Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

Free Press Telephones To Place Want Ads 222-6800 For Home Delivery 222-6500 City News Desk 222-6600 Insurance Dept. 222-6470 All Other Calls 222-6400 etoit-Jfree Today's Chuckle The water problem is interesting. Will we run out of it before we have a chance to pollute it completely? Sunday, May 7, 1967 THE SECOND FRONT PAGE Page 3, Section A 'Terrible Williamsons' Sivoop In Gypsy Clan iiburbs ome Repair ilk Ot HP III.IIIH 1 WiW I.J 1 imgmmmmmmmmmmmmm 5... vi Swindle Pays BY GLENNA McWfflRTER Free Press Stiff Writer It happens every spring. Like a bolt of lightning, the "Terrible Williamsons" strike someplace in the Detroit area and quickly disappear.

They invariably leave a swath of misery in their wake. THIS TIME Wyandotte, Trenton, Southgate and Allen Park suffered. Police in those communities report a rash of complaints in the last three weeks about roof and driveway repairs done by fast-talking itinerant workmen. The Williamsons are gypsies and are among the craftiest and most elusive swindlers operating in the United States, according to police. They are a large, inbred clan of nomads who sweep the country door-to-door, selling poor quality goods and services at inflated prices.

They are charming, ingratiating people, according to their victims. The Williamsons' annual take in sucker money Is estimated to be more than $1 million. Other gypsies call them "mitchwiea," or outcasts, because of their questionable business practices THIS YEAR'S local Williamson "special" is spray-sealing asphalt driveways damaged by the severe Michigan winter. In past years they have fleeced the unwary with "Oriental" rugs made in New York, antique Irish lace that never saw Ireland and imported Scottish woolen fabric that was mostly rayon from New Jersey. They have also spray painted houses garagea with paint so thin it washes off in the first rain, and tarred roofs with used crankcase oil.

In farm areas' the Williamsons have sold lightning rods for $200 or $300. The rods are wood painted to look like metal. The Williamsons travel in family groups, with expen Mr. and Mrs. Katnik: And they lived happily ever after Gypsy spray job didn't reach under Fre Press Photo bv JIMMY TAFOYA Mrs.

Zello's rug 71 State Has 3 Negro for years, and is a good friend to both. Mrs. Zuraw's other name is Somebody. After four months, Mr. Katnik proposed.

"A four-month courtship is a little short," said Mrs. Zegota. "At our age, it's too long," said Mr. Katnik. AT THIS point, Mrs.

Zegota mentioned that she had noticed her future husband often over the years but had not pushed for an introduction, feeling that the man should do the courting. "I always had an eye on you," she said. The two went to the priest at St. Agatha's to arrange the wedding. "How about next Monday at the children's mass?" asked the priest.

There was a great flurry on the part of various children and grandchildren to find Mrs. Zegota's first marriage license at St. Stanislaus' Church and Mr. Katnik's first marriage license at St. Hedwig's Church.

THE MARRIAGE happened so quickly that the best man didn't have time to make it to Gagetown. So the church janitor tucked a white carnation into the lapel of his blue suit and took his place. Mrs. Zuraw was matron of honor. (Sweet, Somebody.) It was the first time the ayors A Turkey Triumphs For Cupid Team Michigan is unique among the states it has Negro mayors portant cities, who are power, or are they merely being showcased? Press reporter William the three cities, Saginaw, Ypsilanti, and asked these Here are the answers.

Does their election mean Negroes have achieved a degree of political sive cars and well-kept trucks and trailers. They never stay more than a few weeks in one place. They use a variety of names, including Mitchell, Frank, Tennis, Miller, Thompson, Johnston, McMillan, McDonald, Reid and others. According to Detroit's Better Business Bureau, the clan has been active in the United States since the 19th Century. They originated in Scotland, but there are William sons from a variety of middle-European countries too.

"I had 20 families staying here, about 75 people in all," said Barrett Broad, who manages the Inn America motel in Southgate. "They came about six weeks ago and left Monday. They all used the last names Mitchell or Frank, but they spoke Romanian." BROAD estimated there were 100 families in all operating in the Downriver area during the last month. All stayed in local motels. Broad said that his "Mitchells" and "Franks" all drove expensive cars and were well-dressed but many of them could neither read nor write.

