John Frank Small Smolcnop

Jack, as he was known to his friends, was born on 3 Jan 1902 to John Smolcnop and Magdelena Kautsky in Cleveland, Ohio. Both of his parents were born in Bohemia, very near Prague. He had 7 siblings, Anna, James, Lillian, Helen, Charlie, Madeleine and Marion. His father deserted the family when he was young, and unfortunately, his mother died when he was only 10 years old. He and his siblings had to go to the Methodist Orphanage in 
Cleveland after her death and while a few of his younger siblings were adopted, he spent the rest of his childhood in the orphanage. Amazingly, he worked to put himself through college and in 1925, graduated from The Ohio State University as an Architectural Engineer. He married Helen Lucille Nelson, daughter of Otto R. Nelson and Bina E. Kennedy on Christmas day, 25 Dec 1930. He always sent my grandmother, Helen, a dozen red roses for their anniversary each year, a tradition my mother kept up for the rest of my grandmother's life after Jack died. Jack loved to sing and play his mandolin. He was an avid photographer, even having a darkroom in his home to develop his own film. He also loved making movies for special occasions (ok, really any occasion!). I remember him filming us opening all of our presents every Christmas. We had to all come into the room in order of our birth, youngest first, and pose for pictures and the movies. He worked for many years for Sunshine Biscuits, building factories all over the U.S. for them. He also built dormitories about 1940 at Miami of Ohio University and built roads and bridges for Wright Patterson Air Force Base during WWII. Jack was also a Mason, and always wore his Masonic ring. Jack died on 12 Aug 1970 of oat cell lung cancer (now called small cell lung cancer) that had metastasized to his brain, which give him instability on his feet. It attacked his nervous system, which at first made the doctors think it was multiple sclerosis. He was in the hospital 6 week's before he died and doctors could not find what was causing his symptoms. The autopsy revealed the real culprit. We will miss him singing "Zippity Do-Da" and "You are my Sunshine," but will forever remember his smile and his life! Written by his granddaughter, Cathy