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CANTON CRANK PALS

By Ed Piana
Special to the Citizen

In spite of more than 20 years in age difference, George C. Clayton and Carlo B. Zanazzo, Jr. developed a close personal friendship extending over 30 years. At first, they simply shared one common thread. Both were born in Canton but discovered one another in the far off regions of Alaska. In addition to their Canton roots, the two men enjoyed the Alaskan wild, classic cars and a connection to aviation. Little else in their profiles and family histories holds any similarities.

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George C. Clayton was born on April 22, 1920 in Canton. He was the only son of Henry Comyn Clayton and Augusta F. (Capen) Clayton. Both of his parents were members of long-established local families whose lineage descended from early 17th century English immigrants to Massachusetts.

George C. Clayton’s introduction to aviation actually preceded him and began in 1907 when his grandfather, Henry Helm Clayton, competed in the first national balloon race as the winning team’s meteorologist. George’s father attended MIT and became a naval air officer in WW I. Navy Commander Henry and his wife Augusta both piloted planes in barnstorming ventures in New York state and New England. Young George recalled many rides he took with his parents. On one occasion in 1932, the family was flying in their Curtiss Flying Boat over the Empire State Building then under construction. One engine exploded into flames. The Commander passed the controls over to his wife while he walked out between the parallel wings to extinguish the fire. The biplane landed safely in the East River where the Coast Guard came to their rescue. Tragically, Commander Clayton, as a naval air reservist, died in a Navy plane that crashed on September 3, 1937. He is buried in Canton Corner Cemetery.

After George graduated from high school, he began helping out at a local airport. (The record is not clear whether this was at the old Canton Airport or not.)  An Eastern Air Lines pilot gave George some unofficial flying lessons, but it was not until sometime later when someone very close to him would give George more personal flying instructions. George signed on as an aircraft mechanic for Pan American Airlines. Pan Am assigned him to various locations, including Egypt and ultimately to Fairbanks, Alaska.

George may have been the very first authorized civilian to drive the length of the Alaskan Highway.  He had purchased a black Buick in Seattle, which he appropriately named “Black Beauty.” Earlier in his nomadic travels, George had wandered about the country in another car, which he had customized and named the “Continental Cruiser.” Due to the unfinished condition of the Alaskan road and adverse weather conditions, the trip took seven months to complete from Seattle to Whitehorse and finally to Fairbanks.

At his new base of operations in Fairbanks, George met Virginia Merrill, a flight instructor at the community airport. She took over instructing George how to fly. George soon acquired his flying license as well as a marriage license. He and Virginia were married on August 26, 1944.

George bought and sold many planes during his career. He and Virginia flew to numerous destinations, including Boston and Florida.  Eventually, he became a captain for Wien Air Alaska.

Captain George Clayton commanded a Boeing 737 for many years until his retirement in 1980. Long before the current custom by some commercial airlines to have their flight attendants entertain the passengers with landing jokes, George Clayton had gained a reputation for his harmonica serenades over the plane’s PA system. He is also vividly remembered in Fairbanks for his prized 1925 Model T Ford, “Old No. 16,” which he drove in every Golden Days Parade in that city for 54 consecutive years.

George and Virginia raised four children in their 63 years of marriage. Sadly, on July 19, 2007, George Clayton passed away after an extraordinary life. His good friend, Carlo Zanazzo, Jr., in wishing to preserve George Clayton’s legacy of unusual pioneering episodes, inadvertently draws attention and inquiry to his own life story and his connection to George Clayton.

Carlo was born in Canton on August 28, 1938. The three Z’s in his name certainly qualify as something quite unique. Carlo could easily convert to the more common Anglo Saxon equivalent of Carl or even Charles; instead, he proudly retains the original version passed on to him by his father.  Affectionately, friends and family simply refer to him as “Zuz.”

As a boy at the top of Grand Street, Zuz developed a passion for the “outdoors” and in particular for hunting and fishing. Zuz graduated from Canton High School in 1956, following in the footsteps of his only sibling, Loretta, who had preceded him in the Canton schools.

An inherited wanderlust was about to take hold just as it had for others in the Zanazzo family. His great grandfather had joined Garibaldi’s red shirt brigades in the battle to unify Italy in 1861. Zuz’s paternal grandparents immigrated to the Indian Territory, which was later to become the State of Oklahoma.  There, in the small community of Coalgate, both of his parents were born in 1907. Zuz’s father, Carlo Zanazzo, Sr., and his mother, Jennie (Petterino) Zanazzo, moved to Philadelphia after their marriage but later decided to come to Canton where numerous relatives had settled at the turn of the 20th century.  Carlo, Sr. and Jennie stood out as a strikingly handsome couple whose beauty was accentuated whenever they appeared on a dance floor.

Uncle Battista (Babe) Zanazzo also displayed the family tendency of moving about the world. He had emigrated with his parents from Italy to Oklahoma, then New York City, later Canton, and when WW I began, he returned to Gattinara to join the Italian Army. Babe Zanazzo is recognized on Canton’s rolls as one of its WW I veterans along with others who served with Allied Forces. After the war, Babe returned to New York City, where he became an accomplished art painter, a chef, a salesman and a musician. It was not surprising for Carlo “Zuz” Zanazzo, Jr. to seek a career of travel in the U.S. Air Force following his high school graduation.

For the next 20 years, Carlo, Jr. served with the Strategic Air Command (SAC) at bases in Idaho, Puerto Rico, North Dakota, New York, Alaska and Indiana. Zuz rose to the top enlisted rank of senior master sergeant. While stationed in Idaho, he met and married Bonnie Nate. On his retirement from the Air Force, they settled in North Pole, Alaska, which is adjacent to Fairbanks. Zuz then worked for the Alaskan prison system for 19 more years before retiring in 1997. Carlo Jr. and Bonnie have raised three children there and now have five grandchildren, all of whom reside in North Pole.

Zuz recalls George Clayton and their shared interests with a deep affection and respect. Even at his advanced age and many years removed, “George still spoke with a Boston accent,” he said.  Zuz and Bonnie are not aviators like the Claytons, but they do move about. Cruises to Hawaii, Mexico, and Europe and overland to Idaho are regular affairs for them.  In 2005 they took part in a pilgrimage to Gattinara, Italy with a group of 50 others to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a devastating natural disaster that precipitated a mass immigration to the USA (see http:///www.gattinara-in-piazza.itcanton/immigration2.pdf)

Zuz maintains his keen interest in hunting and fishing and also remains actively involved with motorcycles and snowmobiles. As a member of the Harley Owners Group, Carlo Jr. will be taking part in the “HOG”rally in Anchorage next month.

Before George Clayton passed away, he presented Carlo with a Crank Guide from a 1928 Model T. Ford. George inscribed it with Carlo’s name on one side and his own name on the other side. George Clayton added a personal inscription “To Carlo, may your crank always turn smoothly, Canton pals.”

June 19, 2008
 

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