Special Projects

He is ageless. It’s not because he chose his own birthday. Or because at over 80 years old he’s still exercising daily. And it’s not because he can still recall events that happened nearly 75 years ago with remarkable detail. Lee Marnett is ageless because he is eternally optimistic. It’s because he employed more resolve […]

A soft-spoken man nearing 90, Nathan Taffel, sits in his small Mequon ranch home remembering a cheerful childhood as a young boy with curly hair and bright blue eyes. It was a cheerful childhood for a time, anyway. He thrusts forward an arm to reveal a weathered tattoo that he can never quite erase. He […]

The frigid November wind whipped the door of the split-level house in Shorewood, WI. At 87-years-old, Raye David hobbled down the cascading stairs with a hand fashioned cane. As she sauntered back up, her teal pajamas accented the crimson walls. Paintings caressed every inch of her living room. Sculptures that spanned from crystal to porcelain […]

Inside a mid-sized, ornate home in Glendale, Wisconsin lives Howard Melton and his wife Evelyn. They have a quiet life. Howard is semi-retired from his family-run business while Evelyn works at home to care for Howard after his recent heart and back surgeries. Howard remains in relative good health, cracking jokes with Evelyn and spending […]

Just minutes north of Milwaukee lies Bayside, Wisconsin, a town of just under 4,000. Right off Santa Monica Boulevard stands a long-winding road, called Manor Circle. To the average person, it’s a normal street with older-looking one-story ranch homes full of knick knacks and trinkets. Albert Beder, an 87-year-old man, lives there with his wife. […]

When Phil Freund was eight he had hope ripped away from him while sitting in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. He escaped the terrifying regime that was Nazi Germany. He thought he was saved. He was with   908 innocent people attempting to save themselves and their families to try and start a new life in […]

After taking on a new identity, Tauba Biterman was able to escape the wrath of Nazi Germany through her willingness to work, her quick wit, and faith in God and the good nature of others, saying, “Everything that I did, I was nuts! The almighty was with me, He wrote my life. He told me […]

Edith Schafer once described her living quarters growing up during the Holocaust in a room she cannot even describe as an apartment to a young group visiting her home.  She blocked off her living room to about the size of her area rug.  She laid down a few pillows and blankets, brought in one chair […]

The birth of a child for many can be a special moment. Being surrounded by loved ones in a hospital and gazing into the eyes of a newborn baby for the first time are moments that aren’t easily forgotten. When Edie Pump was brought into this world on May 18, 1942, her parents were on […]

Susie Fono is 7-years-old. She cowers in front of a wood stove in a small room crammed with people. Bullets slam against the outer walls of the building, and bombs rattle in the distance. The year is 1945, and the Soviet Red Army is battling back the German troops that had occupied her family’s home […]

For Willie Bedford’s five siblings, his face was a distant memory. They lost their brother 45 years ago in Vietnam. In the decades since, one-by-one, their photos of him were also lost, especially after the family matriarch died. It had been about 20 years since any of them had seen his picture. Until Memorial Day […]

There were 64 names. Of supposedly unfindable photos of men from Wisconsin who’d died in Vietnam more than 40 years ago. Almost all of the men on the list were from Milwaukee, the state’s urban center. But had these men really vanished without a public trace, other than their names? A photo shows something more dimensional than letters on granite, […]