UNSOLVED IL - Peoria, 'Mary Mae Doe', ~52, in nursing home, died 1991, Apr'54

WholeLottaRosie

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I found this tonight, quite interesting. can't find any prior thread for Mary who is also known as Mary Doe 19. She died in May 1991.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/luciano/x1742290971/Luciano-Another-Mary-Doe-another-mystery?zc_p=0

"In late May an old woman, her insides ravaged by infection, quietly slipped from life at a Peoria hospital.

A few days later, a handful of people who'd tended her at a nursing home gathered in the rain to hear a minister whisk through a five-minute funeral.

There was little more to say because so little was known. In fact, no one knew who she was."

A lot more at link, but, not who she was.
 
More notes on Mary 19 from the article. She would have been about 52 when found in 1954, she claimed to be born April 12 1902 in Cicero, Il, however no records could be found.

"Mary's file also mentions the names Mayo and Majewski; it doesn't say why. Chism said that Mary often mentioned a relative she supposedly had in Cicero named Anna Rusck - a name not listed in the Cicero phone directory.

Add those names to the two mentioned earlier, and that makes five possible, original surnames for the woman: Mae, May, Mayo, Majewski and Rusck.

People with some of those names aren't listed in the Cicero phone directory; those that are know nothing about a woman missing since 1954.

State law didn't require parents to file birth certificates until 1916, though some did. But no birth certificates exist at the Cook County Clerk's Office for anyone with those five surnames born or
around April 12, 1902.

Mary told nursing-home employees she had worked at a Catholic school. But the Chicago Archdiocese has no record of teachers with those five last names. Neither do the Cicero schools. The state Board of Education has no teacher records back that far.

Mary's file stated the woman attended two years of high school at an unspecified location. But public or parochial school records of a student with those five surnames either don't exist or aren't available from the years around 1916, when Mary could have been a freshman."


Some more info:

"One clerk got intrigued with this case, dug a little deeper and found a birth certificate from April 12, 1902.

It was for a white girl, as was Mary Doe 19. But she was born in Chicago, and her surname was different from the five previously mentioned: France.

Perhaps her mother's married name was France. Perhaps she became divorced or widowed, but later wed a man whose last name was Luke. And one day years later, perhaps the frail mind of an amnesiac woman flickered with the scant memory that her mother's name was
France and her father's name was Luke.

The birth certificate says the baby's full name was Martha Lucile France, the second child of Eiliza France, 24, whose obscured maiden name looks like it could be McGee or something like that. She was born in an unspecified town in Canada.

The father was Walker France, a 26-year-old laborer born in Valparaiso, Ind. The couple lived at 5146 S. Trumbull Ave. in Chicago, located near Midway Airport.

However, no one named France is now listed in the Valparaiso phone directory, and no one with that name in Chicago or Cicero knows anything about a woman who disappeared decades ago. School and teaching records in Cicero and Chicago for Martha France are
either untraceable or nonexistent.

No Social Security

Obviously, the evidence isn't there to suggest Martha Lucile France and Mary Doe 19 were one and the same. But there is one final, curious note.

Social Security has no record of anyone named Martha Lucile France born April 12, 1902. The agency started giving out numbers in the early 1920s, which means she simply might have never needed one. She might have never worked, and she could have used her husband's number to collect any governmental benefits.

A plausible scenario. But maybe one day, for reasons unknown, she appeared confused in Park Ridge, and spent the last 37 years of her life under state care. Only in 1967 did she finally get Social Security No. 319-46-0340 and a new name."
 
I don't suppose that you've come across a photo of her anywhere, have you? I have a dear friend who's Grandmother has been missing from Illinois since the late 40s or early 50s. I know she had some traumatic events occur prior to her disappearance but don't necessarily want to put all that info out there considering this is probably NOT her, but would be nice to find out. My friend's mother is getting up in years and I know she would love some closure as to what happened to her mother.


Side Note, this is my first time posting. I hope I've done it correctly.
 
Welcome to WS SemmesMom. I haven't seen a photo for this jane doe. I understand wishing to keep your friends moms info confidential. However if she is a MP, it's really best to file a MP report etc. You didn't say whether or not your friends family reported this family member missing.

There is some info at the WS resources link in my siggy line for the families of the missing. I also strongly encourage the family utilize NamUs.

hth and hope your friend finds answers.
 
Cubby,
Thank you for the warm welcome. I do not believe that a MP report was ever filed. However, it is known that she left of her own free will (was an adult) and she was seen after her disappearance. There is reason to believe that she left behind this family and moved on with a new family. One of her daughters never sought to find the truth, from what I've been told. The other (my friend's mother) has always wanted to know where her mother wound up, and how her life turned out.
I will try to get in touch with my friend tomorrow and see if she might can enlighten me on the story further. We haven't spoken about it in a couple of years, since she last had me search for info. I will definitely suggest that a Missing Person's Report is filed, if they have never done so.
 
I don't suppose that you've come across a photo of her anywhere, have you? I have a dear friend who's Grandmother has been missing from Illinois since the late 40s or early 50s. I know she had some traumatic events occur prior to her disappearance but don't necessarily want to put all that info out there considering this is probably NOT her, but would be nice to find out. My friend's mother is getting up in years and I know she would love some closure as to what happened to her mother.


