Courtesy photo
1939 yearbook reunited with family
Cranford Historical Society
A Colorado woman was on a quest to find a yearbook from her late father’s Cranford High School days. She’d looked into Facebook groups and even on eBay and found nothing. When she was visiting family in the area she went to the Cranford Library to see if they had copies. Not only did they have a copy from 1939, it was also signed by her father, Barry Massa.
Barry was the son of Felice Massa who came to America from Italy through Ellis Island in 1909. He settled in Cranford and lived here until his death in 1969. Barry graduated from Cranford High School in 1939 and enlisted in the US Navy on his 19th birthday, serving for 4 years, on the USS Brooklyn and the USS Princeton during WWII. Barry lived with his wife in Cranford until 1956 when they moved their family to Fanwood. Janet Lovell had been looking into her family’s history and joined forces with her sister Jane Tenore to locate this piece of the story.
The Library and the Historical Society each retain one copy of the high school yearbooks. In this case, the Historical Society had two copies and gave the Library a ‘clean’ copy (one not donated from a family but from the high school itself) so that the Library could give Janet the copy signed by her father.
Thanks to new Library Director, Kathy Cannarozzi for her help in this great ‘yearbook exchange.’
