Wes's Family

Wes’s father Sulo was the second son born to John and Mary (Kivistö) Hakanen.  His birth date was November 17, 1909.   He was born in the section of Nanty-Glo known as Finntown.  He was born near the house that became the Hakanen homestead, now the home of Wes’s aunt Helen.

Wes’s mother’s maiden name was Fleming Rodella Whitsell, born July 14, 1913 in Twin Rocks, Pennsylvania.  She was fourth of six daughters born to Joseph Pearl and Sarah Sophia (Snedden) Whitsell.

Fleming and Sulo were married October 3, 1931, in Cumberland, Maryland. Fleming was 18 and Sulo was 22.

Wes was born at home, as was the custom at that time, on Friday June 17, 1932.  The house was on Roberts Street next to the Finnish Graveyard, just two houses from where the family later moved and lived until leaving Nanty-Glo in 1945.  The interesting circumstance during that week was that six mothers in different parts of the town were expecting their babies about the same time and there was only one doctor to deliver the babies.  It turned out that one woman had her baby boy on Wednesday, June 15. Another had a girl on the 16^th.  Wes’s mother and two others gave birth just hours apart on Friday the 17th and the remaining woman had a boy on Sunday the 19th.  One of the babies born on the 17th was a cousin, Genevieve Whitsell.  Her father was grandpa Whitsell's younger brother James. Genevieve was born at Fleming’s older sister, Mildred's home in Nanty-Glo.  Genevieve's parents lived in the country on what was known as Rager Mountain and temporarily came to Aunt Mildred's to be closer to the doctor.  The other boy born on the 17^th was Wilber ‘Bo’ Swanhart who became a cousin many years later when his father and Fleming’s sister, Blanch married.  Bo, Mimi and Wes became friends in college during the 1950's.  Small town happenings in a small world!

Fleming and Sulo’s second son, Dennis Keith, was born September 12, 1942. There were many advances over the ten years between the boys’ births, so Dennie was born in the hospital in Spangler PA. 

Fleming and Sulo were married 13 years when Sulo was killed in a mine accident, March 27, 1944.  Dennie was only 18 months old.

Sulo’s death had a traumatic effect on the family and dramatically changed the course of their lives.  Wes was eleven at the time and tried hard not to accept the fact that his father’s death really occurred.  Fleming, faced with raising two young children alone, rushed into a second marriage barely 13 months after the tragic accident. On April 5, 1945 she married John (Bud) Bentley, ten years her senior and moved the family to Turtle Creek, PA.  Bud had a problem with alcohol and most of the marriage was an unhappy union.  One good thing that occurred from the marriage was the birth of Sandra Lee Bentley, Dennie and Wes's sister.  Sandra was born June 3, 1950. 

Bud died January 5, 1975, he was seventy-two. Fleming died fourteen years later, September 9, 1989, she was seventy-six. More about Fleming and Sulo's families and their Ancestry can be found by going to Our Genealogy.