About Eileen Trombley Glick
My DETROIT and ST. CLAIR SHORES connections
Born: Cottage Hospital
Parents: Albert F. Trombley Jr. and Eleanor Mary Doherty
I'm the eldest grandchild on both sides of my family, and my parents were firstborns, too.
Our first home was built by my
in St. Clair Shores. Less than a
year later, when my mom discovered
she was "p.g." with my sister Diane,
my dad got busy on a bigger place,
the first of five houses he would
construct over a 30-year span on
11 Mile Rds., Jefferson and
Lake St. Clair.
Two years later, with sister Nancy
on her way, we moved into our next
house. However, within a year, my mother became very ill. My dad sold the house to pay her medical bills. In 1955, they were ready for their next house where my brother Albert III ("Al") was born in 1958. (Photo below)
My childhood in St. Clair Shores was typical 50s/60s Detroit suburbia. There were a zillion Boomer kids in the neighorhood and everyone knew everyone. My sisters and brother and I also had the good fortune of growing up around our extended Trombley clan: grandparents, uncles, aunts, 30 first cousins, and a boatload of second cousins.
Kindergarten through 2nd grade, I attended Lakewood Elementary,
3rd -6th at St. Lucy, 7th and 8th at St. Isaac Jogues, and 9th-12th
at Regina High School in Harper Woods, graduating in 1966.
It was during high school that I met a great group of friends,
15-20 teens who lived around 7 Mile and Kelly. We spent our summers
having backyard record parties, swimming in Lake St. Clair, going to
Bob-Lo, Edgewater Park, Aldo's Pizza, Tastee Freez, and our
winters ice skating at Heilman or going to sock hops at Denby,
Notre Dame or St. Jude Teen Club. We shopped at Eastland.
In my junior and senior years of high school, I spent many weekends
In the fall 1966, four months after I graduated from high school,
my parents moved into their fourth home on Lakeland.
In Fall 1966, I registered for classes at Macomb County Community College,
but, instead, was offered a job downtown as a public relations assistant at
J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. Their offices were in the Buhl Building. At that time their main clients were Ford Motor Company and Champion Spark Plug. I rode the Jefferson bus or carpooled to work, but on days when I had a night class at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, I drove the new two-door 1967 Chevy Malibu I'd ordered from the factory through Merollis Chevrolet on Gratiot for $2,750. Metalic gold with black cloth interior and a black vinyl top, it
had had an AM radio with reverb. Very cool.
I met my future husband, Gordon,
at JWT in late '67. He was a recent
graduate of the University of
Detroit, a newly-hired Burroughs
salesman, an East Lansing native,
and a twin. Our first apartment as
newlyweds was a $90 a month
one-bedroom at 13200 Greiner,
at the corner of Joann, not far
from Gratiot and McNichols and
the Ramona Theater.
Our daughter Marchelle was born
in 1969 at St. John Hospital.
A year later, we moved to Toledo,
Ohio, where Gordon had taken a job.
In 1972, our son Todd was born.
In the spring of 1973, we made a decision to move to Atlanta where the weather was warmer and the employment opportunities more plentiful. From 1974-1979,
I worked at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. In 1975, Gordon and I parted company. Four years later, when my children were 10 and 7, we packed up a U-Haul and moved to Phoenix.
For more info on me beyond this point, go to CAREER INFO
______________________________________________________
MY PARENTS
Albert Trombley Jr. (1920-2003)
Eleanor Mary Doherty (1927-1980)
They met at Jefferson Beach
Amusement Park in June 1947.
He was working at the park as a
carpenter on the Fun House
after serving four years as a
Staff Sargent in the Marines.
She worked as a secretary for
St. Vincent de Paul.
When my dad spotted my mom,
her sister and friend at the Park,
he introduced himself and then tagged along long enough to get her phone number (LA 6-3081). They began dating and one month later he proposed.
They were married at Our Lady of Good Counsel in November 1947. They raised a family, traveled extensively, with and without us kids, and when she died at age 54 of breast cancer, they'd been happily married for 33 years.
In 1984, my dad built a fifth house on Lakeland with his new wife. He died at
age 82, but he never stopped missing my mom.
Often during his life, he would talk about his father and grandfather, who
were early residents of St. Clair Shores, and other families who helped settle our hometown. My dad knew everyone and their family trees, but most likely because many of them were related by marriage! My parents are buried at
St. Gertrude Cemetary on 12 Mile Road, as are many of my relatives.
____________________________________________________________
THE TROMBLEY/TREMBLAY LINEAGE
In the mid-1700s, less than a decade after
Cadillac founded Detroit, Ambrose, Augustin
and Pierre Tremblay and Guillame LaForest,
all Catholics, were sent to Detroit from
Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec by the French.
The four, considered to be the first settlers of
Grosse Pointe, were "ribbon"or "strip" farmers.
This is my direct lineage to Ambrose:
Ambrose Tremblay
Joseph Francois Tremblay
Peter Tremblay
Jerome Tremblay
Isadore Trombley*
Albert Frank Trombley Sr.
Albert Frank Trombley Jr.
Eileen Trombley Glick
* Too bad about the name change. I prefer Tremblay.
_____________________________________________________
MY PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS:
Albert ("Bert") F. Trombley (1893-1960)
Ida Opal Cox (1899-1978)
My grandfather was a life-long resident of St. Clair Shores. Of predominantly French ancestry, he was a skilled carpenter and house-mover, and he spoke
French fluently.
In 1919, he met and married my
grandmother. She had earned a
teaching certificate at age 19
from a college in Indiana, moved
to Michigan the following year,
and met my grandfather.
Together they had six children:
Albert Frank Jr. (1920-2003)
Charles (1925-2006)
Wayne (1927-2004)
John (1930-)
Mary Ruth (1933-)
Stuart (1934-)
MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS:
Frank Edward Doherty (1902-1976)
Melita Catherine Dederich (1903-1997)
My grandparents were both born in Detroit. They met in
school at age 14, and married on September 18, 1923 at
St. Catherine's in Detroit.
Although he had no formal education, my grandfather retired from General Motors Tech Center as an Engineer. He was as Irish as they come, so much so that he converted his basement into what resembled an Irish pub.
My grandmother, a homemaker, whose father was a City of Detroit policeman, was of German and Czech descent.
My mother, Eleanor, was born in 1927 in Detroit. Her two younger sisters. Eileen and Joan, and brother, Richard,
were also both in Detroit. They lived in a house on Van Dyke
in Detroit.
In 1942, my grandparents built a new house on Annott between Greiner and McNichols, a block from Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church. Within walking distance was the Ramona Theater, and 7 Mile and Gratiot was their shopping mecca.
My mother and her sisters graduated from Dominican High School, and my uncle from De La Salle. In 1953, my mother's youngest sister, now Sr. Elisa, became a Dominican nun and currently serves in Puerto Rico.
Grandma loved to embroider. Grandpa's hobbies were music, woodworking, and shooting pool. They both loved crossword puzzles and traveling.
Their house on Annott was sold in 1997 to its second owners and, as the picture at top/left shows, they've kept it in tip-top condition. My meticulous grandfather would be proud.
