History repeated itself the morning the Cedarville went down
There have been many stories told of that fateful morning in early May, 41 years ago, when the Cedarville went down in the Straits of Mackinac, but for the wife of one of the men lost on the ship, it was a day to relive history. Not a day goes by that Betty (Haske) Dembny does not think about her late husband, Stanley Haske, a 19-year sailing veteran of the Great Lakes who lost his life after the Cedarville collided with the Norwegian freighter Topdalsfjord in the fogbound Straits. Haske will be remembered during the annual memorial service at the Great Lakes Lore Maritime Museum Sunday at 2 p.m. The names of the men who lost their lives May 7, 1965 will be read in the newly constructed Memorial Hall.
Dembny?s world stopped when news of the Cedarville accident came over the radio. The coming hours brought uncertainty for Betty and her five boys, but eventually word arrived that ?Stash,? as she would call him, had been lost, and history unfortunately had repeated itself. ?It was unreal,? said Betty Monday morning from her home in Gaylord, hours before one of her two weekly shifts at Wal-Mart. ?I was thinking, this couldn?t be true. It can?t happen twice,? said Dembny.
SEVEN YEARS before, Betty received a phone call from a girlfriend that the Carl D. Bradley had gone down in a fierce Lake Michigan storm. On the Bradley was her sister, Cecelia (Krawczak) Dembny?s, husband Joseph. A distraught picture of Cecelia and her six children appeared on the front page of the next edition of The Advance in November 1958. Betty called for a babysitter to watch her children and rushed over to be with Cecelia. ?I remember that day as if it just happened yesterday,? said Dembny. Making matters more difficult for family members in Rogers City was the hope they clung to when rescuers were able to find two survivors. Sadly, Joseph Krawczak was not one of them. Then on May 7, 1965, Cecelia was doing laundry at home when she received a phone call from Betty about the Cedarville accident. ?It was hard to believe it had happened again,? said Cecelia, who still makes her home in Rogers City. Betty?s five boys were there to offer support to their mother along with father Albert Narlock of St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Of the 85 children that lost their fathers and the 35 women that were widowed on those tragic days, sisters Betty and Cecelia were left with 11 children to raise.
CEDARVILLE SURVIVOR Dave Erickson said much attention is given to the Edmund Fitzgerald, in part because of the famous Gordon Lightfoot song, but the men on the Fitz were all from different towns, unlike the loss of the Bradley and Cedarville that affected so many lives in Rogers City. Betty still has mementos she cannot part with, such as a necktie her husband wore and his sailing card. There also are pleasant memories of the night before when Betty and Stash played country western albums on a new record player they purchased. Haske would take himself into work that night at 11:30 p.m., with the Cedarville leaving Calcite early the next morning. Leonard Gabrysiak was Haske?s best friend and grew up with him in Rogers City, doing odd jobs in town. They cut grass at Westminster Park with push mowers and worked at the bowling alley. After graduation from high school, Lenny said they did what most young men from Rogers City did after graduation; they sailed, and were on the Cedarville that day. Lenny does not remember seeing or talking to Haske until after the collision. When the T
Gabrysiak asked for permission to leave the pilot house to get life jackets in a spare room and ran into Haske on the way down. He said ??Hey Gabby, what are we going to do.? ? Leonard said. ? ?I have no idea, but I have to get back to the pilot house.? ? Haske continued on his way heading aft side, and that was the last time he would see Haske alive. The recently purchased Cedarville replica bell with Haske?s name on it will ring for him, along with the men who survived and have since passed away.
And it seems fitting that sisters Betty Dembny and Cecelia Dembny will once again have a chance to take part in a historical moment in their families? lives, as their husbands Joseph Krawcazk and Stanley Haske will be inducted into the Lore Museum?s Memorial Hall. The event will take place the third weekend in August.