This started out as the tale of the two Collin McKenzie's but has morphed into a longer piece to cover all the sad, weird events surrounding the extended family of James John Maher (1902-1966). I use the middle names of the Maher men because they are all either John or James.
My grandmother, Peg, had a brother James John Maher (1902-1966) who was 6 years younger than she. I know very little about him as he never visited and Peg never spoke of him. As children we were told only that Peg and her brother's wife were not on speaking terms, her brother having married a Jewish woman. I learned later that her maiden name was Eleanor McKenzie, hardly a Jewish surname. The animosity was so bad between them that Eleanor did not inform Peg of the death of her brother until several days or weeks after the fact.
According to his obituary, James John attended a Wisconsin college and then Highland Park Junior College while working at the Ford Motor Co. and selling real estate. In 1928 he joined the Detroit Police Force. Five years later he became a detective and in 1947 was named an inspector and head of the holdup squad. He retired in 1953 after 25 years and returned to selling real estate. While on the police force he won 13 precinct citations and the commissioner's citation, the latter for his work in the Victor Reuther shooting case. The Victor Reuther case is worth looking up, Victor and two brothers were very active in the labor movement. Here's a small excerpt from Wikipedia that makes one wonder about James' work on the Reuther case.
In 1949, Victor began receiving calls from the Detroit Police Department claiming that neighbors were complaining about his dogs barking. When he went outside to check on the dog, a parked car drove away from the front of his house. After the police issued a "final warning" he gave the dog to some friends. The next evening, while he was reading a newspaper, a shotgun-wielding assassin fired at him through a closed window, hitting Reuther in the face and upper body. Waking in the hospital Reuther told his surgeon, "Take my eye, or my arm or leg, but spare my tongue. I've got a living to make." Reuther lost an eye and the partial use of one arm but survived. The gunman was never caught. Even though the Detroit police had some very good eyewitness accounts and descriptions, they never followed up successfully on any of the leads. One neighbor offered descriptions of the shooter to police, but he was rejected and began receiving anonymous phone calls telling him to shut up. His brother Walter had earlier survived an April 1948 incident in which he was hit by a shotgun blast through his kitchen window. Reuther happened to turn towards his wife, and was hit in the arm instead of the chest and heart. That crime also was never solved.
James John Maher married Eleanor McKenzie on December 31, 1926 at the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit. The marriage license lists the maiden name of Eleanor's mother as Mildred Fink, the space for father is blank. *Click on license photo to enlarge.
The 1930 census records that James is a policeman and Eleanor a saleslady, selling dresses. The 1940 and 1950 census shows that they had a son, John James, born in 1934. John James married, had 2 children and divorced. The eldest, a son named James Clark was born in 1954.
James John Maher died at the relatively early age of 68 from a stroke. His son John James Maher died at the age of 53 by suicide and his son James Clark at the age of 47 from a heart attack.
Memorial for James John Maher.
Memorial for Eleanor McKenzie Maher
Memorial for John James Maher
Eleanor McKenzie was born January 15, 1905 in Michigan to Collin J. McKenzie and Mildred T. Fink. She died in 1983 at the age of 78 and is buried next to her husband and son in Detroit.
Eleanor's father, Collin McKenzie was born March 4, 1884 in Detroit, Michigan. He married on June 2, 1904 to Mildred Fink in Windsor, Essex, Ontario, Canada* which is directly across the Detroit River from Detroit. The record of marriage gives Collin's age as 21 and occupation as Telephone Operator, it lists his parents as C. J. McKenzie and Jessie Kirk. Mildred's parents are listed as Peter Fink and Rose Grosslight.
Collin died on October 19, 1905, 16 months after marrying and 9 months after the birth of Eleanor. Collin's death certificate gives the cause of death as "Intestinal Tuberculosis" with a duration of six weeks. Contributing factors are "Injury and consquential Debility, 5 months." The Dr. certified he had been treating Collin for six weeks, the duration of his tuberculosis. His parents are listed as Collin McKenzie of Ontario and Jesse Kirk of Michigan. The death certificate indicates he is single. His obituary makes no mention of his wife Mildred or his daughter Eleanor. The informant on the death certificate is Jessie McKenzie, mother of the deceased. When Mildred marries a second time she is listed as Mildred Fink McKenzie and the form indicates she has been married once prior.
The aforementioned "late Collin McKenzie," Eleanor's grandfather, was born in 1860 in London, Ontario, he married Jessie Kirk in 1883, about 4 months before the birth of Collin. He died 8 months later of consumption. Like his son, this Collin is listed as single.
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