changes such as aluminum siding, awnings, back porch, addition and various cement work and has always served the family well. The basement has always leaked, as many in the area have and it is technically in a flood zone, although the threat of flood is super remote at best. A creek about a mile away that we used to jump over as kids technically counts as a body of water which makes this home currently a poor investment since it requires flood insurance, a plan the Clinton administration came up with to finance the homes on the Mississippi that were constantly getting flooded out.
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Edited: April 30th, 2007

Chuck Military Picture Archive

Chuck is the son of Charles and Loretta, brother to Criss and Peg, and Father to James. Chuck spent his four years in army intelligence mostly Korea, Boston, and Washington State and then 2 years in the inactive reserves. Although this was a peacetime military, Ronald Reagan invaded Grenada to restore order there at the request of the Grenada government so it technically was a wartime period which makes Chuck eligible for American Legions and such. Chuck joined the army the day after the Iranian recue attempt failed (Carter Administration) and while in basic training the Reagan era began.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006

Military Tribute to Mark Dunberger

Here’s pictures of Mark who was a lieutenant during the Vietnam War. Mark was injured when a grenade blew up near him and he loss the use of one of his eyes and had scrapnel throughout his body as a result. Mark never talked much about the war, he told me he did not want to see the movie “Good Morning Vietnam” because it brought back bad memories. When Mark passed away his friends attempted to get his name added to the Vietnam memorial since he died so suddenly. The doctors had told him with all the scrapnel in his body it could happen anytime and I guess it finally did, about 30 years after the injury.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006