Shawneene (Jenny) George

I was born in Youngstown (St. Elizabeth Hospital), Ohio on March 31, 1951 to Lebanese American parents. My family moved to Farrell Pennsylvania in 1954, when my mother's aunt passed away and the clothing store in Farrell was left to her in her aunts Will. At the time my father was drafted into the Army, he had been managing a men's clothing store in West Virginia. My parents renamed the store as the T-Jay Shoppe. The Store sold both men's and women's clothing, and was located on the corner of Lee Ave, and Idaho Street, across the street from Murphy's 5 and 10. We lived in a two bedroom apartment above the store. At that time I was 3 years old, and my sister, Karen was 2 years old. In 1956 my brother Alan was born. We were only a few blocks from the Sharon Steel Corporation Mill, which was Farrell's major employer at that time. Most of the neighborhood men worked at the Steel Mill. I can still remember the Mill Whistle blowing early in the morning, then around three in the afternoon, and again in the evening. Many of the men walked down Idaho Street, right past our home to the Mill carrying their black lunch boxes, steel toed shoes. The apartment was very old. It was built just after the end of the Civil War. I can still remember the smell of the Coal which heated the house during the Winter. The house was also very drafty. I attended Kindergarten at J. A. Farrell School, which was only two blocks away. I then attended Catholic Schools (St. Adalbert's School, Farrell and Sacred Heart in Sharon), eventually graduating from Kennedy Christian H.S. in 1969. We had an old "Player Piano" in the apartment. My mother also loved to play the radio during the day while she was cooking, cleaning, etc. I grew up listening to her music, and I would go to the piano and pick out the tunes of songs that I liked while they were playing on the radio. My mother, believing that I was destined to be the next Mozart, took me to Mark's Music on on the conner of Idaho and Fruit Ave, and enrolled me in piano lessons. I can still remember my first lesson with Miss Day at Marks Music. She was a very kind and affirmative teacher, and encouraged a love of music that I still have today. Farrell was a very diverse City at that time. There were many ethnic "Homes" in my area. The Serbian Home was one block South on Union and Lee Street. The Italian and Croatian Homes were on Spearman Ave. There were also many Churches catering to the various Religions and ethnicities. We along with the few Lebanese families were members of the Polish Church (St. Adalbert Catholic Church) on Fruit Ave. I attend school there for First and Second grade. I was also an Altar boy there starting at age 9 until graduating from high school. Parts of the Mass were spoken in Polish, and at there were also daily and Sunday masses that where the sermons were also in Polish. The Mill also attacked African Americans, many of whom came from Southern States. This was before any Civil Rights laws were enacted, and unlike the South, African American worker at Sharon Steel earned the same wages as their Caucasian coworkers. As time went on, the neighborhood began to change. Edward DeBartolo built the Hickory Plaza in 1954, and businesses in Farrell (and Sharon) began moving to the Plaza. During the following years, more and more African Americans began moving into downtown Farrell, while many of the Caucasian population began moving to "Hickory" which was renamed in 1976 to Hermitage, PA. By the time I was entering High School, I was the only White kid on the block. This was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand I had many Black male friends who were very loyal and supportive of me. There were also "gangs" that would roam the neighborhoods, and would occasionally harass me, or even gang up on me. I learned at a very early age how and when to fight ruthlessly, and also when to run. With the shopping declining in downtown Farrell, my father became and Insurance Salesman with United Insurance, which is now owned by Mutual of Omaha. He quickly rose to the position of assistant manager, which provided a very good salary, along with a company car. My mother continued to run the Clothing Store. They were able to build a home in Hubbard in 1965, and by 1966 we were Hubbard, Ohio residents. When I graduated from Kennedy Christian (now Kennedy Catholic) High School, I attended Youngstown State University on a scholarship, graduating in 1973 with a degree in Psychology. In 1974, I attended John Carroll University on a Teacher Assistantship and completed the three year course to become a School Psychologist. I was also marred that year. I returned to Hubbard in 1977, shortly after my oldest daughter was born, and purchased a home in the new "Meadowland" development in Hubbard. I took a job with the Hubbard Schools as a School Psychologist, while also working at the Catholic Service League, in downtown Youngstown, as a Counselor in the evenings. My second daughter was born in 1979.
My Father was born in Feghal Lebanon, my Mother was born in Cohoes, New York, a suburb of Albany. I was a true Baby Boomer, my father was a Tech IV (equivalent to Sargent) in the U.S. Army, S.O.E. He served in both the European and Pacific Campaigns. My mother was a "Rosie the Riveter", who was a Crane Operator at the Sharon Steel Corporation during World War Two. My mother was adopted by her Paternal Aunt Syspan Antone and her husband Michael (Farrell, PA) after her father passed away of a heart attack. My father immigrated to United States in 1923, after his mother died giving birth to his brother George in 1922. He, along with his older sister Rose, and brother George all lived in Masury, Ohio with their Paternal Grandmother Shawneene Abi-Saab Wehbe, who was a survivor of the 1912 Titanic Sinking. She was know as "Jenny George" in the U.S. She raised my father, and siblings in an apartment above a small grocery store, along with her other children that included daughters, Rose George, and Mary George, and her son Albert. ln 1918, Albert along with his Sister Rose and her husband Thomas Thomas, started selling ice cream cones in their small grocery store. The Ice Cream cone had become very popular at that time, and Albert George, and his sister Rose started selling the cones as the George and Thomas Cone Company, which is now the Joy Cone Company which is now the largest producer of Ice Cream Cones in the United States. My father, along with all of the relatives living worked in what the family called the "Cone Factory", until he started attending Ohio State University. In fact, almost all of the extended family, including myself, my sister, my first cousins all worked at Joy Cone, which was almost a "rite of passage". My mother was the youngest of four children, and her mother became wheel chair bound from an unknown illness after my mother's birth. When her father died suddenly of a heart attack, my grandmother was unable to provide adequate care for her. My mother's two oldest sibling Rose (who was 10 years her elder) and Michael who was one year younger than Rose both dropped out of H.S. and took jobs to support the family. It was at this time that my mother was sent to live with her paternal aunt and uncle in Farrell. They operated a clothing store on Lee Ave. in downtown Farrell, a few block from the Sharon Steel Corporation.