Bertha "Jerrie" Corwin (Wanderone)

http://www.billiardsdigest.com/new_untold_stories/0908/fats_2.php

"Corwin, 64, would be Fats’ nephew. The ad salesman lives in California’s Napa Valley, about an hour north of San Francisco. He said he moved there with his family in the 1950s after having grown up in New York. Corwin said his mother — that is, Fats’ sister — died when he was just 2 years old, and as a consequence he has lost a bit of the thread when it comes to the Wanderone side of his family. But even still, Corwin has been told a little and he’s seen the old photos.

Doug said his mother’s actual name was Bertha Alice Wanderone, but that she often went by the nickname “Jerrie.” I could never figure out why Fats identified his sister as “Jerry” (Fats spelled it with a “y”) but that the U.S. Census Bureau listed instead a “Bertha.” So this resolves that question. The U.S. Census Bureau also lists the approximate year of Jerrie-Bertha’s birth at about 1918, which Corwin also confirms.

Corwin says his mother (we’ll call her “Bertha” from here on out) married his father, Bernie, on Aug. 2, 1942. At the time, Bertha’s brother, Fats, would have been quite single and probably running around the East Coast making games. As you can see from his note to me, which I referenced earlier, Doug’s mother died three years after she married Doug’s dad. That means she would have been 27 years old.

“Bertha died in childbirth with my brother Richard — she bled to death in an army hospital,” Corwin explained. “They left her alone and they shouldn’t have left her alone, and she was about 25 years old. So there were two of us, and my father remaining.”

Corwin said he was 2 years old at the time and has no recollection of his birth mother. But Corwin says his father, Bernie, kept in touch with Uncle Fats and the two would play pool on occasion. Corwin also said that his father and his stepmom went to visit Fats when he was doing an exhibition in Los Angeles during the 1960s, shortly after he became famous from “The Hustler.” "

• ************************************************************************************************ Bertha A. Corwin

Washington, Death Certificates, 1907-1960

Husband: Name of spouse

Birth: Circa 1918

Death: Day Month 1945 - Place

Father: Father's name

http://www.myheritage.com/matchingresult-a05dc492ec98766afbf34a219d...