"I really don't have any complaint against them," he said. "They didn't steal from me and they weren't any noisier than any group of 75 or 80 people, all relatives." Other Downriver residents weren't so lucky. People who complained to the Better Business Bureau said driveways had been sprayed with everything from kerosene and oil to colored water. One drive was treated with a substance that Turn to Page 4A, Column 1 BY WILLIAM SERRIN Frte Press Staff Writer It's easy to locate Floyd McCree, if you call him at home. Finding him at Flint City Hall is a different matter.

McCree, named mayor by a 4-3 vote of the City Commission, has neither phone nor secretary. A secretary for another official wrote his number on a piece of paper. A girl at another desk volunteered: "He's not elected by the people, you know." LATER, a high-ranking city official, a man who respects McCree, was asked if McCree, a foundryman for Buick, could be elected in a popular vote. "It just couldn't happen," the city official declared. "Let's face it.

Flint is a hillbilly town." McCree is one of three Negro mayors in Michigan. The others are Henry G. Marsh, a Saginaw attorney, and John Burton of Ypsilanti. Like McCree, both Marsh and Burton were elected by their city McCree got his job last November. Marsh and Burton were appointed in April.

Among the three, Marsh is accorded a chance of winning a popular election. Marsh says: "I don't think the council would have elected me if I didn't have large support in the white community." But he concedes that to become a viable force in Saginaw politics, he had to "aban- Frw Press Photo by DICK TRIPP grade school children attending mass before school had witnessed a wedding. "That's Joe getting married!" a first grader shouted. It pleased the Katniks to have an angel chorus sing at their wedding. They were married May 7 a year ago Sunday.

Then they went home to Dale Road in the pickup truck. They've lived happily ever after. Church to Mark Its 100th Year With Jazz Mass A contemporary mass composed ty jazz pianist Howard Lucas will be introduced as part of the year-long centennial observance of Christ Episcopal Church of Dear-torn at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. services this Sunday.

The "Centennial Music for the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion" was commissioned by the church. It is described as having overtones of Eastern music, but with simple melodies well within range of congregational singing. There will be a reception in the church at 120 N. Military in Dearborn following the 7 p.m. dedication service.

cr y. U.S. Weather Bureau in three lm- these men? Flint's McCree are acutely aware of the poverty that stalks the Negro. But eacn has a dilemma. Whatever they might want to accomplish, their powers are limited by statute; each community has a city manager form of government, making the mayor a figurehead.

Although the men are heads of their cities, they do not live with their white constituents. Marsh resides on Saginaw's East Side, the Negro section; McCree lives in Flint's mid-town ghetto, Burton on Ypsi-lanti's south side. Burton I. Gordin, chairman of the state Civil Rights Commission, says, "I know these men wouldn't have been elect- In the Heavens ODOC NEW May FIRST May 17 FULL May 21 LAST May 1 Lake Conditions LAKE ST. CLAIR: Partly cloudy, east to southeast winds 10 to 15 knots.

LAKE ERIE: Partly cloudy, east to southeast winds 8 to 14 knots. LAKE ONTARIO: Occasional showers, east to southeast winds 8 to 14 knots. LAKE HURON: Fair, southwesterly winds 15 to 25 knots North half; partly cloudy, south to southwest winds 12 to 22 knots South half. LAKE MICHIGAN: Fair, southwesterly winds 15 to 30 knots North half; partly cloudy, southerly winds 15 to 22 knots South half. LAKE SUPERIOR; Small craft warnings, fair, southwesterly winds 20 to 35 knots.

ending 7 p.m. Saturday; ethers 4 p.m. Pre. 81 63 .00 89 72 .00 62 40 .00 86 75 .00 79 50 .00 73 51 .00 62 58 1.48 58 38 .00 ALASKA El Paso Ft Worth Helena Houston Vegas Ang'I's Okla City Omaha Phoenix Port Ore Raoid Lake Antonio 'Cisco Seattle Spokane Wichita Pre. Anchraoe 51 34 J)l Fairbnks 40 27 .00 Juneau 47 36 .02 HAWAII Pre.

