Chapter 3

All the younger children of István and Júlia Kemény were raised at the Hinky Dink where they lived upstairs in the living quarters. I don’t know the year the family moved from Sharples, West Virginia to Delray, but it must have been around 1930 or even a few years earlier. This is based on the fact that I have a photo of my father, Bill (Béla) Kemeny, taken on his graduation from Nordstrum High as he is standing in his graduation gown in front of the Hinky Dink. He appears to be about 18 years old and was born in 1914 and that makes the year of the photo to probably be 1932. He told me that he was enrolled in school here right upon moving to Delray and played football while in school, so it was probably sometime prior to 1930.

My grandfather and grandmother Kemény emigrated from Hungary after they were married. They both lived in a small village named Gyulaháza in Szabolcs megye (county) located in northeast Hungary. The 1920 U.S. census taken in Raleigh County, W.Va. shows Stephen Kemeny at age 36 years, his wife Julia 33 years, daughter Julia 12 years, son Joseph 9 years, daughter Annie 8 years, daughter Helen 7 years, daughter Elizabeth (Ella) 6 years, son William 4+ years, daughter Elsie 2+ years, son Stephen 2 years. It describes grandfather’s occupation as “merchant-retail grocery”. Further, My father’s birth certificate shows his name as William Stephen Kemeny also listed and misspelled in parenthesis as (Bela Stefan Kemin). As an aside, that was meant to have read (Béla István Kemény). His birthplace is listed as Stotesbury, West Virginia and date of birth as Dec. 8, 1914. with his father’s name as Steve Kemeny and mother’s maiden name misspelled as Julia Bertok (should have been Bártok).I was always told that grandfather worked in the coalmines in West Virginia before he owned a grocery store business. In fact, I remember that he showed me coal dust that was still imbedded in one of his ear lobs from a mining accident. My grandparents must have been good savers to be able to purchase or start a grocery business to get out of the mines. How or for what reason they changed their Stotesbury, Raleigh County business to the one in Sharples, Logan County, W.Va. is lost over time. I do know though that he had a married sister, Mary Ratti, who lived in Sharples, so that might have been motivation for the move there. The story past down to me was that in Sharples the family ran several other businesses in addition to the grocery store. One was a movie show and pool hall. They also butchered cattle for sale and my father sold ice cream off a horse drawn wagon in the summer in his early years.

The story also went on that upon visiting their oldest daughter, Julia, in Delray after her marriage, they decided to move to Delray. It seemed a logical move to enhance opportunities in a largely Hungarian ethnic community and at the same time be near their daughter. Somehow they traded their Sharples business for the Hinky Dink Bar I was told; however, I don’t know any details of the supposed trade. I’m sure they felt very much at home in the environment of Delray at the time.

Altogether, my grandparents had ten children. The last two, Margaret and Charles were born in Delray. Here their children grew, worked and the majority was married one by one:

 Their oldest daughter Julia was already married to Árpád Szűcs. They eventually had two sons, James and Theodore and they changed the spelling of their family name to “Such”.

 Oldest son Joseph married Sally Cunningham. They had three children, two daughters and a son, Patty Jean, Barbara and Joseph Robert. We always called him “Joe Bob.”

Daughter Ann married Michael Bennett. They had two children, a daughter and a son, Joan Linda and Michael.

Daughter Helen married Leslie (Lefty) Varady. They had one daughter, Vivian, who died very young. Soon thereafter, her husband also died. Helen later married Richard Radzilowski who had a daughter, Dorothy, from a previous marriage in which his spouse also died.

Daughter Ella married Edward Komaromi, but they were divorced after a time. She latter married Michael Figurski. Ella did not have children.Son William (always called Bill or Béla in the family), my father, married Rosalie Csoka, my mother. Besides me (I was called kis Béla in the family), they had three other children, Gloria, Charles and David.

Daughter Elsie married Joseph Molnar and they had two sons, Fredrick and Kenneth.Son Steven married Virginia (last name?) and they had two daughters, Kathleen and Loraine.

Daughter Margaret married Leslie (László) Torok and they had one son, Jeffery. After Leslie died, in a second marriage to George Hustick there were two children, George, jr. and Cindy.

Son Charles joined the army during WWII and was killed in action in France during WWII.