Checkout this photo of her sister Marie!
So funny reading the back. "Perhaps one day we'll know Sen. Kennedy as President Kennedy."
It's December 2ed, 2011.
Checkout this photo of her sister Marie!
So funny reading the back. "Perhaps one day we'll know Sen. Kennedy as President Kennedy."
She worked in the costume department of the Dunes. She may have designed the costumes in
the photo to the left. One of these girls was 17 and became
ELVIRA-misteress of the dark! Which beauty is Elvira? Only 17 years old? Wow. I'm going to guess bottom right.
More about Cassandra Peterson here Born 1951 so this photo must have been taken around 1969. They were doing a lot of nuclear bomb testing near Vegas at the time so maybe the hats were modeled after a mushroom cloud? I sent an eMail to Elvira asking but have received no response as of 9/2011 :-(( - Hey Cassandra which one is you? ,
Pepper and Earl hung out with Lou Walters (Barbras father). Lou, with the Tropicana,
imported the Folies Bergere from Paris at almost $million. It was a big deal at the time. I don't know... but
could this be Lou's boat in lake Mead? Or maybe loaned to Lou by friends, or who cares, -
I have other photos with Lou and a small boat - around here somewhere.
--- News: I got permission from Earl Janicki's sister in Ohio to publish selected "family photos".
The photos were found in Peppers home
by the executor of the estate (Wells Fargo = amoung the 30 greates American companies, ever!
and Peppers favorite bank.) Our local branch treated her like Queen-for-the-Day.
Pepper Family Photos
She was 86. Lived and worked with husban Earl in Vegas from 1950???? to 1970???. Peppers family name: Nisnoc
Pepper bought and saved US Savings Bonds - some over 50 years! Compounding interest is amazing, they are worth $millions!
Many of the bonds have two names on them, hers and other people. She hid them all around her home - amoung 50 years of collected stuff. Many of the persons names are not spelled correctly and there are few records or resources for locating these people!
Some of these people she met in passing like a store clerk who helped her once, a man working at the local radio station she called with a question, .... etc.
Total value of the bonds found so far (11 months) value: $1.7 million.
Pepper & Earl were married 9-Aug-47 at
St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland I found the date in Peppers 1963 daily diray.
She was born and raised in the Tremont neighborhood
and often told me "Where Drew Cary is from!" and other famous people.
Short edit of a 45 minute video interview April 2008, 16 months before she died. ("Life Was Fun"). ... working Vegas. She didn't tell me about the several 5 acre lots of sand they bought in the early '60's.
Another short vid edited from my 45 minutes with Pepper video in April. I thought it was really funny, she couldn't be a cocktail waitress because she was freshly kind of married and you know what could happen. Pepper loved and honored Earl to the day she died at 86 years old!
News: Pepper was worth $MILLIONS! She lived like a pauper, homeless bag lady, went without running water over a year (fetched water from the river 100 yards away), ate cat food (well almost), house falling down, hitch hiked to town and post office for years, could get only 1 channel on TV then none, house too packed with stuff & crap she could not get to the bathroom, no laundry, she was not a slave to housework or society, or anyone for that matter. Estimated estate worth: $8m, maybe $6m after taxes and espenses, NO WILL, no kids, husband Earl died in 2000, only an older sister with alzhimers living in Ohio. $3m in cash and bonds were found hidden all around the house! One cache of 50 year old US savings bonds found in a hidden secret room under the staircase, under a rats nest, current value: $500,000.
Helen N. Janicki, 85, of Grants Pass, Ore., died Monday, October 5, 2009 at her home. Arrangements are pending at Chapel of the Valley - LB Hall Funeral Home. 541-479-7581 www.chapel-valley.com Published in the Mail Tribune on 10/10/2009
This page is like my personal diary where I'm collecting factual information, dates, because my memory really sucks! - I seek better facts, so if you know of anything here that is not true, or needs more investigation, or could be a problem for anyone, or best of all if you have more and/or better facts - please let me know and I'll address it. Most all this information was directly from Pepper or found on the internet per her requests. She was always curious - about everything! She collected everything. She charished everything, especially anything and everything about animals. She wanted everything "to go to the animals." she would say. Most her helpers and friends didn't know she had any money or property in 4 states worth $millions.
I strapped a bottle, book, and video camera to my helicopter and flew over the river to Peppers.
She didn't answer my calls at the door, "Pepper! It's Larry!", I looked in, called, no answer, I was worried but then decided
she must be with Shirley shopping. I left the book and brandy outside on the porch and flew home.
An hour or two later Shirley called and said she found Pepper on the floor, "Larry she's gone, Pepper's gone!". She was really
upset and freaking out. We talked until the police arrived.
Pepper thoughts & memories 10/11/09 and after.... the most amazing human I ever met!
A few days before she died she asked me: "Do the Jehovah's Witnesses need money?".
Two days before she died she said: "I just want to do the right thing."
One day before she died she said: "There is a blood drive and I want to go donate."
News: 10/5/09 Pepper has died.
We talked on the phone these last few days for hours, well mostly I listened. She was very worried/interested about letters between Oggs attorney, Freudenberg, and her attorney Cam Howery - though she had no memory of Cam.
Morgan and Shirley looked in on her several times a week told me Pepper is getting worse and they are very worried, but no amount of effort from all of us could get her to consider living somewhere else. She told me many times that when it's time to die it to be in her home, period. I tried to convince her that assisted living would be like a cruise ship with entertainment, food, heat, running water, and all the other old geezers would enjoy her company. Nothing worked. In the end, who are we to force her to do something she does not want to do? I say - GOOD FOR YOU PEPPER! She did it her way. All the way. Never gave up the fight.
