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Note: NI19400 His first name was spelled either Franklin or Franklyn but according to a 1924 high school yearbook from Eau Claire, he apparently used "Franklin".
His birth certificate was issued without any given name and it is doubtful if the parents ever filed an amended certificate once they decided on a name. During his adult life he generally used the name of "Frank" or sometimes "Franklyn". Almost all of his Naval records from 1926-1929 show the name spelled as "Franklyn". There are copies of hand-written letters from his parents showing the name spelled as "Franklyn".
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Franklin was his parents' first son born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1907 during a time in which the lumbering and saw mill operations were the only sustainable industry in town. There have been many family stories about his wild youthful years but little faith can be put into most of them because of the nature in which Frank often embellished many stories. One family story says that he left school sometime in the 9th or 10th grade but this is proved false because of the 1924 Eau Claire High School yearbook showing him still enrolled in high school at the age of 16 or 17 probably his Junior year or 11th grade.
Another story that apparently has some basis in fact is that he apparently enlisted in the army when he was only 14 or 15 years old. There is a photograph of him taken in an Army uniform presumably from Fort Snelling, Minnesota where he first enlisted and completed his Army basic training. This would have been taken in 1922 or 1923.
While stationed at Fort Snelling, he and another friend supposedly left their guard duty posts and went AWOL, and hopped a freight train heading west. They both were caught by the Railroad Police in Salt Lake City and supposedly sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Fort Leavenworth part of the story was a stretch of the truth because Army records show that he was confined to Fort Douglas, Utah and not Fort Leavenworth. Fort Douglas was a very small Army garrison stationed about 3 miles east of Salt Lake City.
When the Army found out that he was only 15 years old and under their minimum required age, they discharged him and sent him back home. There are some stories that Frank told the Army officers that they couldn't hold him because he was only 15 years old and under the minimum age. This was true and Frank was given an Honorable Discharge from the US Army "by reason of minority" on 15 Oct 1923. The discharge papers were signed by the Prison Officer, Major L. B. Bennett. Upon his return home from the army, he was back in high school where he appears in a 1924 class picture.
There is little else known about his early years after high school but he apparently ran away from or left home at an early age where he spent most of the time in the Chicago area. It is known that he spent a lot of time returning to Eau Claire and Cornell, Wisconsin to visit his favorite grandfather, William Lightfoot, until he died in 1930. For a number of years prior to around 1925, William Lightfoot lived separately from his wife, Loretta Lightfoot, also in Eau Claire, due to William's excessive abuse of alcohol. Frank's uncle Harry Lightfoot was living in Chicago and it is thought that Franklyn may have also spent a lot of time there but not wanting his parents to know of his whereabouts.
Surprisingly his parent allowed him to enlist in the Navy where he served for a period of just over 2 years from November of 1926 to January of 1929 when he was dishonorably discharged, supposedly for being intoxicated and physically assaulting a superior officer. This puts his age between 19 and 22 at the time of that event which suggest that not long after falsely enlisting in the army, he enlisted in the Navy but this time he apparently was over the legitimate age of 18. The Navy records are not detailed enough to indicate the reason for his discharge other than the notation "Bad Conduct Discharge". But there are multiple records of Frank's being declared a "straggler" after missing the boat when it would leave dock.
His youngest sister, Jean, remembers him returning home in Eau Claire in 1929 when she was only 4 years old and it was the first time she had ever seen her brother when he knocked on their front door. Apparently the parents also had not heard from him for a number of years so they were overwhelmed to see him return home at that time.
After his time in the Navy, Frank's dad, Lee Lightfoot, attempted to put Frank to work in the saw mills in Eau Claire but apparently Frank did not like that life style and after a bitter argument, he soon left home bound once again for the streets of Chicago.
Not much else is known of his activities in the years between 1929 and 1939. There are some unsubstantiated family rumors that during those years, he may have been involved in a number of petty crimes in and around Chicago including one rumor that he was arrested by the FBI and charged with running a "white slavery" racket. Other rumors include counterfeiting operations, and passing off zircons as diamonds to unsuspecting jewelers. All charges of which were eventually quelled due to the influence of some federal judges to which his parents had made some substantial financial gifts and the FBI prosecutions were eventually dismissed.
