Genie's Lamp
Philadelphia Genealogy
Grandparents - Paternal
Mary Bennett (Filomena DiBenedetto)
Filomena DiBenedetto was born abt 1914 to Pietro DiBenedetto and Teresa Teti in Philadelphia.
The family lived at 255 E Indiana Avenue at least until 1931 when at age 17, and by then known as Mary Bennett, she married Horace W Kelly Jr on November 4th in Kensington.
By 1935 Mary & Horace had 3 children: Horace III, Eugene & Jeanette.
By May of 1937 she would bury two of her children with only Eugene, my father, surviving.
In 1944 she was assaulted and severly beaten in a vacant lot on Oakdale Street near Kensington Avenue in Kensington. She would never recover and would remain in a mental facility near her father's family somewhere close to Reading, Pennsylvania. Her date and place of death are not known.
Horace Woodruff Kelly Jr
Horace Woodruff Kelly Jr was born in Philadelphia on August 24, 1904 to Matilda Jane (Tillie) White & Horace Woodruff Kelly.
By 1920 and age 15, Horace was living with his mother and step-father, Clyde Shuster, and working in a hosiery mill,
On Christmas day of 1928 Horace married Helen Mary Balzereit in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia.
About 1929 their first child, Ruth, was born followed by another daughter, called Sissy, born in August 1931. Sadly, Helen would not survive the birth.
Three months after the death of Helen Horace married 17 year old Mary Bennett. Their first child, Horace III, was born in 1932 followed by my father, Eugene, in 1933 and their last child, Jeanette, in 1935. In 1937 Horace & Mary lost 17 month old Jeanette to pneumonia. Three months later 5 year old Horace III succumed to injuries suffered from severe burns received during a bonfire in Kensington.
In 1944 Mary Bennett Kelly was hospitalized near Reading, Pennsylvania never to recover.
On June 5, 1961, at age 56, Horace W Kelly Jr fell down a flight of stairs to his death. He is buried in Knights of Pythias Greenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia along with his children Jeanette & Horace III.
Grandparents - Maternal
Florence Irene Bayless
Florence Irene Bayless was born on April 6, 1913, the fourth child of John Bayless, a watchman, and Mary Valerius. The family lived at 2205 Martha Street where they rented the rear of the home for many years.
About 1932 Florence married William Joseph O'Donnell, a Merchant Mariner, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and shortly after they started their family.
By 1940 the family, including my 4 year old mother and four of her siblings, was renting a house at 3053 Collins Street in Philadelphia. William was by then a laborer for the Works Progress Administration.
Florence would give birth to 9 children during her lifetime, seven of whom would survive to become adults. The family lived in a large 3 story house at 163 W Cumberland Street for many years.
After William's death in 1964 Florence lived with my family at 604 Carver Street for a time before moving to New Jersey to live with her youngest daughter, Agnes, and her family. She was employed for many years as a seamstress who hand sewed military epaulets on service uniforms.
On August 22, 1975 Florence died of a stroke at 62 years of age. She is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.
William Joseph O'Donnell
William Joseph O'Donnell was born in Philadelphia on July 11, 1909, the second of eight children of John J O'Donnell, a weaver, and Margaret Mary Dearnley.
The family lived at 4293 Franklin Street for a time before renting a house at 2669 Braddock Street some time before 1920.
William lived there until his marriage to Florence Irene Bayless in Atlantic City, New Jersey around 1932. He was a Merchant Mariner at the time of their wedding and for some years afterward.
In 1940 William and Florence lived at 3053 Collins Street with their 5 young children. William is listed as a worker for the W.P.A., Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal."
They would have nine children altogether before 1945, the third born my mother, and seven of whom would survive to adulthood.
He would serve in the Navy during World War II and sustain multiple injuries during his service.
William died on February 22, 1964 at age 54 at 3357 N Waterloo Street. He is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
