LEVI FREEMAN CASE,  1913-1992

(The original birth certificate for Freeman Case listed him as George Case, apparently Maggie named him for her older brother George Spencer, then changed it to the name he grew up with: Levi Freeman Case.  His birth certificate was modified to reflect his proper name when he joined the Navy in 1942.

Levi Freeman Case, about 3 years old.....

Born in Long Beach, California, he grew up in the Los Angeles Area, surrounded by his father's and his mother's brothers and sisters.  Levi Freeman (“Freeman”) followed in his father’s and his father’s and his father’s footsteps in the building trades and became a lather in Los Angeles.  During the depression, building activity dwindled, and several parts of the Case family in southern California supported themselves by making and selling on the street, Cases' Texas Tamales.

   Freeman Case, with his Uncle Fred Spencer                                   Freeman Case, about 18?

Following the lead of Freeman's grandmother, Sarah Percy Black/Spencer of Decatur, Texas, much of  the Case family  were active members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Los Angeles after they arrived from Texas. Through the church activities, young Levi, who went by his middle name Freeman, met Alys-Mae Barkwille.  Alys-Mae and her mother were a moderately successful professional singing act, and Freeman tried to accompany them on his guitar and sing along, but he turned out to be slightly tone-deaf and gave it up. He finally did marry Alys-Mae July 22, 1933 in South Gate, CA.  Alys-Mae quit the singing act and joined the Case family tamale business.  

                                           And this one, even rarer, on their Tijuana honeymoon...

Here's a RARE picture of  Freeman Case

and Alys-Mae...                                           

<Freeman with Leighton Case, about 1935

              This is Dad on the beach, 1939

Freeman and Alys-Mae separated in 1941 and divorced in 1943. When the Second World War broke out, Dad  joined the Navy, and was a Carpenter's Mate 1st Class in the Pacific Fleet.

    This is me with Dad on his "boot liberty"         Here's his Boot Camp Squad--he's the tall one (6'2") in center, rear.

During the War, Alys-Mae cared for their children when she could afford it, and at other times we were with friends or relatives.   We were cared for, for a while, by Flo Case, daughter of Dad's brother Deward.    In late summer of 1944, Leighton and I were placed with Ione  Stellway in Bellflower. My mother was convinced Mrs. Stellway was a relative of the Cases, but I have not been able to place her in the family--maybe she was Deward Case's wife's mother/sister/aunt(?).  A few blocks down the street, our brother Eugene Case was living with--I think--our uncle Deward Case.

Freeman Case, just back from service, 1945

When WWII ended, Freeman returned to the lathing trade and lived for a short time with his 2^nd wife Lucille  in Lemon Grove, CA in a trailer-home parked on the George and Ida Mae (Case) KRAFT property.  Leighton, Eugene and I were all there at one point, bedded down in the Kraft home.  Next door was Dad's sister Hazel, her husband Walter Meyer and their sons.  The marriage to Lucille did not last too long....I  was sent to live with my mother, while Leighton and Eugene stayed for a while longer.

Freeman later married a war-widow, Helen (Culka) ALLEN, and took on supporting her four children and his three sons.  For a time,  Freeman, Helen and her children Loretta, Larry, Collette and Barbara, and Freeman’s Leighton, Eugene and Gordon all lived in a small home on Bliss Street in Compton, CA—a very full house.  It quickly turned out to be too crowded, and about 1948, his 3 boys moved to Hayward, CA one at a time to live with their mother and her husband Richard Shrank. 

Helen and Freeman had one child,  daughter Lynette Sue CASE. 

They were avid fans of Monopoly, and when Canasta became popular, they shifted to that card-game, playing for decades almost every weekend with friends and relatives.  Dad and Uncle Deward were quite close during that time.  We went surf fishing together and their hobby for a while was brewing home-made beer—long before the advent of micro-breweries.  Freeman Case retired in 1972 and moved his family to Apple Valley, CA.  Helen Case died in 1981 after a five year battle with melanoma cancer. 

Lynette CASE married Larry Katchelmeyer--yet another carpenter. Lynette and Larry have two daughters: Emily Ann Katchelmeyer, and  Katie Lynn Katchelmeyer.

Freeman developed "minor" prostate cancer at 75 and Alzheimer’s disease about 1989.  Lynette’s husband built an apartment over their garage for Freeman to live in after he developed Alzheimer’s, and he lived there until he died in 1992.

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