Contents |
Herbert Roland Spring, affectionately known as Herby to his close friends and loved ones, was born on 25 Dec 1910 in Orange, Massachusetts, the third child of seven, into a working class family. His father, Herbert Victor, was working as a mechanic at the time and his mother, Pearl (Raymond), was a stay-at-home mom.[1][2] He had his children convinced that his Mom had found a shoebox sitting atop their Christmas tree that year and to her surprise they found Herby inside.
His early life was an unsettling one and quite insecure. The family moved from Orange to Montague, where his brother Glenn was born, and, by 1916, settled in Pittsfield. But in 1920 only his oldest sister and youngest brother, Ernie, were living with their parents.[3] Herby and his brothers Eddie and Glen were living in the Westfield State Sanatorium on East Main Street in Westfield, Massachusetts with 79 other children ranging in age from six to fourteen years old. [4] According to Herby he had tuberculosis as a child. It follows that perhaps his two brothers were also disabled by the disease and therefore all three were placed into the Sanatorium. Fortunately, they all survived TB in a time in our history when it was the second highest cause of death in the US.
After his mother died during childbirth in 1923, with his father in a barely sustenance-level job and six siblings to support, Herby, at thirteen years old, quit school, having completed the eighth grade, and worked at a variety of jobs, including a series of luncheonettes and drug store counters, such as the Professional Drug Store in downtown Pittsfield, as a clerk and short order cook to help to support his family.
There are a few years in the 1920's for which his whereabouts remain unknown. Given that both he and brother Glenn were minors during the 1920's, it is likely that they were living with their father and elder brother, Edward, at 90 West Union Street in Pittsfield.[5] The soonest he appears after the 1920 census is in 1929. He was living with his father and brother, Glenn, at 56 West Street in Pittsfield and working as a clerk for the Professional Drug Store at 152 South Street.[6] Just a year later, he was living at 247 Linden Street at the Loomis household with Mr. and Mrs. Loomis and Herby's two sisters Gerry and Eleanor. Oddly, he is not listed as living there in the 1930 US Census but is listed in the Pittsfield City Directory as living there. He continued working for the Professional Drug Store as a clerk.[7]
From as early as 1935 until 1940, he was a boarder along with his father Herbert V. and his younger sister Eleanor (age 16) in the home of Hattie Belle Louis (Family search profile KN6T-LCQ) and her daughter, Edrie Clark at 58 Burbank Street in Pittsfield, MA.[8] By 1935 he worked as a clerk at a different drug store - this one at 95 East Street.[9]
On June 24, 1942, Herby voluntarily enlisted into the Army Air Corps for the duration of the war plus six months. In his first three years while serving at Lowrey Field in Colorado, he learned the inner workings of running a company's operations center, eventually rising to the rank of staff sergeant with the "Jungle Air Force" after he was shipped to the Philippines in April 1945. In his diary, he describes his travels to many of the islands, their devastation and miserable conditions, the bombing on Moratai, and the devastating loneliness soldiers experienced. He captures beautifully the loneliness and longing for his fiance, and how he coped with it:[10][11]
An amusing aside that gets to Herby's roguish wit: for years he told his kids and teased his wife about a nice Philippino girl that he met and with whom he spent much of his time by the name of Hospicia. Not a word about her in his diary indicating that she was contrived.
His final assignment was as postal clerk at the Headquarters of Air Force's 13th on Leyte in the Philippines. He wore two battle stars on his Asiatic-Pacific ribbon. (small stars worn on a campaign ribbon, awarded to a member of the armed forces for participation in a particular battle or campaign) He was also awarded a Philippine Liberation ribbon, and a Victory medal[12] He was discharged from service as a Staff Sergeant at the 336th Base HQ and Air Base Squadron on 24 Jan 1946 at Fort Devins.[13][14] According to Herby, he returned to live with his father on Burbank Street, briefly, prior to his marriage.
