American Merchant Marine Veterans
Midwest Chapter
2437 West 46th Place, Chicago IL 60632
Latitude 41° 49' North, Longitude 87° 37' WestIf you're a mariner in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, we want to hear from you.
Any Mariner, whether a veteran of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf, other "National Emergency," or still sailing, is invited to join. We welcome our Naval Armed Guard shipmates with whom "We Delivered the Goods." Spouses, widows and children of Mariners and Naval Armed Guard are welcome to join our fellowship. If you live in the MidWest, we would like to have you visit and join the MidWest Chapter of AMMV. Send for a free copy of our monthly newsletter.
MidWest Chapter is a great place to meet your shipmates!
Meetings, First Saturday every other month (except holiday week). McDonald-Linn VFW Post in Chicago Ridge, 10537 S. Ridgeland Ave. Meeting starts at 11 a.m. Lunch follows meeting.
Salute to our "Log Lady" Valeria Urbikas
As all of the 350 members of the Midwest Chapter of the AMMV know, our newsletter is written, published and mailed out by The Log Lady. Here is a long over due salute to the lady behind the name:
AHOY MATES!
The best known and hardest working member of the Midwest Chapter of the AMMV never set foot on a ship, but we couldn't do without her. It's the LOG LADY of course, Valeria Urbikas by name.
Back in 1989, when the initial organizer, and president emeritus, Casey Jesukaitis, was overwhelmed with chapter duties, he had a meeting with fellow organizer and first Treasurer, Tony Urbikas. Listening to his woes, Valeria said: "It shouldn't be that difficult to find someone to collect the ship's names." Casey said, "Oh really? Will you do it?" And, Valeria, not knowing what she was letting herself in for, said, "Sure."
When she took over, the members had to dig deep in their fading memories or files for such facts as: ships, dates, ratings, ports of call and cargo carried, plus anything else they could remember, along with news clippings and photos, to go with the histories she put together on each member.
Since all of this required a lot of correspondence, Valeria gave herself the cognomen, Log Lady, to make it easier to say and spell her name. Then came another problem; someone to write the newsletter. Frank Dorner, another original organizer, was overworked with membership enrollments which made it difficult for him to continue putting out the newsletter. Again came the complaint from Casey and once more Valeria's comment was the same and so was her response.
The Log Lady's first newsletter came out in May, 1990. Kenny Brucklemyer did the "Ahoy Mates" masthead for the September 16 , 1991 edition, and that format has been used ever since. As each member knows, the newsletter is a most welcome, very readable and informative mailbox event, containing such features as the message from the Skipper, minutes from the meetings, stories from members, Happy Birthday to each of us becoming a year older and funnies and jokes of all types. It doesn't get to be that good without a lot of effort on the part of the Log Lady.
In addition to her "above and beyond" contribution to the newsletter, Valeria, with the help of her son Paul, made name tags for the entire 350 strong membership. She also made name tags and she edited the Commemorative book for the AMMV Convention which we hosted in '97.
As an annual memorial to Tony, her late husband of 49 years, every November meeting she cooks a special Lithuanian luncheon.
On a personal note, Valeria was born in Wilmerding, PA and moved to Chicago when she was two years old, having just lost her father. She and her two brothers lived with their aunts because her mother was very ill. She studied piano, joined a Lithuanian Chorus, sang solo, and later directed the Chorus which presented two operettas each year for 12 years. . .
Carrying Banner in parade
Chicago Navy Pier Plaque
