From: John T. Gerlosky ( Gerulis )
I am new to the LithuanianGenealogy@onelist.com and the Lithuanian
Global Genealogical Society. As a third generation Lithuanian, I was
raised by my Lithuanian grandmother from 18 months of age until age 10
when my
father died. Thereafter, I was raised in foster homes and lost contact
with my Lithuanian family roots. However, I remember my grandmother
telling me in the Lithuanian language the following: Nuo galvos iki
koju, atsiminti
Lietuviskai which I understood at the time and remember the meaning-From
head to toe, remember you are Lithuanian or words to that effect.
I have not forgotten that and in the search for my family ancestry,
submit for what it is worth the following information from page 10A, The
Fayetteville Observer Times, Sunday Morning, December 3, 1989 as it
pertains to "Louisiana Chemistry Teacher Is Lithuania's Poet Laureate."
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)
When Vitalija Keblys left her home in 1945 just
ahead of invading Russian troops, she never dreamed she would be invited
back to her native land to be honored as the Poet Laureate of Lithuania.
But that's what happened when the high-school chemistry teacher became
the 20th person, the fourth woman and the only "foreigner" to hold the
honor in Lithuania, once an independent country but under Soviet
domination since World War II.
"I was born in Lithuania, but we left when the Russians were coming, and
now I am an American citizen, so I am really a foreigner in my native
land," she said. "We left on foot," she continued. "We just walked away.
The
Russians were only half a mile away, and as we left we could see them.
We went to Dresden and lived through the Dresden firebombing."
The young immigrant arrived in Baltimore as a sophomore in high school
but went to work in a factory and finished school in summers and
evenings in just over a year. She studied chemistry because she knew
mathematics, but not English.
Mrs. Keblys, 55 kept writing all her life-in Lithuanian. "I was a poet
before I was a chemist" she said. "I never write in English because I
don't have the command of the language. It has to be your mother tongue.
I'm strictly a Lithuanian poet. I teach in English and write in
Lithuanian."
All of her work has been published in Chicago except her last book of
poetry, "Kelione" ("A Journey"), which was published in Lithuania. She
writes under her maiden name Vitalija Boguta. Mrs. Keblys went to
Lithuania two years ago and again this year and participated in the
annual festival, an event that draws crowds. She did not
know that she had won first prize at this summer festival until she
arrived.
Her address is:
Vitalija Keblys
15225 Seven Pines
Baton Rouge, LA 70817
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