James Arness of ‘Gunsmoke’ fame dead at 88
1901_gwsearls
Image by dsearls
My grandfather, George W. Searls, when he was about 40, I’m guessing. This is cropped from a much larger photo of a crew. Grandpa Searls, who was born in 1863 and died in 1934, had many trades. He was born in Syracuse, New York, one of seven children: six girls and then two boys: George and Charlie. Their parents were Allen Searls and Esther Bixby Searls (next picture), and had a big house on South State Street, as I recall. George’s father was one of many Searls brothers — all children of Samuell Searls (a Revolutionary War veteran who fought on the losing side) — worked on the Erie Canal, and other projects in upstate New York. Allen and his brother Samuel Searls went "west" to help found Charlotte, Michigan. Somewhere I have amazing stories about that frontier life. Speaking of adventures, George (above) also worked on the Panama Canal and spent some time pioneering around The West… perhaps as a soldier. Not sure. In Fort Lee, where he settled and raised a family (starting at 40, after he met Ethel Englert, then 20), his carpentry work included construction of Universal Studios silent movie sets, and building the Cyclone, the scary roller coaster in Palisades Park. Grace just told me George was "henpecked by his mother and sisters and left home at 14." He was entirely self-made after that. Grace: "At eight years old he knew enough to make shingles and go up and repair a roof. His mother was giving him a hard time, but his father said ‘Let him be.’" This would have been in 1871 or so. Somewhere else in this series I have a pic of one of the older sisters, Eva, with me at my baptism. Eva died just shy of 100 years old.
James Arness of ‘Gunsmoke’ fame dead at 88
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James Arness of ‘Gunsmoke’ fame dead at 88
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Sony Pictures sorry about hacks
Sony Pictures Entertainment has apologised over a personal data breach that hackers said involved more than one million passwords, email addresses and other information being stolen.
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