WEIRTON – Estelle Volosin used a tissue to dab her eyes Tuesday morning as the 117 names of steelworkers who died on the job at Weirton Steel were slowly read.

A bell rang after each name was recited by Robert Hoover and Robert Macek.

“Francis J. Elleck,” said Hoover followed by the bell rung by Diana Durst.

Volosin and Ellek had been dating for 21 months and had been talking about wedding plans earlier on Sept. 29, 1957.

“We had got engaged that week and I saw him every night. I was 19 and he was 20 years old. I drove that evening because he was working night turn in the Coke Plant. I dropped him off at the No. 1 gate and after he got out of the car he just stood there for several minutes smiling at me. I finally asked him why he was smiling and he smiled once more and walked into the mill,” Volosin would recall years later.

“I remember waking up that night not feeling right. Then my mother got up and asked me what was wrong. I told her I didn’t know but I didn’t feel right. Then my brother got up because he wasn’t feeling right. Then we looked out the front window and saw three guys walking up our sidewalk about 2:30 in the morning. They knocked on the door and told us Francis had been killed,” Volosin said.

“I can remember the first time I saw Francis. A friend of mine had set us up on a blind date. I really didn’t want to go on a blind date but Francis came to the door with a big smile. Two weeks later he asked me to go steady. He always treated me like a queen,” Volosin said.

Volosin and Ellek’s sister Marie Wanchic have come to every Steelworker Memorial Day since the services started five years ago in Weirton.

“It hurts my heart today because he was such a great brother. He was special because we were always very close. We were inseparable. I went to Catholic Central and I really wanted to go to a Central football game. We didn’t have any money but here comes my brother Francis with the money for a game ticket,” laughed Wanchic.

Twenty-year-old Francis Ellek would die in the early morning hours of Sept. 30, 1957, after being crushed by equipment while cleaning numbers on the coke ovens.

Nicole Vana brought her 1-year-old son to the service to remember her father Marvin Clifton.

Clifton was the last man to be fatally injured at the steel mill when he was struck by a railroad car that had left the tracks on an October night in 1999.

Clifton is one of the 117 steelworkers who died from injuries received in the steel mill that are listed on the memorial wall in north Weirton.

“I have come here every year because it gives me peace of mind to attend the ceremony. I was very young when my dad was killed. Being here today gives me a good feeling. This is my way of remembering my dad,” Vana said.

“I have told my two older daughters about their grandfather and I will tell my son all about him when Joseph is a little older. And my mom still has a large anniversary photo of her and my dad in her living room so all eight grand children can see their grandfather,” explained Vana.

Donald King was at the hour-long ceremony Tuesday to remember his dad, Fred King.

Fred King was fatally injured on Sept. 18, 1951 while helping to build the “new” Open Hearth.

“I was working about 50 yards from where the accident happened. He was working up on a structure when a crane knocked him to the ground. I didn’t know what happened at the time. But then I had to tell my mother about my dad being killed. It was tough,” related Don King.

“There are so many people I knew and remember from the mill who didn’t go home. I come here every year because I don’t want to ever forget the sacrifices these people made to build this mill and to make it a safer place to work. I appreciate what the steelworkers have done to create this memorial park and to organize this service every year,” stated retired steelworker Danny Greathouse.

They were among approximately 100 people who listened to union and company officials pledge a commitment to safety in the steel operations in Weirton.

“We come here today to remember those people who have fallen in this place we call home. I pray there will never be another name added to this memorial wall,” declared Hoover.

“We work very hard with the management team to make this a safer place to work. I feel very fortunate to have some of the best safety people here at the Weirton plant. We work closely with the company to keep everyone safe. Our job is to make sure we never have another fatality in our mill. Safety is not a union or management issue. It is important to all of us,” United Steelworkers Local 2911 President Mark Glyptis told the audience.

“We will continue to honor those who died at this annual service and hope we never add another name to the memorial wall,” added Glyptis.

According to Weirton General Manager Brian James, approximately two-thirds of the current work force has more than 40 years of service in the mill.

“We have probably had 150,000 employees since Weirton Steel started in 1909. We are working very hard to create the safest workplace in ArcelorMittal that we can,” James said.

Then Mike Jacobs, United Steelworkers Local 2199 Health and Safety coordinator at the ArcelorMittal Steel plant in Weirton, told the story of his friend and co-worker Clyde Hoffman who died in a sheet mill accident on May 5, 1988.

“I worked with Clyde in the early 1970s and he always came to work early so he could help other people. He was proud to be a steelworker and to work at Weirton Steel. We would finish our job and Clyde would look for ways to help other people finish their jobs. He was that kind of person. The day he died he had come in to work early and was taking coils to the annealing area of the sheet mill. That wasn’t his job but he was helping others. I was proud to work with Clyde because he came to work and did his job every day without complaint,” said Jacobs.

The somber ceremony ended with a prayer by steelworker Robert Macek, the playing of Taps by Mark Apesos and Stephen Holter playing “Amazing Grace” on his bagpipe.

Then family and friends talked quietly among themselves and silently left.

(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com.)