I'm always amazed with some folks who have never lived in Manning but have/had relatives who live/d here and are willing to help me with Manning history and share the pictures and history they have with me so I can scan them.
Yet with so many people who live/d in Manning, it is crickets when it comes to my requests and pleas for Manning family history from them.

In 2015 I got in contact with a Strathman/Petersen descendent who lives in California and she brought me her collection of stuff to scan.
Recently she wanted to know her great-grandmother Strathman's maiden name.
I had quite a bit of information for her including the names: John & Christina (Hagge) Strathman.

She also noticed I was requesting military information on my web pages for Manning Veterans and told me she had a little information about her uncle Bill Strathman.
She had already provided me with a lot of pictures and information for her uncle Gene Strathman, a WWII Liberator Bomber crewmember who was killed in his plane while flying over Alaska.
Gene so-happened to be my mother's 1941 classmate and friend.

I'm always writing about how my family is connected and intertwined in Manning's history - like so many other old-time Manning families - it's just that today most of the younger generations don't know about their family connections to Manning's history.
This picture has several connections for my family...read below the picture.

May 23, 1941 Last day of School

Gene Strathman, Virginia (Greteman) Wiese (laying down) and Dorothy (Ehrichs) Kusel
Connections to my family history:
3 members of the MHS class of 1941.
Gene, who I mentioned above in the Strathman information, was also a good friend of my mother.
Another good friend and classmate of my mother was Virginia Greteman...Virginia is also a first cousin - once removed to my dad. At the time mother did not know about this Kusel connection and had not yet become good friends of dad...he graduated in 1938.

These are just a few teasers of the Manning puzzle I like to document and add to my Manning historical database.


Now back to the Bill Strathman feature. I'm going to basically stay with Bill's story but here are his parents.


Leroy & Clara (Petersen) Strathman


Billy Lee Strathman

Errors everywhere...
I continue to work with Bill's niece who has lost track of Bill's 2 daughters.
We are looking for an obituary and all we have is this funeral card information shown below.
Now this information took me on a temporary "wild goose chase."
I searched for the cemetery and the funeral home on the Internet.
As far as I can tell the funeral home no longer exists or has changed names/ownership.

I found the Sunnyside Cemetery which was almost closed but then the city of Long Beach took over its control.
I sent this information to Bill's niece, but she said that Bill was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park - not even close to the name on the funeral card.
So I searched further on the Internet and stumbled on a site that clarified the confusion and the error on Bill's card.
Read below to find out how easy it is to make an error and make it hard to track our history properly.

IN MEMORY OF Billy Lee Strathman
BORN December 13, 1929
DIED June 15, 1960
SERVICES AT Sunnyside Memorial Chapel Saturday, June 18, 1960, 10:30 a.m.
Officiating Rev. Robert Forsyth
MUSIC
ORGANIST Esther Scott
VOCALIST Frank League
INTERMENT Sunnyside Cemetery Memorial Park
ARRANGEMENTS BY Wilmington Funeral Home 702 Broad Avenue, Wilmington E.J. Brower, Director

Note: the original name on the funeral card was Sunnyside Cemetery which is incorrect.
Bill is buried in what is now called Forest Lawn Memorial Park - see below…
Sunnyside Cemetery is frequently confused with Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Long Beach), which was previously (prior to 1978) named Sunnyside Memorial Park and which contains the large, 3 story Sunnyside Mausoleum and Sunnyside Crematory.

Now to complicate Bill's history, he was killed in a train - car crash that ended his life early on.
So now we are trying to find a full obituary and also his children.

Since he served in the military I doubt he carried along many pictures from Manning and his daughters/grandkids would probably like to see some of them and find out more about their Strathman/Petersen family history.


I wonder if Bill's children know he was a sponsor for a relative? LeRoy Kienast married Donarae Strathman, sister of Bill. There are so many little pieces of an individual's puzzle that get lost over time, unless the information is documented and categorized in a database like I'm working on.

Sponsor for Penny Kienast


For the longest time I had no pictures of Bill Strathman until I scanned Wilbur "Casey" Karsten's military scrapbook in 2013. In there were pictures of several Manning Veterans I did not have any military pictures of like Bill and also of Frank Wegner.

Then when Bill Strathman's niece brought me her collection in 2015, I found lots of pictures of Bill...

Pictures from Casey Karsten

Bill Strathman


Casey Karsten & Bill Strathman June 14, 1948


Bill Strathman June 14, 1948


Casey Karsten, Bill Strathman, Frank Wegner


Casey Karsten & Bill Strathman


1947 Bill Strathman from Marian Kasperbauer collection

Pictures from Bill's niece

Casey Karsten, Howard "Tuffy" Schumann, Bill Strathman


1st cousins, Bill Strathman & Glenn Kuhse
The Kuhses are related on the Petersen side.
First Street - Ohde funeral home in the back right.


Bill Strathman - home in background 115 First Street - later home of Lyle & Judy Joens.


Bill Strathman MHS 1947


Bill Strathman - Strathman home 120 First Street


Bill Strathman - Strathman home 120 First Street


Bill Strathman with his dad Leroy
It appears to be Bill and his wife in the picture in back.


Bill Strathman


Back: Lavonne Joyce, Lyle Gene, Bill Lee
Front: Leroy, Donarae, Clara (Petersen)

I have more pictures of other Strathman family members but this about covers Bill.
I just wish I had more military information to include in the Manning Veterans' history book for Bill.

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