Mary Grace Ciaramitaro 1 2
- Born: 20 Aug 1929, Detroit, Wayne, MI 1 2
- Marriage (1): Warren DeWitt Beeker on 30 Nov 1946 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, MI, USA 1
- Died: 10 Jul 1963, Eastpointe, Macomb, MI, USA at age 33 2
- Buried: 13 Jul 1963, Detroit: Mount Olivet Cemetery, Wayne, MI, USA 2
FamilySearch ID: LYF3-6XN.
Noted events in her life were:
1. Census in 1950 in Detroit, Wayne, MI. 3 The 1950 census recorded Warren Beeker, produce huckster, 24, born in Kentucy, living with his family born in Michigan: wife Mary, 20; daughter Dorothy, 1; and son Doran, born in August 1949.
Warren is listed as a "lodger" at 1281 Lemay Street in Detroit within the household of Alfred Ralph Gustafson, machine operator for auto manufacturing company, 27, and his wife Daisy C., 24.
2. Residence: 22790 Lambrecht Ave., Eastpointe, MI (formerly East Detroit) on 10 Jul 1963 in Eastpointe, Macomb, MI, USA. 4
3. Obituary: Detroit Free Press: Gasoline Fire Kills Mother of 9 on 11 Jul 1963 in Detroit, Wayne, MI. 5 Gasoline Fire Kills Mother of 9
A 34-year-old mother of nine children, the oldest one 14, died Wednesday from burns suffered when a flash fire swept the basement of her East Detroit home. Mrs. Mary Beeker, of 22790 Lambrecht, apparently was pouring gasoline into a power lawnmower and from a camp stove into a storage container. She died in Saratoga General Hospital from third degree burns over her entire body. Firemen said no explosion was heard, but there was evidence that a brief, intense fire whipped through part of the basement. Lying on the floor.
THE BEEKERS had just returned from a camping trip. East Detroit police said Mrs. Beeker may have been draining the camp stove before putting it away, and preparing the lawn mower for use. Six of the Beeker children were at home when the fire occurred. Mrs. Beeker's husband, Warren, was at work. He is an employee of the Michigan Bell Telephone Co. The children at home were Dorothy, 14; Caroline, 9; Carl, 8; Kathie, 5; Winnie, 3, and Linda, 1. The other children, whose names and ages were not available, were visiting with grandparents, officers said.
MRS. BEEKER was discovered in the smoke-filled basement by David Wallace, 13, of 22800 Lambrecht, who told police he saw smoke coming from a basement window and looked in to see the woman lying on the floor.
Doctors said Mrs. Beeker never regained consciousness in the 4 1/2 hours she lived after being taken to the hospital. The gasoline fumes apparently were ignited by a water pilot light.
4. Obituary: Detroit Free Press: Mary Grace Beeker Dies in Fire on 12 Jul 1963 in Detroit, Wayne, MI. 4 (photo) Five of the motherless children waited with their grandfather
Headline: The Vigil of 9 Children Their Mother Is Dead
Mrs. Mary Becker's nine children waited Thursday in the tearless, heart-rending, hopeful way of the innocent . . . At their grandparents' home at 1203 Liilibridge, they waited for things to be good again. They waited for their mother . . . even though they knew she wouldn't come. Mrs. Beeker, 33, pretty and vivacious, died in a flash fire Wednesday in the basement of her home at 22790 Lambrecht, East Detroit.
(photo) The Beekers and Kathie (now 5) in 1958.
She had taken Kathie, 5, and Carlo, 7, with her to begin the family laundry. Police theorize that the pilot light on a water heater ignited fumes from gasoline left in cans after a camping trip. Kathie, her eyes huge and strained, said she saw her mother catch fire as she bent over the clothes. The youngsters ran upstairs for help. Dorothy, 15, who was watching television with Colleen, 9, and Wendy, 3, rushed the children outside. Later, firemen carried out Linda, 2, who was in her crib. As she was being carried out, Mrs. Beeker called, "Help me, Dottie," and Dottie, who could not help, went on helping with the younger children Thursday, as she always has.
MRS. BEEKER, the wife of the manager of Michigan Bell Telephone's Northland branch, died of third-degree burns in Saratoga General Hospital. Three of her sons, Dorn, 13, Kirk, 12, and Clifford, 10, were at the Lillibridge home of their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Carlo Ciaramitaro, at the time of the accident. Now, the whole family is there, living in the upper flat over the Ciaramitaro flat.
Thursday, neighbors and friends brought beds from the Beeker home and what children's clothing is left to the house. Mary Grace was the Ciaramaritos' oldest daughter, the first to marry, the happy one, the smallest one. Married to Warren Beeker at 17, the two lived in the upper flat until their family grew too large. Then they moved to East Detroit. Beeker is 36.
She was so close to her little ones," said a neighbor, Mrs. Richard Wallace, of 22800 Lambrecht. "I admired her because I have all I can handle with four, but she always seemed happy to have one more.
"She was tiny (110 pounds) but efficient, a pretty good fixer of cut fingers and tears and everything else." Relatives and friends said they doubted Mrs. Beeker was attempting to pour gasoline from a camp stove.
"SHE ALWAYS left that sort of thing to her husband," said Annie Ciaramitaro, 22, Mrs. Beeker's sister. "She was carefree and loving with the kids. She always seemed to have time.
She and Warren met at the old Jefferson Theater when she was 16. She quit school and they eloped, but then they came home and were married at St. Rose of Lima Church. But we're not burying her there.
Their home church was St. Basil, in East Detroit, and she made sure all the kids went every week."
Ciaramitaro, a produce salesman who sells from a bright blue truck on Detroit's East said he would not work for a while. He and his wife, Owena, sat at the dining room table looking through the piles of scrapbooks and wedding pictures and heaps of snapshots that seem so worthless until tragedy comes. They found a baby picture ... a wedding picture . . . one of Mary Grace with her first baby.
In the late afternoon, a relative took the boys to the barber shop. They need haircuts. It was something to do. The younger children played on grandpa's truck parked in the backyard and sat on the steps. They ate hamburgers. Once, Kathie, went off to cry…
No one seemed able to kiss the tears away.
Mary married Warren DeWitt Beeker, son of Norman Evans Beeker and Dorothy Alice Cook, on 30 Nov 1946 in Mount Clemens, Macomb, MI, USA.1 (Warren DeWitt Beeker was born on 19 Jun 1925 in Toledo, Lucas, OH,6 7 died on 13 Jul 2013 in Eastpointe, Macomb, MI, USA 6 and was buried on 17 Jul 2013 in Holly: Great Lakes National Cemetery, Oakland, MI, USA 6 8.)
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