Side Note, this is my first time posting. I hope I've done it correctly.

Welcome, SemmesMom. No, haven't found one and I have been looking most of today on this. I have been in contact via messaging with the reporter and there may be an update. Will post here as soon as I learn something. /in my last message I asked about pix and or description so when he answers that will post.

I got the book on Mary, Me - Mary DoeFour on order with library and should get this week.
 
Cubby,
Thank you for the warm welcome. I do not believe that a MP report was ever filed. However, it is known that she left of her own free will (was an adult) and she was seen after her disappearance. There is reason to believe that she left behind this family and moved on with a new family. One of her daughters never sought to find the truth, from what I've been told. The other (my friend's mother) has always wanted to know where her mother wound up, and how her life turned out.
I will try to get in touch with my friend tomorrow and see if she might can enlighten me on the story further. We haven't spoken about it in a couple of years, since she last had me search for info. I will definitely suggest that a Missing Person's Report is filed, if they have never done so.

That would be great, you sure have my attention, SemmesMom. Keep us posted and I will do all I can to help. I am in Southern IL but get around the state, LOL and have a special interest in IL cases.

Glad to have you with us!
 
WholeLottaRosie,
Thank you also for the warm welcome.
I believe that they were also from the Southern Illinois area (or, at least, that's what she was living recently before relocating back to the South).
We discussed the case in depth quite some time ago. The world was a lot different 60+ years ago...terms like domestic violence didn't hold a whole lot of weight. Unfortunately, even knowing beyond a reasonable doubt that a spouse attempted to murder her, the state didn't press charges against him (she left and there was no longer a witness). Mary Doe certainly got my attention though, just because of the dates and such. We've long suspected my friend's grandmother was deceased, yet I've always held on to the "what if?".
Please do let me know if a picture surfaces. I don't know if there are any photos of the grandmother, but I will also inquire about that and ask about the Missing Person's Report.
 
WholeLottaRosie,
Thank you also for the warm welcome.
I believe that they were also from the Southern Illinois area (or, at least, that's what she was living recently before relocating back to the South).
We discussed the case in depth quite some time ago. The world was a lot different 60+ years ago...terms like domestic violence didn't hold a whole lot of weight. Unfortunately, even knowing beyond a reasonable doubt that a spouse attempted to murder her, the state didn't press charges against him (she left and there was no longer a witness). Mary Doe certainly got my attention though, just because of the dates and such. We've long suspected my friend's grandmother was deceased, yet I've always held on to the "what if?".
Please do let me know if a picture surfaces. I don't know if there are any photos of the grandmother, but I will also inquire about that and ask about the Missing Person's Report.

Will do that on the photo. Hoping to hear something in the next few days.

Yes, it sure was different. Was just talking to my Mom today about all this and she is in her 80's an lived her since the mid 50's. She had never heard of this case, or Mary Doefour. If you find out where in Southern Illinois maybe you can let us know.
 
The blip about social security is wrong. It didn't exist until FDR signed the second New Deal into law in 1935.

SS# were issued to workers beginning in 1936. Since this woman may have never worked a day in her life or was considered lost along with her identity, she only got a SS# after Medicare became law in 1965 for benefits.
 
She had to have been examined by a doctor at some point within all these years. I wonder if she had any scars like C-section scars or anything else to show she may have given birth.

I would love to know what was said between her and the polish translator's even if it wasn't anything family related there could have been something small they may have not thought about. I don't know much about other languages but like in America people in different areas speak the same language but sounds different like someone from south Louisiana and someone from Boston- they speak the same language but yet sound very different. I also wonder if France could have been where she was born and maybe migrated here as a child.

Also curious as if she said Cicero Illinois or it was just assumed she meant Illinois because there is also Cicero NY and probably others as well.
 
She had to have been examined by a doctor at some point within all these years. I wonder if she had any scars like C-section scars or anything else to show she may have given birth.

I would love to know what was said between her and the polish translator's even if it wasn't anything family related there could have been something small they may have not thought about. I don't know much about other languages but like in America people in different areas speak the same language but sounds different like someone from south Louisiana and someone from Boston- they speak the same language but yet sound very different. I also wonder if France could have been where she was born and maybe migrated here as a child.

Also curious as if she said Cicero Illinois or it was just assumed she meant Illinois because there is also Cicero NY and probably others as well.
There is also a Cicero, Indiana in Hamilton County, Indiana. Hamilton County is considered to be part of the Indianapolis metro area. The Hamilton County courthouse is located in Noblesville.
 
i've been rearching the cusack families in peoria & cicero. they seem related. it's just difficult to get through the mess, since there are a lot of names set on private :(
 
I checked out the lead they had, namely, her being Martha Lucile France and I am coming to the conclusion that it's no wonder police couldn't get further with this:
Depending on the source the family (Walter & Elisa + Martha Lucile) shows up as France, Frame, Fraise, Frain, Frainen etc

By the way - Martha Lucile is marked as deceased in 1979.
 
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I have a dear friend who's Grandmother has been missing....

Welcome SemmesMom. Another idea is for your friend to do a commercial DNA test and then upload the results to multiple sites (not just the one she tests with). If her grandmother did go on to have a new family, it’s possible she may have children or grandchildren from that family that have tested. This may open a family tracing option. There are lots of helpful “search angels” that would assist.
 

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