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October 10, 2013
B
ELLEVILLE
Area resident marks milestone birthday
Cars lined the streets and filled
the driveways of a Belleville neigh-
borhood as scores of well wishers
from across North America arrived
during Labor Day weekend to join
Alma Kirchner for her 100th birth-
day celebration.
Her childhood was marked by
playing in the 'hollers' of Kentucky,
riding in some of the first cars to
come to the rural area, dining with
the notorious bank robber Frank
James and surviving both the 1918
Ohio River flood and the 1919
Spanish Flu. In the early 20s her
family moved to Detroit so that her
father, Charles “Skinny” Spratt,
could join the new auto industry
work force.
On the weekends the family
would take the train from Detroit
and head 30 miles west to the small
village of Belleville for fishing and
picnicking.
Kirchner's mother died in 1929,
leaving her father to raise three
teenage daughters.
In 1930, she and George
Gorzelany were wed. She recalled
their first apartment with its sole
furnishings being orange crateswith
fondness.
Their
daughter,
Jacquelyn, was born in 1931.
Kirchner continued to care for her
younger sisters along with her own
child during the Great Depression.
Her husband, had begun teaching
trigonometry at age 16 at the Henry
Ford Trade School. Throughout the
Great Depressionheworked on spe-
cial projects for Ford Motor Co.
including early television, electron-
ics, and fuel economy. At times,
Henry Ford would stop by and pick
Gorzelany up on theway towork.
In 1936, the young couple finally
had saved enough money to put a
down payment on a house. They
decided to purchase land on the
shores of Belleville Lake where her
mother and father had taken her
fishing as a girl. In the spring of 1937
construction began on Alagee
House. Named for the family that
was to reside in it: ALma And
GEorge and JacquiE - ALAGEE. It
was small, only 20 feet by 30 feet, but
far ahead of its time. Alagee House
was never completed after
Gorzelany died of pneumonia in
1937.
Alagee House was only in the
'rough in' stage at Gorzelany's death
and his wife had never had a job
outside the home. Few jobs were
available, even fewer for women
with no real skills or experience.
She was able to find work as a wait-
ress at Stouffer's Restaurant in
downtown Detroit where she
became a favorite of clientele such
as Bob Hope, Lou Costello, and
ShirleyTemple.
Henry Ford owned a farm across
the lake from Alagee House.
Kirchner applied for a job at the
farmwhich became the Willow Run
Bomber Plant, and after a battery of
tests she was hired as the first
female draftsperson at Ford Motor
Co. She started work before the
plant walls were completed.
Initially her duties included basic
drafting of blueprints, but eventual-
ly she helped in the designs for the
B-24 “Liberator” Bomber wing and
the design of the Norden Bombsight
mounting systems for the B-24.
Throughout the war she was
responsible for thousands of design
changes to theB-24Bomber.
As World War II broke out, the
young widow met Paul Kirchner, a
neighbor of her sister-in-law and a
native of Pittsburg, PA. He was a
backup plane pilot for famous avia-
tor Amelia Earhart. A training
injury prevented him from accom-
panying his unit to the Pacific
Theater where all but two of the
men in his unit were killed. He was
instead redeployed to the European
Theater at age 35, where he was
rumored to have made sergeant
three times during the war. His new
wifewent on towork forHenryFord
as the drafting liaison between Ford
and Harry Ferguson of Ford-
Ferguson and later Massy-Ferguson
fame. It was her discovery that
Ferguson had been stealing Ford
blueprints that led to the dissolution
of Ford-Ferguson. Many years later,
Harry Ferguson's youngest son
became the college roommate of
Kirchner's grandson.
The next and broadest phase of
expansion at Alagee House took
place in the post war years when it
became a home for the entire fami-
ly.
Kirchner continued to expand
the house through the early 70s to
the present day shape.
During that time he worked in
various jobs in the auto industry cul-
minating in a Journeyman Machine
Repairmen for Ford's Rawsonville
Plant in Ypsilanti. After his retire-
ment he lived on at Alagee House
until his death in 1980.
His widow, always at the fore-
front of technology, began working
with computers and accounting sys-
tems in the 1950s. She finished her
career working for Atchinson Ford
in Belleville in accounting and pay-
roll.
Gifted with a green thumb, she
grewnewstrains of hybrid roses.
She has a love of family history
and has done copious amounts of
genealogy research for her family.
She was made a Colonel in the
Honorable Order of Kentucky
Colonels for tireless work in geneal-
ogy research.
Her many cherished friendships
include her mentor and fellow
Greenup County, KY native Jesse
Stuart, 1954 Poet Laureate of
Kentucky and her friend, the late
artist and authorGwenFrostic.
Born at a time when ships and
trains were powered by steam,
when horses pulled carts and chil-
drenwalked to the one-roomschool-
house, Kirchner has witnessed
inventions that were the stuff of the
science fiction stories of her youth
become part of everyday life. She
has lived through floods, pan-
demics, wars, depressions, detached
retinas in both eyes and three bouts
of cancer, one of which required the
amputation of her leg.
Her birthday was marked with
her extensive family and her wide
range of friends who came from
across the country to wish her well
on the momentous celebration of
her long life at AlageeHouse.
Alagee House in Belleville was filled with the extended family and friends of Alma Kirchner this summer as she
marked her 100th birthday.
Blaze was ‘training burn’
Residents in the area of 7080 Edwards
Street saw quite a blaze in a neighboring
home last week---fortunately, nearly the
entire Van Buren Township Fire
Department was on hand to help control the
situation.
The department conducted a live fire
training burn on Sept. 28, near the cross
streets of Ecorse Road and Beverly Street
which continued from 8 a.m. until 3 in the
afternoon.
Fire Chief Dan Besson said the training
was organized by Battalion Chief Ron Folks
who has overseen multiple live-fire training
burns, according toBesson.
"This was an excellent training opportuni-
ty and the fire department is grateful to Gary
Fischer, who donated the house, Belfor
Restoration, Huron Valley Ambulance, and
the Van Buren Firefighters Association who
made it possible," Besson said.
The public was kept at a safe distance but
neighbors did report seeing large columns of
smoke throughout the day.