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Remembrances of the Angels

50th Anniversary Reminiscences of the Fire No One Can Forget

John Kuenster

On a terrible day in December 1958, one of the deadliest fires in American history took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels school in Chicago. The tragedy shocked the nation, tore apart a community with grief and anger, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and prompted a mystery unresolved to this day. It also led to a complete overhaul of fire safety standards for American schools. The story of that fire was eloquently told ten years ago by John Kuenster and David Cowan in their best-selling book To Sleep with the Angels. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the fire, John Kuenster returns to talk with firemen, parents, children, reporters, clergy, school administrators, and others who were in some way connected with the disaster. Together their thoughts and feelings about their experience, still vivid and tender after a half-century, make Remembrances of the Angels a moving and often tearful book.

Ivan R. Dee

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-56663-800-5 • Hardback • September 2008 • $22.50 • (£16.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, History / General

Remembrances of the Angels

50th Anniversary Reminiscences of the Fire No One Can Forget

Hardback

Summary

On a terrible day in December 1958, one of the deadliest fires in American history took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels school in Chicago. The tragedy shocked the nation, tore apart a community with grief and anger, left many families physically and psychologically scarred for life, and prompted a mystery unresolved to this day. It also led to a complete overhaul of fire safety standards for American schools. The story of that fire was eloquently told ten years ago by John Kuenster and David Cowan in their best-selling book To Sleep with the Angels. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the fire, John Kuenster returns to talk with firemen, parents, children, reporters, clergy, school administrators, and others who were in some way connected with the disaster. Together their thoughts and feelings about their experience, still vivid and tender after a half-century, make Remembrances of the Angels a moving and often tearful book.

Details

Ivan R. Dee

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-56663-800-5 • Hardback • September 2008 • $22.50 • (£16.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, History / General

Author

John Kuenster, a former staff writer and columnist with the Chicago Daily News, and editor of The Columbia, has also written To Sleep with the Angels (with David Cowan) and Heartbreakers, and has edited The Best of Baseball Digest. He lives in Evergreen Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Charles Remsberg
Chapter 2: Joe Murray
Chapter 3: Larry Sorce
Chapter 4: Nancy Scanlon Rodewald
Chapter 5: Rosemary Pisani Bieker
Chapter 6: Connie Rose Straube
Chapter 7: Ken Sienkiewicz
Chapter 8: Jim Grosso
Chapter 9: Emily Ruszczyk Winterhalter
Chapter 10: John Raymond
Chapter 11: William Edington
Chapter 12: Charlene Campanale Jancik
Chapter 13: Lois Wille
Chapter 14: Jean Hart
Chapter 15: Ron Sarno
Chapter 16: Patricia Rice, R.N.
Chapter 17: Michael Cannella
Chapter 18: Ken Leonard
Chapter 19: Father Pat McPolin
Chapter 20: Albin Anderson
Chapter 21: Maureen Bailey Bidwell
Chapter 22: Edward Glanz
Chapter 23: Sister Mary Donatus DeCock, B.V.M.
Chapter 24: Bill O'Brien
Chapter 25: John Lubke
Chapter 26: Bob Wiedrich
Chapter 27: Dan Lupo
Chapter 28: Raymond Orozco, Jr.
Epilogue

Reviews

Remembrances of the Angels is a heartbreaking, sobering reflection on life and loss, faith and hope. Even fifty years after the disaster, we remain in shock and pain at the terrible loss of life at Our Lady of the Angels. Each reflection in this book gives the reader a fresh piece of truth. Anguished parents and young school-age victims of the blaze recall a moment in time never to be forgotten. Chicago Tribune reporter Bob Wiedrich presents a view almost too horrible to read. It is my prayer that the mercy of God continue to strengthen all those who survived.
— Edward M. Burke, Alderman, Chicago City Council

In the aftermath of the Our Lady of the Angels School fire of December 1, 1958, many survivors and their families were told to forget the tragedy and go about their lives. No grief counselors in those days. Now John Kuenster, to mark the 50th anniversary of this tragedy, has followed up his earlier masterpiece investigation of the fire, To Sleep with the Angels, with a new volume of remarkable eyewitness recollections. No one who reads this book will ever forget what happened that bright, cold, tragic day fifty years ago. This book honors not only those who died and were seriously injured, but it will save lives in the future. An unforgettable read.
— John Callaway; WTTW

The assemblage of all the disparate bits of the story in Remembrances makes for a heartbreaking montage of sorrow, horror, acceptance, regret and anger—and for a page-turner of a book.
— Chicago Sun-Times

Remembrances of the Angels

50th Anniversary Reminiscences of the Fire No One Can Forget

John Kuenster

Remembrances of the Angels

50th Anniversary Reminiscences of the Fire No One Can Forget

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