OBITUARY: FRANKLIN OHANESIAN, 101, SURVIVED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by Matt Weiser, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Sacramento Bee
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
January 21, 2009 Wednesday
California
Jan. 21–Franklin Der Ohanesian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide
and longtime insurance salesman in Sacramento, died Wednesday at
age 101.
He died at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento of complications
from pneumonia.
Mr. Ohanesian was 7 years old when the Armenian genocide began in
1915 near the start of World War I. It occurred in present-day Turkey
when the Young Turk Party began purging Armenians from the government,
the military and then from the population itself.
In total, about two-thirds of the nation’s Armenian population was
murdered in labor camps, forced marches and mass killings.
"He managed to escape from that by being resourceful," Gail Ohanesian
said of her father. "I was always so proud of his background and
also proud that he never was resentful toward anybody because of the
hardships that he went through. He was always just so happy to be
here and never complained about anything."
Mr. Ohanesian’s immediate family in 1915 consisted of 13 members
including an aunt, uncle and cousin. By 1922, only six were left alive.
The family was forced to walk with hundreds of others to a labor camp
in the nation’s interior, commonly called a "death march" because
so many died along the way. The military also used these journeys to
break up families.
Mr. Ohanesian’s grandmother was left along the trail to die because
she couldn’t keep up. His father and oldest brother were separated
out, to join a group of men to serve as laborers. They were never
heard from again.
The family was confined to different work camps. At one of these,
Mr. Ohanesian’s mother was forced to leave him and his sister at an
orphanage because she couldn’t care for them at the camp. But the
orphanage was full, so she left them on the doorstep.
The children were taken into the orphanage that night and required
to share beds in the infirmary with sick children. Mr. Ohanesian soon
contracted a contagious eye disease, trachoma.
They got little medical attention and were fed only once daily. But
Mr. Ohanesian learned to steal medication to treat himself, and he
slipped out of the orphanage every day to find food.
"He got beaten when he returned to the orphanage each day, but he
thought it was worth it," said Gail Ohanesian.
Surviving members of the family were eventually reunited, and in 1921
they joined other relatives who emigrated to Fresno. But Mr. Ohanesian
had to stay behind on Ellis Island in New York for a year until his
eye condition improved.
His family ended up in Sacramento, where Mr. Ohanesian became the
first member of his family to learn English and graduate from high
school. He later helped an older brother open Pioneer Grocery at 21st
and L streets, site of today’s Distillery Restaurant.
"He was the interpreter for the family because the rest of the family
never had a chance to go to school and didn’t learn English as well,"
his daughter said.
After struggling to find work during the Great Depression, he started
a career in the insurance business and eventually spent 33 years with
Prudential Life Insurance as a sales agent, retiring in 1973.
Along the way, Mr. Ohanesian was a founding member of the Armenian
American Citizens League and the Fraternity, a social group for
Armenian men. He also was a longtime member of Pioneer Congregational
Church.