It is believed that during the period of 1929 to 1939, Frank was first married to a woman believed to be named Connie Sonsalla, a family name that was quite extensive known around the Trempealeau, Wisconsin area. Her actual surname may have be Consalla or Sonsalla and it is not known for sure if she was from the Trempealeau, Wisconsin and Winona, Minnesota areas, the Eau Claire, Wisconsin area, or from the Chicago, Illinois area. It is not known just how long this first marriage lasted but they eventually divorced and Frank then married another woman that we know only as "Ada". Frank often jokingly referred to her as "Ada Potato". Their divorce became final in 1939 just soon after he met Margaret Drugan in Winona, Minnesota in late 1939. Margaret Drugan left the Winona area and had gone to Chicago to be with Frank. The story goes that when Ada received the news of her final decree of divorce, she literally "danced in the street". It is believed that no children resulted from the marriage with either Ada or Connie Sonsalla.
During the years from 1940s-1970s, he spent lengthy times traveling the roadways as part of his home insulation and stained glass window repair business and he made frequent stops back in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to meet his parents and visit his grandmother, Loretta Lightfoot, who was living in a Veteran's care facility in King, Wisconsin until she died in 1946. Another favorite stopping off point for him was Baldy's Bar in Eau Claire where he met many of his younger friends. After his parents retired and moved to Davenport, Iowa, Frank continued to make repeated visits to them at that location, something that was surprising given his earlier years of strained relationships with his parents.
He was divorced from Margaret Drugan in 1962 after he met Ann Scarf in Wheeling, West Virginia and began a tumultuous affair with her. At the time of the divorce from Margaret, Frank and Ann were living in Ormond Beach, Florida while Margaret and the children had just located from Baltimore, Maryland to Chicago, Illinois and then with her sister Ruth Gilpin in Springfield, Illinois. Frank and Ann continued to run his stained-glass window repair business out of Evansville, Indiana until they eventually divorced. Frank then was remarried to another Ann, known only as "Little Ann" and they also were divorced.
During Frank's later years from the 1980s-1990s, he was pretty much retired and spent much time traveling to Florida for several months followed by a "resting and recuperation period" at the home of his son, Lee Lightfoot, in Rocklin, California. He died in 1991 in nearby Roseville, California and was cremated with his ashes being spread over the Pacific Ocean as per his wishes.
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MILITARY RECORDS:
11 May 26...Enlisted: USN, NRS, Minneapolis, Minnesota
11 May 26...Transferred: NTS, Great Lakes, Illinois
11 Sep 26...Change of Rating: F3
16 Oct 27...Change of Rating: EM3
28 Nov 28...Change of Rating: S1
12 Jan 29...Discharged - Bad Conduct, USS Lexington
Records show you served on board the following vessels:
USS Shirk......23 Aug 1927 - 11 Oct 1927
USS Altair.....12 Oct 1927 - 28 Oct 1927
USS Sirius.....29 Oct 1927 - 21 Nov 1927
USS Lexington..10 Nov 1928 - 09 Dec 1928
USS Lexington..15 Dec 1928 - 12 Jan 1929
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Acquaintance who started the "stained glass repair business": Henry "Hank" A. Czapiewski: 1901-1988 (Buried: Saint Mary's Cemetery, Winona, Minnesota)
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Frank was married 5 times and divorced 5 times.
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Frank had other aliases that he used at various times, usually to avoid bill collectors. He confused most of them by switching his name from Frank, Franklin, Franklyn, and Lee. He also used the name Frank LaMont.
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Frank had a habit of buying automobiles but never paying for them. This was before the day of computers and a nationwide credit system so most automobile dealers tended to carry their own credit accounts or would sell the transaction to a local finance company that would charge a very high rate of interest. None of that bothered Frank because he would walk into a dealership waving five hundred dollars or so in cash. Any dealer was glad to sell him a new car with that large of a cash down payment and they would finance the rest through the local loan company, sometimes conveniently owned by their brother or cousin. Unfortunately that would be the last of any money that they would ever see from Frank as he was handed the keys and the finance papers and drove off. His business of doing stained glass repairs all over the country would mean that the bank or loan company could never find the car. He would literally drive the wheels off of the car and eventually leave it on the side of the road for the repossesors to eventually find it. He would then walk back into another dealership and start the same process all over again.
