WILD THING ELINOR
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The most dramatic member of the
family’s third generation was, and still is, the startlingly beautiful and
unconventional Elinor Kirkman Hellmann, a look-alike of movie star Lana
Turner. Born Jan. 15, 1911 in Staples, MN, Elinor was the only daughter of Christian William Kirkman III and Anna Jelinek Fiala Kirkman.. In a family that has scads of gorgeous ladies Elinor is a leading light: a curvaceous, magnificent blonde who broke hundreds of hearts. |
Now 88 and living in Van Nuys, CA, Elinor claims she was out of control from the moment she was born. She was a baby when CWK III and his wife Anna made the incredible covered wagon safari from Minnesota to Connecticut in 1911. Elinor was then raised in Connecticut and New York . In the roaring 1920s, wild flapper Elinor made frequent appearances in the New York Times, including a mention on page one. She astounded New Yorkers by being the first woman to ride a motorcycle and was one of the first free-spirited women to bob her hair, roll her stockings, wear scandalously short skirts and slurp Prohibition era bathtub gin. Elinor dropped out of school after the eighth grade, married Charles Roth at age 15 and had a son, Charles William "Bill" Roth at age 16. She later married widely known stunt motorcyclist Reggie Pink and became a model, hair dresser and stunt motorcyclist. In the lean years of the 1930s Great Depression, Elinor fared well. During World War II, Elinor was a "Rosie the Riveter" who built aircraft in New York and New Jersey. In the 1940s she married Chester Zawatski of Wilkes Barre, PA and gave birth to her only daughter, Toni-Ann, in 1944. Elinor divorced Chester, then married her fourth husband, Walter Hellman in the early 1950s. They moved to California in 1954 where Elinor became a nationally know breeder of champion Airedales. One of her dogs, Ch. Geoffery Earl of Stratford, twice won Best of Show at Madison Square Garden’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show, the World Series of dogdom. And she became president of the Southern California Airedale Association. In 1971, Elinor later survived a horrendous automobile accident but suffered a serious stroke in 1995 which impaired her mobility and speech. Wondrous Elinor is hanging in there and has her sights set on turning 98.
We don’t know much about Chris III’s three adopted sons (Frank, Theodore and George Fiala) whose names were changed to Kirkman after he married Anna Jelinek Fiala Kirkman. There’s a picture of Teddy Kirkman in a World War I Army uniform but Elinor says he did not go overseas. |
