04/04/2026
Every year on March 31st, I feel called to share this story. As someone who has always been intuitive, I’ve learned to trust the experiences and connections that come to me, especially the ones that can’t always be explained.
I find myself going back to the Cleveland Hill fire that happened on March 31, 1954.
I went to Cleve Hill and graduated in 1979, and my boys also went there. I remember that after the fire, trees were planted in Cheektowaga Town Park in memory of the children who lost their lives. The memorial around the school with the children’s names was added later.
During my four years there, I honestly don’t remember hearing much about the fire. I think it was so horrific that people just didn’t talk about it much back then.
One day, I came across a post on Facebook from the Cleveland Hill memorial site listing the remembrance of that devastating day. It made me start asking questions. I remember asking my mom what she remembered, since I wasn’t even born yet. She told me that she and my dad were living in Maryland at the time, and my grandfather told her about the terrible accident.
I started reading more and really immersing myself in what happened. I learned that 15 children died and many others were injured. The devastation of that day was overwhelming.
That’s when I came across the story of Jackson C. Frank, one of the survivors. He was badly burned over much of his body and spent eight and a half months in the hospital. During that time, a teacher named Charlie Castelli brought him an acoustic guitar to help keep him occupied while he recovered. That was how music entered his life. As a teenager, he was greatly influenced by Elvis Presley. He even received a letter and autograph from Elvis, and later, in 1957, he traveled to Memphis with his mother and ended up meeting Elvis at Graceland. Actor Kirk Douglas also visited the children who had been injured in the fire.
When he was in school, he had a girlfriend named Marlene du Pont. She died on that awful day. He never got over her loss and later wrote a song called Marlene about her. As he got older, Jackson became deeply involved in music. After receiving an insurance settlement from his injuries, he eventually moved to England, where he became part of the growing folk scene. His 1965 album, Jackson C. Frank, was produced by Paul Simon. One of his best known songs, Blues Run the Game, would later be covered by many artists. While living in Woodstock, he married Elaine Sedgwick, an English former fashion model who has been described as a cousin of Edie Sedgwick. They had a son and later a daughter, Angeline. Tragically, their son was born with a serious condition and died the same day he was born. After that loss, his mental and physical health declined significantly. Over the years, he struggled deeply and was in and out of psychiatric institutions. He was treated for schizophrenia, although he himself denied that diagnosis and believed his struggles were the result of the trauma he experienced.
He later returned to the United States and lived with his parents in Elma, New York for a time. Eventually, he left and ended up in New York City, where he was homeless and continued to struggle. Later in life, he was shot with a pellet gun by local children and was blinded in his left eye.
The more I learned about him, the more I cried for him. It felt like his whole life was marked by tragedy, beginning with that fire and continuing through loss, illness, loneliness, and pain. And yet, through all of it, he left behind music that still touches people.
What many people don’t realize is that when you focus on someone who has passed, they can sense that energy and they begin to wonder who is reaching out to them. After reading so much about him, I wanted to know what happened to him after he passed. He told me that he was met by all of his classmates who had died in that horrible fire. He also told me that he saw Marlene du Pont again. When they were in school, he cared deeply for her and never got over her death. He even wrote a song called Marlene about her.
I told my younger son about all of this, and we went to Cleve Hill where the memorial is set up with all of the children’s names. As I stood there, I could feel both Jackson and Marlene around me, almost like they were observing me and thanking me for coming to pay my respects.
I took several pictures, which I’m including, and in one of them right at the moment I felt them the strongest there was a tiny orb in the photo. It was almost as if they were acknowledging their presence. ❤️❤️
On a personal note you can see his sad story found on Wikipedia and that is where I found most of my information......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_C._Frank
