Visiting Grandpa in Nashville

With time running out on summer it was now or never if we were going to make it to Nashville to visit Grandpa and Uncle Bill. Fortunately we made it thanks to the Michigan law which stops school from starting earlier than Labor day. James got a chance to see his Grandpa and also Uncle Bill and his family. Uncle Bill is rebuilding his home after the flood and it is coming along beautifully. As we visited various places in Nashville you could find buildings and businesses still closed from the devastating flood. In fact the hotel we stayed at near Opryland was discounted because the Opryland mall, one of the major attractions in Nashville, was still closed and not due to open till November.

One good thing that came out of the flood was that Uncle Bill found an archive of old family pictures when going through the flood damage. Mom hopes to scan those pictures in and upload to this site in the near future.

Grandma came down on the trip as well and had a chance to visit friends from her previous home for the first time since moving to Michigan back in November 09.
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Edited: August 31st, 2010

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 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

Howard Picture Archive

Howard Landis is the father to Bill and Mary, Husband to Judith, and Grandfather to James. Howard spent several years in the military during the Korean War. Howard is very good mechanically and used to repair televisions for a living. He also knows alot about cars and likes the Detroit auto industry, unlike certain politicians.

Howard is currently living in West Meade which is a nursing home in Tennessee. The irony is that I have a cousin on the Kleiber side who is living in the same nursing home, I wonder what the odds are of that happening.
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Edited: January 1st, 2005