RUSSIAN BAPTIST CHURCH CHOIR - Historical Albion Michigan

We all look forward to this Saturday, September 20 for our annual Festival of the Forks. Yours truly will be in front of Citizens Bank with his Albion History Booth, filled with interesting materials for you. If you have any old Albion photographs you are welcome to bring them. I will have my camera ready and I can copy your photo right there on the spot for use in a future article here. I am also looking for Albion City directories up though the 1950s for my research collection, and other materials. If you have these items that you don’t want and aren’t using, they would be a welcome addition to my library.

Don’t forget, if you want an official form to send in to find out what ship your ancestor came over to America on, I’ll have them for free on a first-come, first serve basis until I run out.

The Festival of the Forks is more than church bake sales, a crafts show and large flea market. It has been designed to celebrate Albion’s ethnic diversity which helps bring our community together as one. In trying to think of an "ethnic" photograph this week, I immediately thought of the 1938 photograph taken by the Ludwig Studios of the First Russian Gospel Singers. It was part of the local Russian Baptist Church Mission, located at 614 Austin Avenue. The choir was first organized in 1935 under the direction of Mary (Prigodich) Felisky. The costumes were made by the parents of the choir members. The choir made recordings for short wave radio stations which transmitted behind the Iron Curtain during the era of Communism. The choir was in existence until 1959. Special thanks to Tim Felisky of Orange, California for submitting this photo.

Front row, left to right: Joseph Veramay, Stella Elushik, Esther Veramay, Mary Felisky, Naida Lazarchuk, Leada Brankovich, John Harry. Back row: Sophie Grenevich, Victor Nesterenko, Russell Elushik, John Veramay, Steve Veramay, Katherine Veramay, Helen Elushik.

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
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	Robin James — Indices Unlimited Robin James is the editor of the Albion Historical Notebook and has kept Frank Passic's thousands of articles organized and searchable for decades. A trained librarian and archivist, Robin specializes in back-of-book and online indexing, multimedia collection management, and corporate information distribution. He also enjoys strange music and is a contributing editor for Igloo electronic music magazine. For more about his indexing services, visit Indices Unlimited.
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