On May 3, 2021, we received the shocking news that our daughter Heather had died unexpectedly. She was 45 years old, but to us just a child. Heather lived in a group home for the past 15 years. We were in constant contact and looked forward to her daily phone calls at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. More importantly, she was at our house all the time. This unique and funny little girl kept us young, especially in celebrating the holidays to the fullest.

One of hundreds of memories we’ll never forget is our Sunday trips to church together, where we would watch Heather work the room better than the mayor during the greeting. This Little Angel received a standing ovation at her high school commencement. She was one of the bright stars at The Resource Center, and anyone who knew her would never forget her. People often said; “She brought a ray of sunshine into our lives.”

Well, she is gone from our lives here on earth. I often heard the phrase; “There’s nothing worse than losing a child.” It’s worse than that. We ask “Why not me, God?” “Take me and let her grace this earth!”

Heather was buried in Lake View Cemetery near the Charles Cooper Military Memorial site, which is directly across the street from Lakeview Gardens. Others and we planted flowers, and we set a temporary monument with Brenda’s choice of an angel.

Brenda Johnson is pictured on a walk with her husband, Scott, through Lakeview Cemetery.

We parked at Heather’s grave to begin our daily (sometimes twice daily) walks. Besides the peaceful walk, Brenda’s focus was on finding ideas for a gravestone that reflected just what Heather was to us — “An Angel.” We walked by the Lucy Memorial, B.F. Goodrich’s grave and by the big crypts and monuments of Jamestown’s “Street People” in the older section. The “Street People” being the movers and shakers of 19th century Jamestown, after whom many of the streets of Jamestown are named. As we walked farther back we’d see the ” Girl in the Glass Case,” the World War I Memorial (which I didn’t even know was there), Soldier’s Circle, and the hundreds, if not thousands, of Swedish named graves-Johnson, Swanson, Anderson, Olson, Peterson, and many others. We’d walk by the graves of our parents, grandparents, sisters and other relatives, by Senator Goodell’s grave and even Gordie Hess’s final resting place. We’d see all the walkers, runners, and even the deer roaming this peaceful property.

During our walks there was one monument not far from Heather’s grave that really stood out to Brenda. It has a carved angel on the top of it. Time and time again, we came back to this angel monument and its 3 graves, as if something was drawing us to it. The grave on the left was inscribed, “Lettie LeVan 1948”, the stone on the right read, “Harry LeVan 1958”. The inscription below the angel read, “Margaret Gowan 1924”.

After months of coming back to these graves, Brenda decided to research the names on the graves. To her surprise, there was a lot of material on their lives. Through extensive research that included Google, legal documents like birth and death certificates, and court records, interesting lives began to reveal themselves. Harry LeVan and wife Lettie toured extensively on the vaudeville circuits in the United States and Canada. Harry once remarked that there wasn’t a vaudeville house in the U.S. and few in Canada they hadn’t played.

Lettie Bolles grew up in the Randolph area. She married at the age of 16 to a Winfield Halleck, who records show was brought to court for a lack of support. Taking a child from that relationship, Lettie, a piano player, hit the road looking for work on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit. She would later meet up with Harry LeVan to form vaudeville piano-comedy routine know as “LeVan and Bolles.” Harry got into show business at the age of 8 in his hometown of Brooklyn , NY. Together they played extensively on the Keith Circuit. Apparently, the child Margaret worked as an actor on the same circuit.

Margaret, who is buried by the angel statue, married but died during child birth at just 17 years of age in 1924. Her cause of death was stated as “probable chloroform poisoning,” something that was common in those times.

Brenda Johnson is pictured on a walk with her husband, Scott, through Lakeview Cemetery.

Lettie continued performing with Harry in vaudeville and U.S.O. shows during World War II and married Harry at some point. Lettie died in 1948, in the Bronx and was brought back to Jamestown to be buried next to Margaret.

Of note, Brenda bought a “LeVan and Bolles” poster online. It has beautiful photographs of both Harry and Lettie.

After Lettie’s death, Harry ended up in Philadelphia in 1950, with the Candy Carnival show featured on the CBS-TV network. At the dawn of the television industry, he became a Philadelphia legend as Carny C. Carny and Carny the Clown entertaining thousands of kids and adults on not one, but two television shows. Harry died in 1958 and was buried next to Lettie and Margaret in Lake View Cemetery. He was later inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

There are probably people who already knew this remarkable story of the LeVans. We didn’t know their history or know why we were driven to that angel. What a coincidence that they also lost their “Little Angel,” and that Heather had such a love of the theater. We take our hats off to Lettie, who endured so much in life and overcame hardships by becoming a performer of national acclaim. Rest in peace, LeVan Family. Anyway, take a walk in Lake View Cemetery sometime. You never know what you’ll find!