Published Saturday, November 16, 2002
55 years apart
Herald Staff Writer
A horrible twist of fate struck a local family Sunday evening. A tornado swept through Clark and other parts of Mercer County and Charles "Chick" E. Templeton, 81. of 22 Milton Street, was killed.
Fifty-five years ago Templeton was a pallbearer for his cousin, Ronald H. Miller, 20, of Hartford, Ohio. Miller was killed in the tornado that swept through the Sharon area in June 1947.
"Tragedy strikes twice in one family. The odds of that happening are what? Astronomical? It was devastating," said Joan Polkovitch, 71, of Federal Drive in Sharon, a sister of Templeton and a cousin of Miller.
Frederick Miller, 80, of Mercer-West Middlesex Road, agreed that the death of his brother Ronald and the death of his cousin, Charles, both by tornado was a gruesome coincidence.
"It's very unusual. It kind of upsets you," he said.
Miller was killed when the building he was in, the former Ward Pontiac Company on Budd Street in Sharon, collapsed in the 1947 tornado storm. Templeton died in a similar way, when his home was leveled by the storm Sunday night.
Miller's sister, Wilma Hager of Stevenson Road in Masury, said that her brother was visiting friends who worked there.
"His car was parked out front of the garage and it wasn't touched. That's how tornados twist around," she said. She added that she lived on the corner of Irvine Avenue and Ohio Street in Sharon at the time, and people she knew stopped by to tell her the sad news. She then let her family know.
Wilma's older brother, Frederick Miller, remembers that his youngest sibling's death in 1947 was very hard on his family, especially his mother.
"Mom put everything the way it was in his room. We could go in but we didn't touch anything. It seemed like Mom never did get over it, even though she lived to be 95," he said.
Mrs. Polkovitch, who was only 15 or so when her cousin was killed, said she was working at Philadelphia Confectionary, now known as Philadelphia Candies Inc., and remembers seeing debris flying up in the air, but wasn't really aware there was a tornado.
She remembered that her family was grief-stricken by the news of his death. "He was so handsome and full of life. All the girls were after him," she said.
She was at her daughter's house in Brookfield when she received word of her brother's death Sunday evening. That night, she also wasn't aware there was a tornado in Clark, but had called her brother to check on him.
"There was no answer on my brother's phone. It just rang and rang. I thought he was trying to help someone, because that's him. He'd be the first out to help," said Mrs. Polkovitch, adding that when she found out about his death she was devastated, then remembered her cousin's death.
"It all comes back. You relive what happened. I connected it right away," she said. "You never forget it, but you do place it in the back of your mind and when something like this happens, it all comes back right away. Thanksgiving will be the hardest."
She added that Templeton's wife Georgette, who was also in the house during Sunday's tornado, was starting to move and walk at the hospital of Sharon Regional Health System, but that she was black and blue from head to toe.
Frederick Miller not only relived his brother's death when his cousin died, but it made him reflect on what's really important.
"I had talked to him three or four months ago and we said we'd get together but we never did. Life has things to do, and then you don't go do the things you should."