The Lines family has been identified with Clearfield County for over seventy years [as of 1898], and has contributed to its material progress and prosperity to an extent equaled but by few of its contemporaries.

The difference between the past and the presence can scarcely be realized, even by those who have been active participants in the development of the county. The present generation can have no conception of what was required by the early settlers in transforming the wilderness into a well-settled and highly cultivated section which we do today see.20
____________

My father Richard had a boyhood friend whose last name was “Kavalak”, whom I met at the Blake Swatsworth 100th birthday party in Clearfield or Curwensville, PA in November of 1987. I have video of Kavalak and my uncle Pete standing outside the building.7

The 1930 census sheet for Pike Township, showing Richard at six years old, includes the Simon Kavelak family, and his children, but their youngest “Eddie” is eleven. The families are three entires apart.21
____________

U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records show Richard D. Lines

Birth year: 1924
State of Residence: Pennsylvania
Enlistment Date: 4 Sep 1943.
Enlistment City: Altoona, PA

Terms of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law.

Education: Grammar school
Civil Occupation: Farms hands, general farms
Marital Status: Single, without dependents22
____________

Richard Delmont Lines and his brother John E. Lines are listed among those who served in World War Two 1941-1945 from Curwensville in this source. None of the other Lines brothers, who also served, are included.23

In March 1944 Richard Lines was on maneuvers with the Second Army somewhere in Tennesee and had just been promoted to the rank of Corporal.24

In May of 1944 Corporal Richard Lines returned to Camp Breckinridge, KY,† after spending a 15-day furlough with his mother, Mrs. Nora Lines, in Curwensville.25
Note: Richard’s son Terry (1945-1946) is buried at Ridge Top Cemetery in Crofton, KY. Crofton is located just 63-miles from Morganfield, KY., near where Camp Breckinridge was once operated.3
____________

Richard’s son Richard Lee Gleason received a letter in the late 1970s indicating that his father’s military records were lost in the July 12, 1973, fire at the St. Louis, MO National Personnel Records Center. The disastrous fire destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. The affected records included an 80% loss to records of U.S. Army personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 19603,26,27
____________

Resident of Clearfield, Clearfield, PA in Jan 1945.28
Resident of Evansville, Vanderburgh, IN in Oct 1949.29
Resident of Akron, Summit, OH in Feb 1954.30
Resident of Clearfield, Clearfield, PA in Nov 1954.31
Resident of Philadelphia, PA with his sister Maxine prior to his death in 1955.32
____________

Richard and his brother Wilbur lived in Philadelphia in about 1954. Richard with his wife Barbara and daughter Maxine lived at 1824 Vernango Street. He worked at a gas station at the corner of Broad and Glenwood. This was just prior to his moving to Akron where he and his brother Wib (Wilbur) worked with his bother Eli. Their brother Reuben also lived on Erie Avenue.

His nephew Wilbur Lines Jr. (b. 1939) remembered that Richard lived with his family at their house in Hyde, PA [late 1940’s very early 50’s?]. He said his father Wilbur and Richard were close. He remembered Richard as a “good guy” and “really liked him, everybody liked him.” He was “tough, really tough.”

Wilbur said that his friend Alfred Hull, a brother-in-law of Richard’s, once told him that Richard “was the best-looking guy he’d ever seen.”

Richard sang and played guitar in country music bands at local bars with a good friend Ray Bruner.33
____________

I mostly remember him for his guitar playing and singing. He had a voice much like Hank Williams as I recall. He gave me an old guitar and was trying to teach me to play but … I wasn't a very good student. To this day I wish I could play. I think I was about 9 when he passed away, maybe younger. It has been quite a while ago. I still remember the funeral. It was the first one in the family I remember. I remember a trip to Pennsylvania. in a single seater coupe he had, I think he sold it to my brother Chuck. We sat in the space behind the seat, not a lot of room. A vision of him, my Mom and Dad sitting at the breakfast table drinking coffee just popped into my head, funny how things like that happen.34
____________

