Eastlake Celebrates Its Seniors--Louis Bencina--April 2011

Louis Bencina and his new bride bought a pre-built home on Grover in 1955. The street got its name because it was part of the Grover farm located off of Roberts Road, just east of Route 91. Because of the construction of Route 91 the street is now a dead end. You can see it through the fence that blocks its entrance to 91. The street is now called East 355th Street, but Mr. Bencina has written Grover for so long that much of his mail still comes that way.

Louis was the only child of Slovenian immigrants Frank and Gertrude Bencina. When he was born in Cleveland on January 8, 1930 his birth certificate was misprinted spelling his last name Bencina. He has kept it spelled that way ever since. His father died when he was seven and his mother remarried to George Skiljan. They had no children.

Growing up around 62nd Street he graduated from East Tech High School in 1949. He was drafted into the Army during the Korean War and served from 1951 to 1953 in the 501st Engineers. They were a complement to the 32nd that served as a supply group.

In 1955 he married Jeanne M. Baczara. She was a divorcee who had a daughter named Diane that Louis adopted. They moved to Grover at this time. Jeanne was well known for her decorated wedding cakes. They had three children. Lynnanne was in the first class at George Washington Elementary School. She is married to Chris Boulton and they reside in Eastlake. Jeanne and Louis had two sons, Richard and Doug. Doug also resides in Eastlake. Jeanne passed away August 8, 1970.

Until he was laid off, Louis Bencina worked for TRW as an assembler. He then went on to work as a stocker for Kroger grocery stores. He worked at the store by East 222nd and the store on Vine Street in Willowick. He recounted how the store used to give out yellow stamps to shoppers based on how much they spent. People would save the stamps and place them in booklets. These books could be traded in at a stamp exchange store for things like table lamps, knick-knacks, sporting equipment and such. Later on May Compay would let you cash them in for money vouchers that you could use at their stores. Workers from Kroger would get together to bowl on a league at the Vine Lanes Bowling Alley. This was located where the Sears store is today. Here he met his second wife, Dorothy Rojec. They were married by the mayor of Willowick in 1971. She had been married before and entered the marriage already having five children. Together they had a daughter named Andrea. Dorothy passed away in 2008. His step-daughter, Martha, was present during the interview. She could attest to what a wonderful father Mr. Bencina was to all of his children. She never thought of him as anything but her father.

The home on Grover was a good place to raise children. A street resident named Mr. Turner would flood an empty lot and turn it into an ice rink in the winter. In the summer the kids would ride mini-bikes up and down the street. The street was so friendly that Mr. Bencina would go outside to cut the grass and it would take him four hours to get his small lot done. He was forever stopping to visit with neighbors who would stop by, many bringing a beer to help cool off in the heat of the summer. Before the community had organized firework displays, Mr. Bencina and Ed and Al Zyck would put on their own Fourth of July fireworks celebration. Many displays were for ground viewing. The Boy Scouts would often help with this endeavor.

Sometimes on Friday nights Lou would bring home Biagio pizzas as a special treat for the children. The Bencinas would have company over every other week for some serious pinochle card playing. This consisted mostly of the family and the "out-laws." He and his wife liked to listen to and dance to polka music. The Twilight Gardens was a fun place to do this. They also listened to the polka tunes on WELW radio and could find such things on the" Lawrence Welk" and "Polka Varieties" TV shows.

Louis Bencina retired from working at Victor Browning in 1992 after 29 years of service. Nowadays he enjoys growing a vegetable garden. It hasn't had the best of success because the deer population is so great in his area that they keep beating him to his produce.

Around Easter time he enjoyed eating paczki or "Pounchky." This was a holeless donut smothered in powered sugar. They would take the children to community Easter egg hunts and give them chocolate peanut butter eggs which were their favorite.

Louis is a member of St. Justin Church. He is a Democrat who believes you have no reason to complain if you don't vote. He enjoys cutting coupons to help save money on his monthly expenses. He has had open heart surgery three times: 1996, 2001 and 2002. This only child has grown a family into 66 members. He has raised 10 children, two now deceased: Father John, a priest from Mayfield who died in 2006, and a son Ron who passed in 1999. He has 21 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren.

EASTLAKE CELEBRATES ITS SENIORS