During his military service, while on leave in 1944, Herby's sister Eleanor and future sister-in-law, Evelyn, who were friends, decided to arrange for him to meet Gladys. They met at a local Grange dance which began their brief courtship which ended in their falling in love. Their courtship progressed until he proposed marriage in 1945. They were married in Pittsfield on May 12, 1946, just a few months after his return from the Philippines. He was living at 12 Orchard Street at the time[15] and was working at Frank's Luncheonette in Pittsfield.[16]
They began what was to be a long and happy life together living in the old "Gunn's Grove" of Lanesborough on the front porch of Aunt “Delia's” cottage on Pontoosuc lake. A story that Herby told of their honeymoon, which was a weekend in an upscale hotel in Boston, is a good indication of their social situation and of Herby's unique sense of humor and his unique ability to put others at ease in uncomfortable situations. After a day around town, the happy couple returned to the hotel, donned their pajamas and robes, took the elevator down to the hotel shop and bought popcorn and comic books. One their return trip on the elevator they encountered other couples who were dressed in the refined suits and gowns, ready for a Saturday evening in Boston. As all stood in the discomfort typical of strangers in hotels, Herby turned to his new bride, popcorn and comics in hand, and said to her: "boy, it's going to be a hot time in the old town tonight, huh? " They maintained this endearing closeness until the end of his life - a diminutive elderly couple walking along the sidewalk, hand in hand.
They soon purchased, with a $7,700 loan from the Union Federal Savings and Loan, a Cape Cod style single house at 44 Plastics Avenue in Pittsfield on 3 Jul 1947.[17] They spent the next 10 years living the traditional middle class of the 1950s during which they had their two children, Ron and Gary. Due to some financial difficulties they sold their home on 10 May 1957 to Gladys's sister and her husband.[18] They lived in rentals in Pittsfield for the rest of their lives: from 1957 to 1961 at 27 Backman Ave; 1962 to 1963 at 99 Greylock Ter; 1964 to 1965 at 134 Plunkett St. (their landlord at #132 was Edward Hine Jr.[19]; 1965 to 1975 at 10 Courtland Pl; 1975 to 1977 at 24 Courtland Pl; 1977 to his death in 1995 at 225 Lenox Rd - on the second floor apartment of the home owned by his sister-in-law Evelyn and her husband.
Herby worked at the Professional Drug Store in downtown Pittsfield for several years prior to his induction into the military. On his return to civilian life and his marriage to Gladys, he worked at Frank's Luncheonette on Woodlawn Avenue in Pittsfield.[20] In 1950 he was working as a fountain manager there[21] but in later years during the late 1950s and 60s he worked at a General Electric factory and later at the Wyndotte Mill where he experienced a life threatening fall onto his head. He spent several months in the Veteran's hospital recuperating from his fall. He was a voracious reader, was therefore learned and a critical thinker and ultimately realized that he was capable of moving beyond the constraints that were imposed upon him by his early life circumstances. He delivered groceries for a small grocery store and worked as a janitor for a local church while he attended a technical business program at Berkshire Business School and earned a certificate in accounting and business. For the remainder of his working life he worked as a book keeper for several local businesses and finally, in the late 1960's, passed a civil service examination that allowed him to work as clerk for the City of Pittsfield's Department of Public Works until his retirement in April 1977.
In 1977, Herby suffered a heart attack resulting in triple-bypass surgery. The many drugs prescribed to help his heart conditions, led to complications in his digestive system. His last 20 years of life were therefore difficult, in and out of hospitals, finally ending with Hospice Care. His wife Gladys, respected his fears of nursing homes and took it upon herself to provide him with the home care that he needed. He quietly left this Earth slowly, he first lost mobility, then speech, and finally consciousness. Herby died with his family, in his home in Pittsfield, on 10 November 1995.[22][23]. He is buried, with his wife, Gladys, in Pittsfield Cemetery.[24]
Herby was a warm, sensitive, quiet and gentle man with a roguish sense of humor, who was quick to laugh and quick to cry. He loved entertaining friends and family with his stories, card and magic tricks, and poetry; reading voraciously - especially horror novels (the night before his open heart surgery his book of choice was Robin Cook's Coma); and, in his later years, spending time with his grandchildren. He was not renowned nor famous nor particularly accomplished. He was simply a good man, a loving husband and father who tried his best to be the best man he could be. Truly a member of the "Greatest Generation."
Part of his story is his girl friend, Rita, prior to marrying Gladys. He was with her for 13 years about which he took much teasing from Gladys. Based upon his war diary, I believe I've found Rita: Rita Elizabeth Dion of Pittsfield. Family search profile: G84S-VB5
NOTES: city directory info: Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Soundex S165
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
Herbert is 26 degrees from Herbert Adair, 24 degrees from Richard Adams, 22 degrees from Mel Blanc, 26 degrees from Dick Bruna, 22 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 34 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 22 degrees from Sam Edwards, 21 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 24 degrees from Marty Krofft, 16 degrees from Junius Matthews, 16 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 22 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.