First Lorain County Baby of 1963

We're still toddling along in Babyland here on the blog...

For many years, the Journal's "First Baby" contests celebrated the first baby born in Lorain's St. Joseph Hospital after the stroke of midnight on January 1st. St. Joseph was the only hospital in town then.

But Lorain County is a pretty good sized county, and everybody loves babies – so the newspaper realized that there might be some interest in other 'first babies.' Thus we have the short article below that appeared in the Journal on January 2, 1963.

As the article notes, "Little Miss Shirley Green, a five-pound, 10-ounce bundle of joy, won the honor of the first baby born at Allen Hospital in 1963."

Born at 1:05 a. m., Shirley had "the distinction of being the first child born in Lorain County in the new year."

"Mrs. Green, a 24-year old native of Frankfurt, Germany has been in the United States only eight months," the article continued. "The Greens were married in Germany while he was stationed there during an assignment in the U. S. Army."

Interestingly, new father Mr. Green was a Fuller Brush salesman.

It is unclear if Shirley received any goodies and/or swag.

****

So is the Fuller Brush Company still around today? Sure it is – and here's the link to its website. Be sure to visit the "Our Story" page, where you can learn about its interesting history.

It was also the subject of two movies – The Fuller Brush Man (with Red Skelton) and The Fuller Brush Girl (with Lucille Ball).

We watched The Red Skelton Show (with his "May God Bless" goodbye catchphrase) regularly in our house. Although I saw him in person at the Ohio State Fair, I was never a big fan of his old movies. I just couldn't equate the frantic young guy in the movies with the older guy hosting the weekly TV show.