Richard Lee Gleason has always known his cousin by the nickname “Snooks” and Wilbur Jr. confirmed that most people his entire life have referred to him by that name. The name came from the radio show “Baby Snooks”* with Fanny Brice. Wilbur Jr. really liked the show as a toddler of about two years old.33
____________

Wilbur was injured as a nine year old when he jumped from the bed of a moving truck on July 14, 1949. He was hospitalized for the next 6 days at Clearfield Hospital to recover from his injuries. [See more below]140
____________

Snooks went from a one-room school with eight grades and about 15 students in Bloomington to the much bigger Leonard Grade School in Clearfield. He recalled he was in the second grade and really liked school, but after the move, which was near the end of the school year, he was held back with one other student having to repeat the grade. He said he never liked school after that. In recounting the story when he fell out of the back of a pick-up truck, he said his dad was driving and he and his brother and sister were all in the back bed. He was in a coma and recalled when he woke up his step-grandfather Marlie Ellinger was sitting next to his bed. Snooks said the day he was released from the hospital his dad took him to a local store and bought him a bicycle and said he remembered his uncle Richard riding that bike.33
____________

In Nov of 1954 while in Jr. High School Wilbur was on the Staging Committee, for a class Minstrel show.347
____________

Wilbur lived in Philadelphia, PA at about age 15 when his father was working at a gas station across the street from the “International Airport” at what was known as “The Circle.” He remembers walking with his uncle Richard’s wife Barb and her baby daughter Maxine to the movies etc. and Barb teasing him about being embarrased to be seen with a woman and a baby, that people might think they were his wife and daughter.33
____________

MILITARY SERVICE

Wilbur Jr. was in the Marine Corps joining on 11 Feb 1957 at age of seventeen after procuring his mother’s signature. He went through basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, SC. Later he was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Snooks joined the military because he knew he was going to eventually be drafted. He was living with his grandmother behind his parents house at the time as there wasn’t enough room in his parents home for more than his father, mother and sister Carol. Not having anything else to do he decided to go inmto the service. He thought about the Navy and the Air Force and did not talk to his father before joining.

“Snooks” served for three years and was in a “Weapons Company” in the infantry -- the same as his dad -- carrying a flame thrower as well as a 3.5 rocket launcher or Bazooka. He served in Barstow, California at what is now called the Marine Corps Logistics Center. While there he was in a Guard Company protecting buildings and the base perimeter and also worked at the Brig. Among his duties he also stood guard at the main gate.

It was in Barstow where he met his wife Ginger when she was 15 years old. Ginger’s sister (Rita??) married a friend of Snooks’.

In June or July of 1958 he, with his fellow Marines, were put on trucks on a 1 hour standby and prepared to board a ship to go into Lebanon. He had recently returned to Camp Lejuene, North Carolina after a crusie in the Caribbean. On that crusie they sailed down on the U.S.S. Hermitage** and returned aboard the Terry Bone Terris(??)***. He also worked aboard the U.S.S. Rockbridge**** unloading it for 3 days on the island of Vieques***** in Puerto Rico. He was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1960.348

As a PFC Snooks was doing the job of a Sergeant by standing guard at the gates in Barstow. The Marines offered to promote him to a Warrant Officer rating if he stayed in the Corps, but he said no. After his discharge in Barstow he took a bus home to Clearfield.349
____________

He was involved in installing the steel work on the Dimeling Bridge in Clearfield county with Bobby Spingola (his sister’s husband) in the 1960s.

Snooks was employed with the Pennsylvania Electric company in about 1968 as a laborer. He did whatever they wanted. They’d go inside boilers and “do stupid things.” They used shovels and hauled stuff, using wheelbarrow,s lots of labor intensive work. He worked in Kentucky and all over. Worked on bridges laying steel, dams and gas lines. He always had to do “hard, hard work.” He would load 600 pound roller pipes (used for rolling over concrete) onto trucks by himself, if he couldn’t find help. He would use chains to help him get them on and off trucks.

After his marriage to Ginger in 1986 he worked in Fort Worth, Texas, in highway construction. He lived in Tyler, Texas (between Dallas and Shreveport LA) for five years (1997-2002) and continued to maintain an address there when he returned to Clearfield for work.350
____________

Wilbur Jr. once was a big drinker but hasn’t drank since 1988. He almost had a stroke from smoking and quit. A short time later, not liking the taste of beer without a cigarette, he gave up drinking as well.36

Wilbur had on occasion lived with his wife Ginger in Texas.351

Resident of Clearfield, Clearfield, PA in December 2003.135

Resident of Clearfield, Clearfield, PA in Feb 2009-Jan 2011.338,33
____________

*Fanny Brice was a popular and influential comedienne, singer, theater and film actress. From the 1930s until her death in 1951, she made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Baby Snooks. Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl, even though seen only by the radio studio audience.

She was completely devoted to the character, as she told a biographer: "Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist."

Fanny was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in the musical and in the 1968 film adaptation “Funny Girl.”352

** The Hermitage was a dock landing ship of the U.S. Navy. Commissioned in December of 1956. The Hermitage sailed the Caribbean on various assignments until she was decommissioned and transfered to the Brazillian Navy on 2 October 1989.353

***

**** The Rockbridge was an attack transport of the U.S. Navy. Originally commissioned on 18 November 1944. She was decommissioned on 29 November 1968 and sold to a Baltimore company in May of 1969 for scrapping.354

***** Vieques lies about 8 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland and measures about 21 miles long by 4 miles wide. It is best known internationally as the site of a series of protests against the United States Navy’s use of the island as a bombing range and testing ground which led to the Navy’s departure in 2003. Today the former navy land is a national wildlife refuge, with numerous beaches that still retain the names given by the navy, including Red Beach, Blue Beach, Green Beach and others. The beaches are commonly listed among the top beaches in the Caribbean for their azure-colored waters and white sands.355