Fay Gleeson: Difference between revisions

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==Early life==
==Early life==
Fay was born circa 1943 to [[Lorne Gleeson]] and his wife [[Zip Gleeson|Zip]].  She was one of six siblings, five of whom were known as the "Five Gleeson" acrobatic troupe in the 1950s.
Fay was born circa 1943 to [[Lorne Gleeson]] and his wife [[Zip Gleeson|Zip]].  She was one of six siblings, five of whom were known as the "Five Gleesons" acrobatic troupe in the 1950s. [1]


Her oldest brother Gary married another dancer 7 years her senior, called Rhodella Achtenberg.  Rhodella owned a dance studio in Fort William.
Her brother Gary married another dancer 7 years her senior, called [[Rhodella Achtenberg]].  Rhodella owned a dance studio in Fort William.  When Gary and Rhodella moved to Toronto in 1959, Rhodella gave Fay, who was just 15 at the time, her dance studio.  Fay has managed it ever since, up to at least 2020.  In recent years she has been assisted in running the studio by her niece [[Cindy Kennedy|Cindy Kennedy (nee Gleeson)]].


==Fay Gleeson Dance Centre==
==Sources==
The name "Fay Gleeson" is an apt and highly memorable name, worthy of a Hollywood actress. It's the perfect name for a dance studio: it has a lightness, a feel of dancing, and the word "Glee" embedded right in the name.
[1] Gary Gleeson obituary
 
If they had kept the name of the founder, it would have been called "[[Rhodella Achtenberg]] Dance Studio", which definitely doesn't have the same sound.
 
But even the studio's eponym doesn't go by that name; she took her husband [[Rob Steadwell]]'s family name, likely in the 1960s, and has been known as "Fay Steadwell" for over 50 years.
 
Rhodella met [[Gary Gleeson]], the leader of the "Five Gleesons" acrobatic troupe in the 1950s, fell in love, married him, and moved to Toronto so he could become a chiropractor.  She left her dance studio to his sister and fellow acrobat, Fay.
 
The connection between Fay Steadwell and [[Rhodella Achtenberg|Rhodella Zweep]]:
 
# [[Rhodella Achtenberg]] was a student at [[Sylvia Horn]]'s dance school in Fort William in the 1940s
# Rhodella opened her own dance school in Fort William in the 1950s
# Rhodella married Dr. [[Gary Gleeson]] and moved to Toronto.  In 1958, at age 22, she left her Fort William dance studio to her husband Gary's 15-year-old sister, Fay Gleeson.
# Fay married a man called [[Rob Steadwell]] in the 1960s, ruining her beautiful last name, but luckily she didn't change the name of the studio.
# Rhodella moved back to Fort William in the 1970s and married a Larry Zweep.  She died in 2017.
# Fay continues to run the [[Fay Gleeson Dance Centre]] as of 2020.  She is supported her niece, Rhodella's daughter [[Cindy Kennedy]].

Latest revision as of 13:59, 23 April 2020

Fay Steadwell, 2018

Fay Steadwell (nee Gleeson) (born circa 1943) is the owner of the Fay Gleeson Dance Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Early life

Fay was born circa 1943 to Lorne Gleeson and his wife Zip. She was one of six siblings, five of whom were known as the "Five Gleesons" acrobatic troupe in the 1950s. [1]

Her brother Gary married another dancer 7 years her senior, called Rhodella Achtenberg. Rhodella owned a dance studio in Fort William. When Gary and Rhodella moved to Toronto in 1959, Rhodella gave Fay, who was just 15 at the time, her dance studio. Fay has managed it ever since, up to at least 2020. In recent years she has been assisted in running the studio by her niece Cindy Kennedy (nee Gleeson).

Sources

[1] Gary Gleeson obituary

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