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Frank was never enumerated in the 1930 or 1940 census. He supposedly was living with or married to Margaret Drugan in 1940 in Chicago but only her name appears in the census and she was listed as "single". And since she was unemployed at the time according to the census and 4 months pregnant with Frank Jr., I wonder how she supported herself and paid the rent where she was living. I suspect that Frank was indeed living there with her but just avoided the census as a matter of personal preference.
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Frank was married to Anne Scharf on 30 Mar 1962 in Putnam County, Florida. Unfortunately, he was not divorced from Margaret Drugan until April 1962 in Flagler County, Florida.
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Note: BI19400 Birth Record Details:
Unnamed Male Lightfoot
09 September 1907
Eau Claire County, Wisconsin
Reel: 0064; Record: 001031
NOTE - Franklin was not initially given a name by his parents. His birth certificate has only a blank line drawn through the space where his name would appear.
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Name: Lightfoot
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 09 Sep 1907
Birthplace: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Race: White
Father's Name: Lee L. Lightfoot
Father's Birthplace: Springdale, Iowa
Mother's Name: Mary McLaughlin
Mother's Birthplace: Emory, Iowa
Citing this Record
"Wisconsin Births and Christenings, 1826-1926," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRJ8-LGH : 11 February 2018), Lee L. Lightfoot in entry for Lightfoot, 09 Sep 1907; citing Eau Claire, Wisconsin, reference V4 P406 N1031; FHL microfilm 1,302,869.
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Note: NF2 There is no definitive marriage document yet found but it is believed that Margaret and Franklin were married in Chicago in late 1939 or early 1940. Around 1958 or 1959, they separated and Margaret moved to Springfield along with her one of her sons, Brian. Franklyn, Jr. was attending Winona State College in Winona, Minnesota and Lee was in California working with his uncle, Robert Westphal.
As a youngster, I can remember Mom mentioning several times that theirs was a "common law" marriage. Whether or not common law marriages were legal at the time is somewhat moot at this point. In nearly all states, common law marriages are no longer valid. After several months of searching for records in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, I am unable to come up with any documents showing that they were ever legally married. I believe that Frank and Margaret starting living together in Chicago while he was still technically married to his previous wife. After a few weeks or months, when this divorce happened, is when we hear about Margaret saying that the previous wife literally danced in the street. I suspect that Frank just put off the concept of getting married again or was too busy doing whatever he was doing, or just didn't want to get tied up in any more official ceremonies. I also think there is a chance that he may have had some police warrants out for him at the time and therefore he wasn't about to apply for any official license where his name could come up on a police blotter.
There still is a chance that they did officially get married but I have not yet asked the appropriate source for that record. The state of Illinois seems to be the worst for tracking marriage records in that there is no central statewide database. The counties in and around Chicago seemed to be able to keep their own records without any statewide notification. So unless I ask each and every county in Illinois, I may never know for sure. To the best of all of the relatives knowledge, they all assume that they were married in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. In typical Cook County tradition, after a payment of fees for obtaining a copy of a marriage record between Drugan and Lightfoot, I was given a response six weeks later that no such record exists and a thank you for the payment of the fees which was non-refundable.
In somewhat of a support of the notion that they were never officially married is the 1940 census conducted in April in Cook County which shows Margaret Drugan living in an apartment at 941 Agatite Street. She was 23 years old and working as a waitress. Her marital status was marked as single. She would have been about 4 months pregnant at the time with Franklin Jr.
A copy of the divorce decree between Margaret and Frank was filed by Frank in 1962 in Volusia County, Florida which shows that he provided a marriage date of 10 December 1940 in Saint Louis, Missouri. On the copy provided to Margaret, she scratched off that date and wrote in 10 September 1939 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois but Cook County claims that they have no record of such a marriage.
(Brian L. Lightfoot)
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Robert Westphal Jr. adds a story that his mom went (from Winona) and lived with Frank and Margaret on Hoyne Avenue in Chicago sometime in late 1942. Mom said they lived in an upstairs apartment (above a billiards hall) and she slept on the Davenport (not to be confused with the city in Iowa), and worked at Montgomery Wards, downtown Chicago, in the accounting office. She said that Frank would disappear for days on end, and Margaret would throw all of his clothes out onto the fire escape (madder than hell!) Shortly thereafter, she got a civil service job (ration board) at the Hercules Powder Works (Ammo Plant) in Baraboo, Wisconsin, met Robert Westphal, Sr., and the rest is history.
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