How Louis Vremsak became Edward Voltaire Garren (an American story)

In the early 1900s, a young man from Slovenia came to New York to work in the auto business. His name was Louis Frank Vremsak. When he became established, he moved in with a young woman, an orphan also from the Austro-Hungarian empire, named Marie/Mary Bolte. They had a child, our father, whom they named Louis Vremsak.

Around three years later, Ms. Bolte left Mr. Vremsak, taking with her their young child. She "fled" to Tampa Florida, where she met a man named Columbus Garren from Hendersonville North Carolina. Columbus was in the merchant marine, their liaison lasted about 9 months.  After he left her, his family in Hendersonville, offered this young "widow" a chance to come live with them, so she took her young son to Hendersonville, where the family operated a large rooming house for summer visitors. That experiment lasted the summer. Marie returned to Tampa and that fall, when it was time to enroll young Louis into school, she asked him, or convinced him, that he needed a "more American sounding name." So Louis Vremsak Jr. became Edward V. Garren, our father.  

Marie also told my father that his father was dead, died of pneumonia from a chill, giving his coat to a beggar after leaving the opera. This was not true. His father, Louis Sr. left New York, moved briefly to Pennsylvania where he co-founded the Adria Automobile corporation, then settled in Los Angeles in 1920. He was a pioneer avaitor, co-founder of General Western Aero, a company that designed airplanes, a self described "adventure seeker & treasure hunter", he had two more wives, was a member of the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge, and died in 1946, never knowing where his first son was, or how to contact him.  

In 2014 I discovered his grave in the Accaia Gardens of Forest Lawn Glendale California.  I took my brother Francis Edward "Gene" Garren to see the grave site.

My father, never believed his mother, but doing a diligent search for his father was too painful, so he never knew what happened to his father.  

One genuine "mystical" part of the story, Louis had another son, Gene Vremsak, who was a young marine, fresh out of boot camp, who with 31 others died in a plane crash in 1946. My brother was named Francis Edward Garren at birth, but when he was about 3 years old, emphatically told our parents, "Stop calling me Francis, that's NOT my name. My name is "Gene" which has been his "nickname" his entire life.  

Thanks to the internet, we have found a lot of the missing links to his story, and I have found our relatives in Slovenia. Thanks to Vladka Vremšak, Nika Vremšak and Nuša Vremšak for sharing their stories and photos and for making us feel very welcome in their beautiful country.  

The love of mountains runs very deep in our blood.  My brother loves the mountains of North Carolina where he lives, and our cousin Vladka goes hiking year round in the beautiful mountains of Slovenia.

Any of you who knew my father knew of his lovely tenor voice and his constant search for knowledge (often falling asleep reading the encyclopedia), both traits that I have as well. It turns out the Vremsaks are all musicians and scholars. The very first photo of cousin Boris Vremsak (Vladka's brother, Nika & Nusa's father) and my brother "Gene" (Francis Edward) Garren. Meeting them in 2014 was wonderful. We all looked at Boris and Gene and did many double takes. They even sound the same. We share a great-grandfather, Alois Vremsak.

Alois Vremsak with his second wife, the great grandmother of Boris & Vladka

I have always had a very high apptitude for all things mechanical, and I also enjoy singing, and have always been complimented on my singing abilities.  Our father had a lovely tenor voice as well, but he was the only one in the family (other than me) that shared that gift.  No one else has my mechanical aptitude.  I always was fascitated with automobiles and in high school wanted to become an automobile designer (engineering) but that never happened.Because there was no "blood" connection to any of this, my gifts were never encouraged by anyone in or out of the family, so I languished, whilc trying to figure out all of this on my own.  Discovering the Vremsaks removed a huge sense of not being connected to anyone from my life.Some other family photos are below:

 Edna and Edward in the early 1940's

 Edna and Edward in the late 1940's a couple of years before I was born.

Edward at a sink we constructed in the Cattail Creek house in the early 1970's.

 "Gene" Garren, Edward George 

Michael Lee, Edna and Edward Garren 1985.

 Gene hiking near his home in the mountains of North Carolina

Louis Frank Vremsak in Vienna as a boy..

 Our father told us that his father was a "trick rider" in the Austrian cavalry and a favorite of the emperor Franz Joseph.

 Another old photo of the young Louis Frank.

 Our grandmother Mary/Marie Bolte

 Marie with my brother Francis Edward "Gene" Garren

Marie was a giften Modiste' who could make any dress without a pattern.  She made this one.  This look best captures her tortured interior, the trauma of surviving Catholic orphanages from the late 19th century.  She was incredibly damaged, very similar to Joan Crawford of "Mommie Dearest."  We suspect she had multiple personalities, some of which were violent and abusive.

Gene and his son Michael circa 2000 in Los Angeles

Our father's genetics, and the origins of the Slavic peoples.  The blood of Ghengis Kahn and Attila the Hun runs in our veins.

Thank you for reading this very "American" story.  Generally, we are a nation of refugees, bastards, etc.  The American philosopher Eric Hoffer said, "We are the scum of the earth."  My friend Grace Ahn puts it best, 'Anyone who has anything in the old country never leaves.  The only people who leave and come to America are people who have nothing but a knife or a gun at their back." We inherit the unresolved traumas of our parents and grand parents.  

Our father was particularly formed out of his mother's trauma.  I wrote this story about how all of this prepared me for my vocation as a "Family Therapist.   

I hope you enjoy our story, "Ode to our Father"