Richard's brother Eli got Richard, as well as brother Wilbur, a job at the R.C.A. Rubber Company in Akron, OH where Eli worked, and from where Eli would later retire. Wilbur quit the job first and then Richard quit at R.C.A. in August of 1955. He left Akron with his nephew and good friend Charles Ingram Jr. (1927). Together they traveled to Pennsylvania. Carrying with him what few belongings he had, Richard fell sick on his trip home and was immediately hospitalized, and died there later that month.19,35
____________

A man by the name of Dick Hess lived across the street from Jim Veihdeffer’s home in Hyde. Dick was a good friend of Richard’s. Another good friend was Ray Brunner, who died several years ago. (Veihdeffer was Richard’s sister Maxine’s second husband).36

Note: In the summer of 2016 I met and visited with Dick Hess. He indicated he knew Richard, however he was more friends with Richard’s younger brother John, who was closer to his own age.3
____________

Wilbur, who spent a lot of time with Richard said he didn’t drink a whole lot. He would drink a beer but does not remember ever seeing him drunk.36
____________

Richard’s funeral was handled by the Russell H. Lininger Funeral Home in Curwensville.37
____________

A photograph that shows the Lininger Funeral Home around 1950 is seen at this source. (It is the second building from the left with the gables on the roof.)38
____________

In my newspaper research there is confusion regarding some details relative to my father’s life. This is due to the fact that there was another Richard Lines, a second cousin, three years younger than my dad who was born and raised in the same rural area. His name is Richard F Lines and he was born abt 1927. He is the same Richard Lines who was charged and later convicted of the December 1964 shooting murder of a local Curwensville, PA part-time Police Officer Lyle Domico.39,40
____________

This other Richard Lines was a nephew to Maude Estella (Lines) Sarvey (1885-1983). Maude was Harry W. Line’s (1884-1974) 1st cousin. For many years she was next door neighbor to my grandmother Nora and her husband Marlie. Richard F Lines’ father was Maude’s brother.3,41
____________

Richard’s son Richard (b. 1952) was legally adopted in October of 1956 following the death of his father. The younger Richard’s adoptive parents were his father’s older sister, Maxine Jane (Lines) Gleason, and her husband James Emmett Gleason.

The younger Richard’s record appears in this database as the son of his adopted parents as well as his biological parents Richard Delmont Lines and Joann Hull.3,4
____________

*Glomerulonephritis is a group of diseases that injure the part of the kidney that filters blood (called glomeruli). Other terms you may hear used are nephritis and nephrotic syndrome. When the kidney is injured, it cannot get rid of wastes and extra fluid in the body. If the illness continues, the kidneys may stop working completely, resulting in kidney failure.

Nephritis refers to inflammation of one or both kidneys. It can be caused by infection, but is most commonly caused by autoimmune disorders that affect the major organs. In rare cases nephritis can be genetically inherited, though it may not be present in childhood. Nephritis [in 2010] is the ninth highest cause of human death. As the kidneys inflame, they begin to excrete needed protein from the body into the urinary stream. Loss of necessary protein due to nephritis can result in several life-threatening symptoms. Most dangerous in cases of nephritis is the loss of protein that keeps blood from clotting. This can result in blood clots causing sudden stroke.42

†Morganfield is located near Camp Breckinridge, a World War II prisoner of war camp. During the Korean War, Camp Breckinridge was the headquarters of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division and was used for the conduct of basic training of newly inducted U.S. Army recruits. The Associated Press reported on May 22, 2007, a continuing dispute regarding the families of displaced residents of the area that became Camp Breckenridge and the U.S. government. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was named as a mediator in the dispute in February 2007. About 40,000 soldiers preparing for the war stayed at the camp. The camp also held about 3,000 German prisoners of war before being deactivated in 1949. It was re-opened in 1965 as the "Breckinridge Job Corps Center", and the name was later changed to the "Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center" in 1980 to honor Earle C. Clements, a former Kentucky governor and U.S. senator.43