Honolulu 87 72 .00 THE WORLD At 1 p.m. Saturday 85 49 68 48 64 35 66 43 01 71 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 Amsterdam Athens Berlin Copenhagen Geneva London Madrid Moscow Paris Rome Saiqon Sydney Tokyo Vienna Warsaw 65 52 .00 6 7 48 .00 68 47 53 47 CANADA Pre. Calgary 68 49 .00 Edmontn 60 44 .00 Reslne 64 35 .00 Winnipeg 61 36 .00 Vanc'ver 64 SO .00 11 if ill-i Free Serrin toured Flint and questions. Ypsi's Burton don any claims I might have had as a civil rights leader." BURTON, a UAW official, concedes he couldn't win a citywide election. "I've been 18 years trying to be elected by a seven-man council," he says.

"I don't have any daydreams about being elected by an entire city." None of the mayors is a civil rights activist. At the same time, none is an Uncle Tom. Each is acutely aware of his color. Moreover, each is a southerner, attracted to Michigan in the 1930s or 1940s by promises of prosperity. In addition, all three mayors Climatic Data TEMPERATURES Friday: High 52.

Low 31, Mean 45, Normal 55; Departure from normal: Minus 10; Departure from normal since January 1: Plus 31. ONE YEAR AGO Sunday: High 1, Low 38, Mean 48. RECORDS Sunday since 18,72: High li, (1936); Low 30, (1874). PRECIPITATION Friday: Trace; Total this month: .39 Normal this month: 3.54 ln. Total since January 8.71 Departure from normal since January 1: Minus 1.15 In.

SUN: Rises Sunday 5:22 a.m.; sets Sunday 7:39 p.m. MOON: Rises Sunday 4:30 a.m.; sets Sunday 5:56 p.m. EXTREMES: High 100, Presidio, Texas; Low 20, Pellston, Michigan. BY JEAN SHARLEY Free Press Staff Writer Joseph Katnik, 20 years a widower, sat next to Mrs. Walter Zegota, five years a widow, at the turkey raffle held last Thanksgiving at the St.

Agatha Catholic Church, in Gagetown. (Somebody's fine hand arranged the seating.) Mr. Katnik won two turkeys. He gave one away and he kept one. 1 What's more sensible and natural than that Mrs.

Ze-g a should cook the remaining turkey and invite Mr. Katnik over to eat it? Miss Sharley (Somebody they knew made that fine suggestion.) No sooner were the two seated at dinner, at Mrs. Ze-gota's farm home at 3706 Dale than it turned out they'd been born in the same town in Poland. It seemed a miracle, they thought, that both had lived so long in the same little town in Michigan's thumb, 100 miles northeast of Detroit. It turned out, too, that their ages were the same mid-seventies, give or take a springtime or two.

(It became obvious here that Fate was taking over from Somebody.) The ensuing courtship had a eurrey-with-a-fringe flair to it moonlight and June roses quality that held up through the January sleet storm. THERE WAS a moment of panic-on Mr. Katnik's part at Christmas. Anxious to give Mrs. Zegota a gift, and in fairly good circumstances as a retired butcher and occasional farmer, he over-extended a bit and sent a check for $50.

Mrs. Zegota said she wasn't that kind and sent back the money after extracting $10. Weekends, after Mrs. Zegota had visited Warren to see her daughter and grandson, Mr. Katnik would meet her at the bus stop at Cass City and drive her home in his pickup truck, laden with gifts of Polish bread and link sausage.

Toward spring, the two went mushrooming in the pickup truck and blueberrying. Sundays, they went to mass at St. Agatha's, and Fridays to the school cafeteria for the weekly fish fry. Sometimes they went to Mrs. Celie Zuraw's beer and wine tavern in Gagetown for a glass of port, there being no restaurant or coffee shop in town.

Mrs. Zuraw, a widow with 1 six children, had known both Mr. Katnik and Mrs. Zegota 1 4 Sunshine fo Worm Sunday Saginaw's Marsh ed if they didn't have wide respect in their communities." AND GORDEV wrote in let-ters to Marsh and Burton that "Michigan can feel a sense of pride" that the time has come when candidates are beginning to be judged on merit, not pigment. Indeed, the election of the three is a record for the state, but doesn't make Michigan unique.

Ohio has the first Negro mayor of a major American city, Robert E. Henry of Springfield, and California has three Negro chief executives, in El Centro, Milpitas and Dinsmore. But each of these cities is little more than a hamlet, with populations far less than Ypsilanti's 25,000. As of 1966, there were 7,331,000 whites in Michigan. The Negro figure stood at 868,00011 percent of state's 8,199,000 population.

