Dear Robert Smith (You have my permission to copy to your website):
Thank you for your considerable work in helping to establish a web page on Nicholas B. Mamer. Your inquiries for more information on Nick Mamer's family background came to my attention. As Nick Mamer's oldest niece and one who had been in contact with Patti Mamer Lee in the last years of her life, I hope my response provides some enlightenment.
I begin with Nick's daughter and return to his siblings. Patti Mamer Lee, the only child of Nick and Faye Carey Mamer, died in September, 1995. Her widower Leo Lee whom Patti married in 1948 lives in suburban Seattle. Faye Mamer, Nick's wife, died in 1958. In late 1942, my mother Rose Mamer and I had visited Patti and her widowed mother in Seattle. Patti was a beautiful tall slender girl with the high cheekbones and the blue eyes of her father. I recall a graceful elegance about both Patti and her mother.
After Patti's marriage to Leo Lee and during their residency in California, and also after their return to Seattle, my 3 sisters also had occasion to visit the Lees. Patti and Leo had three children, Georgia Maye, Stephen Nicholas, and David Scott Lee. Before Patti's death she had five grandchildren, with one born since then. In the 1980's Patti and I began an active correspondence and exchanged visits. It was personally delightful for me to see my only female first cousin on the Mamer side, a physical resemblance and even mannerisms mindful of my sisters and myself.
Patti and Leo had become gracious, youthful looking grandparents. Patti's talents in homemaking and crafts had greatly beautified their home on Whidbey Island outside Seattle. Their grandchildren were an important part of their lives.
Sometime after my last visit in communicating with Patti by phone and letter, I urged her to request a lifetime pass from NORTHWEST AIRLINES, to which her father had made such a great contribution. But a demure and somewhat shy Patti had for so very long gently felt grievance toward NWA that she was reluctant to contact them. When sometime later she wrote me of her cancer, I again urged her to ask for a lifelong pass for her and her husband. But treatment for the cancer kept her quite ill with occasional periods of feeling better and optomistic. She urged me to put off my visit to her till her hair grew back from the chemo. She said she would let me know when she felt strong enough for my visit.
Her letters continued sweet, uncomplaining and optomistic. Then one day Leo was on the phone. I knew that Patti had succumbed to her two year battle with cancer. Patti and her husband, though always upbeat and uncomplaining, had not always found life easy. Leo's success as a breadwinner was marred when his patner absconded with funds and left the business in debt. After that for a few years, Patti would go to Alaska to work with her son in a fish cannery.
Patti Lee had told me some things about how NORTHWEST AIRLINES treated Nick's widow, Faye, after Nick's death. There was no insurance on pilot's, no pension plan, no aid to the widow of a pilot who had given his life to fly a plane with its faulty rudder. Faye filed suit against Lockheed, the manufacturer of the Lockheed 14F Zephyr, the plane in which Nick crashed. Nick had told his wife of his misgivings about the feel of that plane. This was also told me by one of my sisters who had visited Nick's sister, Jean living in California. Jean died in 1973. Nick had also told his partner in the air transport business they'd set up, Roy Schreck, about his misgivings concerning the plane. But the flight went on as scheduled. The information about it is on Nicks Web Page. Faye Mamer and her attorney were up against a team of Lockheed attorneys. She had no help from NORTHWEST AIRLINES. She received nothing. She was 40-50 years too early in the social justice system.
NICK MAMER's SIBLINGS: Nick Mamer had four siblings, James, Bertha, Marie and regina were raised by his widowed mother after her husband was killed in an accident when the church bells frightened a horse drawn carriage in Hastings, Minnesota, and he was run over. Nick had not yet been born when his father was killed.
The Mamer's lived in comparative poverty with the mother doing day work, housekeeping at other homes. Never completing high school, both my dad, James Mamer and Nick from the sleepy little town of Hastings, early left their home to go out on their own and establish themselves and achieve some fame. To be a WW1 pilot, Nick was given training at Princeton, Minnesota and graduated from training in early 1918. Nick's service in WWI as a pilot, his career and the establishment of his own air transport company with Roy Schreck are recounted on the Web page.
My dad, James Mamer, Nick's older brother, at age 14 hopped freight cars on the Great Northern, and later worked as a lower class cook--which meant dishwashing and kitchen chores. Then giving his age as two years older than he was he joined the US Army and served in the Infantry. He was transferred to the Philippine Islands where he headed the training of the Philippine Scouts--native home guard. He ultimately received the rank of First Lieutenant. James returned to Minnesota where he met and married my mother. I was born in the Philippines after my dad returned there with his bride. My mom and I returned to Minnesota so her second child could be born in the States. In the 30's my dad was about to receive the rank of Captain, but since the Army was reducing personnel, he was given the option of retirement with disability pay--which he took. We returned to live in Hastings, Minnesota where the youngest of James and Rose Mamer's daughters were born. Nick's youngest sister, Regina (Jean) finished high school and had brief training as a teacher and taught for a number of years.
As in the case of Nick and James, there were few in her generation, coming of age before the 1920's, who raised in poverty in the sleepy small town of Hastings ventured away from home to achieve beyond the ordinary, considering their background and education. I recall Nick as my dad's youngest brother, coming to Hastings with hero status. He took my dad in plane rides to show off his skills.
