This doll belonged to Josephine Lamanna Rebyanski. The signatures are from young men departing for WWII. The doll has their names, date of enlistment, and the military
bases to which they were deployed. The doll was donated to the AAHS by Michele Rebyanski Nestor, Josephine’s daughter.

Four of the men listed on the doll were Josephine’s brothers (Lamanna). One of the men became her husband (Mike Rebyanski). The other two (California and Tamski) were neighbors. Of the Lamannas, Carmen and Joe served in Italy where Joe received the purple heart. Carmen also served in Africa. Mike Lamanna served in the Pacific and Frank in the Philippines. Mike Rebyanski was in the European theater. He was a medic and part of the 95th Gas Treatment Battalion and saw action in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest. The battle, commonly known as “the meatgrinder” lasted from early Sept. through December. We have no information on Anthony California. Tom Tamski also fought in the Korean War. Except for Frank Lamanna who resumed his baseball career with the Boston Braves and a Yankee farm team, the rest returned to live long lives in the Apollo area as coal miners and steel workers.

Names As Listed On The Doll
Pvt. Frank Lamanna 2/26/43 Ft Meade, MD
Pvt. Thomas Tamski 10/10/46 Ft. Meade, MD
Pvt. Mike Rebyanski 5/1/43 Ft. Meade, MD Carmen Lamanna 12,17, 42 Sgt. Anthony Lamanna, California 11/17/1942 Texas Cpl. Joe Lamanna 1/18/43 Ft. Bragg, NC Mike Lamanna, USS Minneapolis, San Fransicso, CA

With Christmas fast approaching, the AAHS would like to try something different this year. If you would like to honor or memorialize a loved one or an event, we have ornamental balls at the WCTU Building on N. 2nd Street across from the Bank drive-thru. The museum is open from 11 to 2 on Saturdays. You can buy an ornament for $5 each and decorate it at the building or we will happily decorate it for you. They will be hung on our Christmas tree in the front window of the building and will be mentioned in our February 2026 newsletter. You can also fill out the form below and mail it with a check to AAHS PO Box 434 Apollo, PA 15613. All funds raised will be used to support our Historical Society. Thank You.

Your name__________________________ Phone number________________________
Name of person(s)/events

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Amount enclosed ($5 per ornament) ________

We see them everywhere; we take them for granted, but oh, if  only they could talk. What a story these chairs could tell about  the various people who sat in them. I can picture a child with a  lollipop in her mouth, waiting for her mom to finish her banking.  Or the switchboard operator who rang out the warnings about the  1936 St. Patrick’s Day Flood. What about the bored student,  anxiously awaiting the end of the school day so he could run out  and play baseball with his buddies? The kitchen chair brings  back memories of the family gathered around the table for the  wonderful food Mom would set before them and the great  conversations as they shared their day. And finally, the chairs our AAHS members sit in as we gather each month to plan activities  and do the work of the Apollo Area Historical Society. Now  that’s a chair YOU can fill!

By the time you read this post, the old Apollo High School on the corner of North 2nd Street and Pennsylvania Ave. will be gone. For the past several months, demolition crews have been tearing down the big old yellow brick building.

Many memories, both happy and sad, have been shared by those who have gathered to watch and take pictures and videos. The site is being cleared for a possible housing development.

The A.A.H.S. was able to salvage some items from the building, including a brick, ceiling lights from the auditorium, as well as three seats from the balcony of the auditorium, a score board, speaker box from the PA system, plaque for the gym lights from the class of 1945, plaque for bleachers from the class of 1927 & 1928, fire alarm box, 3-0-5 from the auditorium door, and a few items from when the building was home to the Tiger Gym after the school moved out. We have one of the “Apollo High School 1931” inserts that were above the entrance doors, and bricks that will hopefully be made into a “memorial” for the A.H.S. Be sure to stop by the museum to visit our extensive Apollo High School display. The photos below were taken by Denise Flickinger. Thank you for sharing them.

The Apollo Area Historical Society in collaboration with the BHE GT & S Company, the Apollo Area Lions Club, and the Armstrong Civil War Roundtable, is planning a complete restoration of the General S.M. Jackson original mausoleum and Circle of Honor wall in the old Apollo Cemetery. This project will allow easy access to the site and preserve an important part of Apollo’s past.

If you would like to help with donations, they can be sent to: Jackson Mausoleum Project, Apollo Area Historical Society, PO Box 434, Apollo, PA 15613 Thanks!

A recent news article from the Kittanning Leader Times can be read here.

On Saturday, July 20, 2024, a group of volunteers gathered at the Drake Log Cabin to finish the Mae Shirey Memorial Garden and to dedicate it with a memorial stone. The following pictures show the work on the garden, as well as the completed project and the work day itself. Thanks so much to Wendy Minik, our project chairman and to the other volunteers who worked beforehand and on July 20th. This project was funded with a $1,000 grant from Keep PA Beautiful National PA Day grant program in partnership with America250PA, EQT, and PennDOT.

These first few photos are before the work began.

These next few are showing the work in progress with some of our work crew!

The finished project and the dedication of the plaque July 20, 2024. Thank you to all the volunteers!

Thanks to Wendy Minik, Sean Duke, and Sue Casella for the photos!

Thank you for your donations to the Apollo Area Historical Society through the Armstrong County Community Foundation’s Week of Giving. In total, we received $4383.90 during the 2024 Week of Giving Campaign which was held May 6 – 10, 2024! Thanks to your generous donations, our historical society will be able to continue our work of preserving the history of Apollo for generations to come.

Part of our commitment to Apollo’s history is to have programs through the year. We want to highlight an upcoming event; on Saturday, August 10th we will have our Civil War Day at the Drake Log Cabin from 10-4. There will be displays, speakers, and reenactors with a Civil War Camp. We hope to see you there.

Through the generosity of America250PA and EQT, in partnership with PA Dept.
of Transportation, we are the fortunate recipient of a $1,000 grant to help establish a Mae Shirey Memorial Garden at the Drake Log Cabin to support the theme of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful. Thank you, America250PA, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, EQT and PennDOT for supporting community improvement projects like ours! Register to volunteer now: https://bit.ly/PADay24. Contact Wendy Minik at 724-859-3772 for more information about volunteering.

Thirty years ago in 1994, Brooke Kroeger wrote what the AAHS considers the definitive biography of Nellie Bly titled Nellie Bly, Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. Brooke visited Apollo & Armstrong County during her research for the book and spoke at an AAHS Banquet one year. She is a journalist, professor emerita at NYU, and the author of six books, the latest of which is Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism,  published by A.A. Knopf in May 2023. It explores how women have fared in American journalism’s most competitive and highly valued bastions, the ones men have dominated in the 180 years since mass media began.

On Saturday, May 4, Brooke returned to Apollo and presented a wonderful program about Nellie’s adventures both as a journalist and author, and as a traveler, not only “Around The World”, but to Mexico and Austria. The audience appreciated the stories and enjoyed Nellie’s birthday cake afterwards (Nellie’s birthday is May 5, 1864).

We appreciate the Remake Learning Days for the Event Host Award to help make this program possible.

Many thanks to Bill Naser of Naser’s Food, Apollo for the delicious birthday cake!