The Negro population of each of the three cities with Negro mayors stands at about 20 percent 20,000 in Saginaw, 40,000 in Flint, 5,000 in Ypsilanti. Saginaw, Flint and Ypsilanti are, to use a favorite Burton phrase, "typical American cities." Each has its chamber of commerce, its Rotary and Lions clubs, its elm trees, its parks; each also has its distressed downtown area, its white suburbs, its polluted river, its depressing factories, its Negro ghetto. IN FLINT, massive smokestacks at Buick foundry stream orange smoke throughout the Negro community. In Saginaw, the intersection of Sixth and Farwell could well be in Buttermilk Bottom in Atlanta, Ga. The Negroes in Ypsilanti are held in the south end of the city, as assuredly as if Michigan Ave.

was a wall. The three cities have attempted annexation, and have largely failed, forcing the mayors and city managers to decry Michigan' Turn to Page 4A, Column 1 National Summary Cloudy, cool and wet weather extended from Nebraska and Oklahoma to northern Georgia and southern New England. A tornado watch was in effect for portions of southeastern Oklahoma, extreme northeastern Texas, south and central Arkansas, extreme northern Louisiana and northwestern Mississippi. Warm, 80 degree weather covered the Gulf Coast region, Texas and the arid southwest. And readings in the 90's were common over southern Texas.

However cool weather with readings mostly in the 40's extend from Kansas and Nebraska to New Jersey and southern New England. THE NATIONAL WEATHER OUTLOOK for Sunday: Sunny and warmer weather is in store for most of the nation. It will be rainy and cool in the northeast. Scattered showers are expected in the southeast and from Washington to the Montana Mountains. A stationary front will stretch from Delaware to Arkansas.

A warm front will extend from South Carolina' to a low in southwestern Virginia. A cold front will trail from the low to the Texas Coast. Bens DETROIT AREA: Partly cloudy with not much change in temperatures. High: 56-62. Low: 35-42.

East to northeast winds 5-15 m.p.h. Monday's outlook: Mostly cloudy and mild. TEMPERATURES Michigan Zone Forecasts SOUTHERN LOWER: Partly cloudy with little change in temperatures. High: 56-62. Low: 35-42.

East to northeast winds 5-15 m.p.h. Monday's outlook: Cloudy and mild. NORTHERN LOWER: Fair with cloudy skies developing Sunday night. High: 55-62. Low: 27-35.

Variable winds 5-15 m.p.h. Monday's outlook: Mild turning cool Monday night. UPPER PENINSULA: Cloudy and a little warmer. High: 54-62. Low: 32-36.

West to southwest winds 10-20 m.p.h. Monday's outlook: Cloudy and turning cooler. PRECIPITATION Probabilities: The southern portion of the state has a 20 percent chance of shower Sunday, while the upper part of the state enjoys only a 5 percent possibility of rain Sunday. U.S. and Michitan Temperatures: 24 hours MICHIGAN EAST Pre.

Pre. Alpena 59 23 3 .00 Albany Boston Buffalo York fhlla Pittsb'a 55 39 Bav City 56 34 DETR'T 54 38 48 43 56 38 45 39 52 43 51 41 Fscanaha 51 Flint 58 Raolds 58 Houohton 57 Jackson 56 Jackson 56 Lansina 59 Port Me 54 40 Wash'ton 62 46 .46 SOUTH Mara'te 50 39 Muskes'n 59 26 Pellston 58 20 Sit St 50 30 Ypsilanti 55 38 Pre. Atlanta 70 Bir'ham 73 Charles'n 57 Jack'villa 88 Louisville 63 MemDhis 73 Miami 80 Orl'ns 85 Raleioh 74 Tampa 87 58 .01 51 .66 67 .00 58 .33 63 .67 75 .00 70 .00 55 .00 72 .00 MIDWEST Bismarck 61 Chicaao 48 Cincneti 52 Cleveland 51 Columbus 49 Moines 54 Duluth 60 Ind'aDOlls 50 Kans 48 Pre. 27 40 48 38 41 37 32 45 WEST Pre Aib'o'oue 73 39 .00 Boise 70 35 .00 46 1 Milw'kea 54 28 erwnsva Casper 64 Denver 63 77 f2 St 60 31 St Louit 53 49 to vOJ Fto Figurt Show High Tnprotvrt Expctd for iMyniM Swmioy t.W rcl.il.H. Ml Idimf4- C.i.h l.c.l fmtmtt All information from.