I hope whoever manages her estate does not destroy all of her amazing memories (documents, autographed photos of famous people, stories & stuff) she has collected. It should be saved and made public in some kind of on-line Pepper Library / memorial website. Pepper was fascinated by this thing called The Internet, and eMail, and asked me about it often. I tried for 10 years to get her on-line. I even offered to pay everything. She was a character. Loved to cuss and talk of the old days in Vegas and the people she and Earl hung out with, airplanes, and her best friend Betty the hooker.
Looking for relations: --- oops, not Nizniak but Nisnoc, hmmmm... strange....
One of the last things she said to me was: "I just want to do the right thing".
The day before she died she called and asked about donating blood. She wanted to go donate and would ask Sherly about it. I asked if she was out of brandy and would bring some over tomorrow.
I tried to contact her sister in Ohio. The nursing home said: "Ms. McElroy returned to her home on Edgewater Drive in June."
Marie Gail McElroy, (was maiden name Nizniak - same as Pepper? Mother = Pelahia? ) 10915 Edgewater Dr. Cleveland, OH 44113, Arlene B. Steuer (Legal Rep for Marie due to alzheimer's) 1370 Ontario St. #1420, Cleveland, OH 44113,
----- Pepper would call enlisting me to Google things. Some of the people she was looking for are:
Her best friend "Betty the hooker". --- we looked for years but never found anything!
Paliwoda, Pelagia, Paelagia,... sisters last name? Wife of Ohio attorney general?
--- woha, update 12/29/09, just found the Pelahia Nizniak, her MOTHER??? Huh? why didn't she tell me it was her mother? why didn't she tell me her madin name? Strange. -- we spent hours looking for this on-line many times over the years, but she never let on what it was about. See list above of Nizniak's I found today.
Richard "dick" Mulcahy, -- found! Husband of Earl's sister! MD, internal medicine! Very cool people. Sent Christmas card to Pepper every year! Last one returned marked "deceased"... man, that was cold.
Gene Barcelon, 6214 Las Vegas - works for sopranos, something about 5 acres -- Pepper once called it her ace in the hole. (i have no clue if these are connected) Update: 1/1/10, wow, turns out to be 4 aces in the hole! 30 years turned the worthless desert land into prime Vegas realestate worth maybe $4 million!!! Way to go Pepper!
Ruth Bass Janicki, 6/10/21 - 10/5/70, Baldwin county Georgia,
Eugene C. Janicki, 12/1/10 - 12/29/81, WWII T Sgt Army, Cuyahoga County Cleveland Ohio,
Fifi Dorsay. Dot Lemons, female pilot, owes Pepper $700.
--------------------
Pepper had 2 brothers, 2 sisters - none had kids! They say, but, maybe some did!???
One brother was a pilot in WW2, missing.
Other Pepper information: She worked on drafting board at Shamrock Hotel, Glenn McCarthy 1946-1949. She and Earl were there for the grand opening in Houston, it was the biggest social event ever in the history of the city. The only thing Earl ever wanted was a Lincoln conential convertable - and he finally got it! Pepper said: "He got me and a Lincoln conential!"
Earls family - from rootsweb.com ---------------------------- 1888 Janicki Benjamin head M W 42 Germany 23B 1894 Janicki Helen wife - H F W 36 Wisconsin 23B ditto 1915 Janicki Alice daughter F W 15 Ohio 23B ditto 1921 Janicki Earl son M W 9 Ohio ditto (Peppers husband) ------ Janicki Helen Jr. daughter F W 9/12 Ohio ditto (... lots of Helen's)...
Well, there is a lifetime of interesting stories, and maybe more yet to come. I hope all the good ones are told. I did my best by her and so many other kind people helped her these last 12 years since Earl died. Quinns gave her a water well worth maybe $8000 - for free! She went without running water over a year! Plywood country donated materials, many neighbors and long time friends donated countless hours, labor, food, goods, heaters, mowed fields, fixed her house, fixed her stove, helped her clean up (as best they could), took her shopping every week, ... just amazing.
Born: October 7th 1923 Cleveland Ohio,
Helen Jacqueline Bolan ,
youngest of 5.
Brother: Pilot missing WWII (Europe?)
Brother: ??
Older Sister: Marie McElroy, married Ohio attorney general,
Sister2: Ohio, Alace, died ......
Everyone who knew Pepper - knew that she wanted everything to go to charity, to help the animals. Peppers mother said: "Don't smoke and don't have kids". ---> she never did! Grew up in same neighborhood as Drew Carey, the Brooklyn Tremont area Brook Park Zoo. --- and George Stephanopoulos, ha, I have a short video clip of Pepper talking about this.
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> Hi Larry, such nostalgia! Helene and I remember that little homemade car that their father, Ben, had made for Earl. Ben and Helen moved to Florida in retirement in 1958 and they took that cute little car with them. In 1965 we all went down to Florida for Bens' funeral. I recall standing in the garage with Earl, looking at that masterful piece of engineering that his father had created and Earl said he was going to have it shipped back to Vegas. You could see how much he valued it and how so many mamories must have been associated with it. I don't know if they brought it up to Grants Pass with them when they made the move from Vegas. Helene doesn't remember the newspaper article but she sure would love to see a copy. Best regards Helene & Dick
