Richard A. Cecere, 84, of Alexander, passed away on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020 at his home.
Richard was born Aug. 19, 1936 in Batavia, a son of the late Anthony and Anna (Palvino) Cecere.
Richard loved being with his family, raising his turkeys, mowing his lawn and going to the track and watching the horses race. He was an avid outdoors-man. Richard was a member of Resurrection Parish and was inducted into the Batavia High School Sports Hall of Fame. He was a steel worker at Continental Can Company in Le Roy and was also a veteran, serving with the United States Army.
Surviving are his wife, Helen (Gilhooly) Cecere of Alexander; children, Richard (Melanie) Cecere of Alexander, Debra (Tom) Irr of Arcade, Jeff (Jill) Cecere of Alexander, Julie Heale of Alexander and Gary Cecere of Bergen; 15 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.
The Eisenscher gallery showcases over 130 photos taken by Edmund Eisenscher (1909-1995), photographer for the “Wisconsin CIO News.” Today only about 11 percent of American workers belong to a union. But when Eisenscher was working, more than a third of working Americans were union members. Milwaukee was one of the nation’s leading manufacturing centers and, after four decades of socialist government, one of its strongest union communities, too. Residents considered labor unions a basic part of the social fabric like schools and churches. Eisenscher’s images document the role unions played in people’s lives during this vanished era.
His images range in time from 1938-1956, but the majority date from 1946-1948 when he was a photographer for “Wisconsin CIO News.” The nation was experiencing sharp price increases at the time and workers’ demands for raises to keep up with inflation met stiff opposition. The passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 outlawed or restricted m