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

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 Mark Dunberger (Color)

These are color pics of Mark and in most cases represent the adult part of his life. The thing I remember most about Mark was how much fun it was to be with him. He was one of those rare personalities that would liven up any party or event. He never let his injuries from the war get in his way of having fun with life, in fact, you would not ever know that he was injured unless you saw the scars on his arms from the scrapnel. Whether it was boating, camping, hunting, fishing, baseball or playing Mario Brothers on Nintendo Mark had more fun with life than anyone else I know. Mark was also the biggest Star Trek fan I remember in the family and had a huge self made video collection of some of the worst sci fi movies you can imagine.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006

Tribute to Mark Dunberger (BW)

These are black and white pictures of Mark who was the son of Louise and Harry, Father to Ron, Renee, and Natalie, and 1st cousin once removed to James. Mark died years before James was born. As a child I remember Mark taking me to see 2001, a space oddysey before he was sent to Vietnam. He was a big Sci Fi fan even then.

Mark also had a huge Lionel train display that he would pull out each Christmas. The display usually took up either half the living room or an entire bedroom. After the war, Mark and my Uncle Joe Graf would annually go camping and often I was invited to spend a week with them. Mark had the tent and boat, Uncle Joe had the camper. Many great memories from both of them.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006

Tribute to Louise Dunberger (Color)

These are color pictures of Louise Dunberger. Louise was married to Harry and spent most of her adult life living in Trenton. Each Saturday my mom would go out to Trenton, eat dinner, do some event, and play cards. Louise was very active and loved to travel with Loretta to all sorts of interesting places. There was never a dull moment in the Trenton house with Aunt Louise there.

I think what I remember most about Aunt Louise and Trenton was how she used her back yard, there was an apricot tree in the center of it that I loved to climb and you could eat the apricots right off of it, the gazebo for card playing on summer evenings, picking berries in the back, all great memories.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006

Tribute to Louise Dunberger (BW)

These are black and white photos of Louise so most of these would be her early life. Louise Dunberger was a daughter to Joe and Rose Graf, she was Mother to Mark, Grandmother to Ron, Renee, and Natalie, and sister to Loretta and Joe. She was James Grand Aunt. Loretta always described Louise as a bit of a tomboy as they were growing up. Louise would always participate in the athletic things that Loretta had no interest in.

We were very happy that Louise had a chance to meet James before she passed away. She was in a nursing home but she was very active and aware. She got to hold James and feed him his bottle and she wished that her sister (James Grandma) had gotten to meet James. She outlived both her husband and son but was always optimistic about what the future would hold. I think every family member had at least one birthday celebratiion at her home in Trenton and Criss and Kenny had their wedding reception at her home as well. A very outgoing person.
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Edited: December 31st, 2006