RAY DAHLINGER & HENRY FORD'S SECRET LIFE: GUEST POST FROM STEPHEN OLSON

The Dahlinger Mansion in current condition

We received 2 lovely emails from Stephen Olson and he provided a lot more information on the Dahlingers and Henry Ford. Stephen read my first story on Evangeline Cote Dahlinger and was kind enough to share more info with my readers! This is one of the many joys I have being Retro: Kimmer. 

Thank You so much Steve...xRK

Hi Kim,

What a fascinating portion of your "blog" regarding Ray & Evangeline Dahlinger! Had their house of been in Dearborn & not Detroit, I might of considered buying it myself, as it is just off of Evergreen Road, along the Rouge River & was for sale when I was in the market for a house in 1982-3. Ray Dahlinger died on June 8, 1969 & I was sent to the hospital to pick-up his body (I was an apprenticed embalmer at the time).

 The Dahlinger Mansion as it is today...

Upon my return to the funeral home & after washing the body, my boss instructed me to embalm him, as he was told that his family did not want to have an "open casket." Being young (18) & given this kind of responsibility, I worked my best to make Mr. Dahlinger look his best.

The funeral director was impressed with my work & tried to have Mrs. Dahlinger just look at his body, she firmly refused, using a string of profanity I don't believe I've ever heard before, nor seldom since!?! After the funeral, Mr. Dahlinger was cremated & as far as I know, his cremains are still in the attic of the funeral home!

 I enlisted in the Army two months later & never went back to that profession I grew up in Dearborn & knew many people who had some relationship to the Ford Family.

Lots of very interesting stories, but none quite so strange as this one! I remember while greeting the public the evening of Mr. Dahlinger's wake, observing his son John - a very handsome man who had a strikingly similar profile to Edsel Ford! I knew that because I had graduated from Edsel Ford High School & Mr. Ford's portrait hung prominently in the main hallway.

Raymond C. Dahlinger was almost 22 years younger than Henry Ford. He was born on July 3, 1885 & began working for Henry in the very early years after his company's founding in 1903, perhaps even earlier. As Henry's empire grew, Ray became more & more of a confidante & a lifelong bachelor, dedicating his life to his mentor & friend.

Of all his executives & managers, only Ray was with him when he launched his "Peace Ship" to Europe, just prior to WWI. In the 1920s Henry hired Harry Bennett to manage his "industrial businesses," but Ray maintained the operation & management of the "Ford Farms," which included the care of Fairlane Estate.

During his wake in 1969, I was told that Evangeline wanted to name her baby Henry (if a boy), & that was primarily why Henry decided that only his very close friend, Ray Dahlinger, could be trusted to help him out.

A contract was made, which gave Evangeline & the baby (John), each $10,000. per year from the Ford Motor Co., so that they would be provided for financially, aside & apart from Ray's income. That was a huge sum of money in 1927! In return, Ray would marry Evangeline & raise the child as his own. He agreed (& she did too).

You are right to say she was a liberated woman, as she was obviously the "glue" that held all of this "extended Ford family" together going forward. She compromised on the baby's name, but obviously wielded considerable influence, so that Henry accepted John like one of his grandchildren!

I remember hearing that Mrs. Ford had a pretty good idea of what was going on & accepted, or at least acquiesced to it, until one day Henry was wearing a tie she didn't recognize. When she asked Henry where he got it, he told her that Evangeline had picked it out for him, Mrs. Ford hit the roof!

Clara could accept his relationship with the other woman, but she would never abrogate her right to select his clothes!?!? Aside from that incident, it all worked out for the next 20 years & the families seemed to accept each other in their lives, until Henry's death in 1947.

When Mr. Diggs saw my paperwork on Mr. Dahlinger's funeral preparations, he signed them & said he would mail them to the "Licensing Board" in Lansing. As our meeting ended, he stood up & asked me for the honor to shake the hand of the man who had embalmed Mr. Dahlinger!

Since then, I have seldom run across anyone who is even familiar with the name of Ray Dahlinger! If you've never read John Dahlinger's book, "The Secret Life of Henry Ford," I strongly recommend it to "fill in the historical blanks" here.

The funeral home I worked at was the Howe-Peterson Funeral Home on Michigan Ave. & Joe Peterson was the boss I mentioned. By that time, I had assisted in numerous preparations, but until that day, had not worked on my own.

All of these people are long dead & seeing your "blog" brought back lots of memories from my growing up in Dearborn. After serving in Vietnam, I returned home & a week after my discharge, began working for the Ford Motor Co., in the Rouge Plant, where I remained for 31 years, until my retirement in 2002. Maybe I should finish up my mortuary studies at Wayne State, as I already have a "claim to fame" in that field!?!? Huh?

Yesterday, my daughter Libbey & I had gone down to the DIA & were looking at the Diego Rivera murals & talking about them with Alyssa, one of the very knowledgeable volunteers. I asked if Mr. Dahlinger was portrayed anywhere in the murals & she said he wasn't, but seemed interested in my story.

THAT'S why reading your "blog" was so timely in the retelling of my story to you now. One last thing, if you do decide to visit the Dahlinger place, be sure to have very good directions, as it sits at the back of a (subsequestly built) sub-division on the west-side of Evergreen, north of Ford Rd.

If you need more detailed directions, I can send them to you Kim. Again, thank you for your documentation of this fascinating personal interest story, that was almost lost in the past. I am,

Sincerely yours,

Stephen Olson

Photos from DetroitYes