7.8.1926

John David Dingell, Jr. is born in Colorado Springs, Colorado to John Dingell, Sr. and Grace Bigler Dingell.  He will later be joined by brother Jim and sister Julè.

"The father's name had been Dzieglewicz, meaning, roughly, 'blacksmith.' After the change, the father could campaign for office with the slogan 'Ring (in) with Dingell.'"

"The family had fled Poland in the 1830s, 'There had been a rebellion against the Austrians and my forebears imprudently got on the losing side,' recalls the congressman, who seldom makes the same mistake."

"John Sr. settled his family in Detroit, where he worked as a printer at the Detroit Free Press, helping to organize a union." Dingell (Jr.) later says his father was fired from the Free Press for these activities. "He was 5-foot-7 and suffered from asthma and tuberculosis, a disease that took the family to Colorado for a time, in hopes of a cure.  There, John Jr. was born in 1926."  (Detroit Free Press, 5.16.82; Congressman John D. Dingell)

"Dingell (Jr.) revered his parents. 'It was a great family.  We were never distinguished.  I am the first of us who got through college.  We were as poor as Job's turkey.  Mom put up paper in her shoes during the Depression.  Pop had an eighth grade education at St. Casimir's, but had a superb knowledge of the law.  Everybody thought he was a lawyer.'"  (The Washingtonian, January 1986)

"Dingell's mother was the daughter of a Swiss who had crossed the country in a covered wagon.  'He hated Catholics, Poles, drink, and people who married his daughter without his permission.  Pop did 'em all,' Dingell says.  'The old man threw Mom out of the house for marrying Dad.  Mom was never sorry.  She literally kept Dad going.'" (The Washingtonian, January 1986)

1926

John Dingell, Sr. moves his family back to Michigan. (Detroit News, 9.20.55)