My Family Tree: June 2016

Everyone has a father. Not everyone has a dad. I am fortunate to have a great dad.

My dad, Richard Fanning, has been a great inspiration to me. He and my mom raised my sister and I with a wonderful sense of family pride. He made sure the we did family things even when there was not a lot of money on hand. Trips to the Bronx Zoo & Botanical Gardens and the local beach (Orchard or Rockaway) grew into trips to Virginia Beach, Disney World, Chincoteague Island, Massachusetts for skiing, and frequent visits with relatives even if it meant taking the subway to a bus at the Port Authority.

My dad's promotion to Deputy Chief

My dad spent 32 years as a fireman in NYC after 2 years as a Transit Policeman. I watched him work hard and rise through the ranks of the FDNY to become a Deputy Chief. There were usually lots of fire science books and binders around the house during those years before a promotion test and mom made sure she occupied us kids so not to disturb him while he was studying. I did not become the excellent test taker he was but I did come to realize the value of hard work because of him. I would like to think that I inherited his sense of service and bravery. I have heard from many in the fire department of what great guy he is and a pleasure to work with/for. I used to love to read his scrapbook as a kid with the articles of heroics and mayhem... The Jennings Street Collapse, the two times he apprehended burglars in our Bronx apartment building, and narratives of awards earned. I relished the visits as a young lad to the firehouse. If there was such a thing as direct deposit back then, I surely would have been cheated of many visits to Ladder 19 & Engine 50.

Not everyone can say their dad was Superman.

My dad has a great sense of humor and is always the life of the party sometimes to my mother's chagrin. I believe he inherited that from his parents, Joe & Vera, who knew how to have a good time. I always loved the stories of my grandparents summers in the Rockaway bungalow courts and the St. Ignatius parish hall in Yorkville. One particular story had them and their friends in either O'Gara's Bar or the Paddywagon Pub across from Playland when a fight broke out. They were caught in the back of the establishment near an open window. Rather than get caught up in the fray, the men passed the girls through the window and climbed out behind them but not before grabbing a few pitchers of beer... not all of them were theirs!

Poppy Joe tries a hand at the bodhran drum.

My grandfather, Joseph Patrick Fanning... originally known to me as Pop Pop which later became Poppy Joe, was a hard working man, too. He worked in the printing business and became his own boss when he opened his own agency, FanningType. He, too, valued the family time when he could. Although my father has different recollections from hen he was a kid, my experience as the eldest grandchild included the backyard pool in NJ and beach house rentals in the Jersey Shore's Lavalette and then Long Beach, NY. As I grew older, I was fortunate to live about a mile from him after we both settled in Long Beach permanently. It was nice share a beer with him and visit for a short time unannounced during a bike ride with the kids. It is wonderful that he was able spend time with own great-grand kids. I did not get to meet my great grandfather,also Joseph Patrick Fanning.

Joseph Patrick Sr., the great grandfather, was born in Ireland in 1898 and immigrated to the US as a child with his parents. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen and raised his family there, too. Although born Joseph Patrick, he was known as "Paddy" and I have imagined him speaking in a slight brogue despite being taught the language here in the US. Census reports cite his occupation as "driver" in trucking and "chauffeur for private family". He passed away when my dad was only 3 years old and, unfortunately, never had a relationship with him. If my memory serves me correctly Poppy Joe told me Paddy drove a car for the Ruppert family. Col. Jacob Ruppert was a well known businessman in NYC. He inherited the Ruppert Brewery in Yorkville, was a Tammany Hall politician, and owned the New York Yankees. In fact, it was Ruppert who purchased Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox in 1919. Coincidentally, Harry Herbert Frazee Sr., the man who sold The Babe to fund his Broadway production of "No, No Nanette" was the father-in-law of my maternal 1st cousin (2x removed) Anna May Hoffman. And to make the family connection greater, Vera Kempen Fanning's (my paternal grandmother) father & grandfather both worked at the Ruppert Brewery at some point, too.

Paddy Fanning

And the man responsible for the Fannings being in America was Peter Joseph Fanning. in 1891, at the age of 28 years old, he moved his family to New York. The 1910 census reports that his occupation was "horse shoer". I am sure he led a life of hard work, too. I don't have much information on Peter. I don't know when he died but I know he wasn't wealthy when he did. Judging from his photo, he was likely a proud man. And I believe he would be proud of all the Fanning fathers that came from his lineage.

Peter Fanning

Not forgotten on this father's day is my other grandfather, who died when my mom was young, and the other great grandfathers whose blood runs through my veins.