The Enduring Mystery of Pittsburgh Who was the the Baby Named Catherine found in the Sheridan Theater and help launch a famous Charity


It is long gone now and happened many years ago in 1928 when a group of 11 men playing cards in the back of the there after a Matinee and the cries of a child was heard and was located in one of the theater seats

Pinned to the young child was a note


Please take care of my baby. Her name is Catherine. I can no longer take care of her. I have eight others. My husband is out of work. She was born on Thanksgiving Day. I have always heard of the goodness of show business people and I pray to God that you will look after her.”


With this child and note began an enduring mystery.  Who was she and where did she come from






Although the theater  along Penn Ave is long gone and the men who found her have all long since passed . They made sure she was taken care of  for many years serving as adoptive uncles and given to a good set of  parents who adopted
her and kept anonymous despite fact she served in Korea and Vietnam as a nurse  in 1980 .
She voluntarily came forward to reveal who she was as an adult and sadly passed at the early age of 65 in September of 1994.



But that's not the end of the story . Many speculate the reason the mother had abandoned her daughter in the theater is because show people have a big heart . In fact those 11 men where among a group of theater owners and performers who had the year before set up the social club known as the   Variety Club which was known for its many good deeds she had indeed picked the right place and Catherine
became  the inspiration behind it
Now known as  Variety- The Children's Charity  it has spread worldwide in its quest to help disabled children.




But who was Catherine  some speculate she came from a Catholic background because Catholics often raised big family's . No one knows for sure and to my knowledge a DNA test was never performed to possibly find descendants.


Strange Little 2 Story Buildings you can find in Beaver County What are they ? Prophets Chambers what?

If you travel thru the country you may run across these strange about 8ft square 2 story structures every once in a while 2 such structures still exist in Beaver County Pa  one in Darlington and one in South Beaver

They served a very important purpose in the Community's and where known as Prophets Chambers
Back before community's had fully established churches and full time ministers you had ministers known as  Circuit Riders .


 Many of the Methodist Faith they would ride from town to town providing ministry and the Prophets Chamber provided a place of rest  and refreshment for the Circuit Riding Ministers  after a long days ride. 
As permanent full time ministers and churches became the normal in towns around the country 
the Circuit Riding Minister went into obscurity with the exception of one minister in the deep south  Robert E. Harris
who rode a horse and stopped at Truck stops thru North Carolina.  till His Death in 2007








Monthly Column appears in Movin Out Truckers Newspaper available most truck stops 


 and Pastor Dan Boyd  who calls himself the last circuit Rider.