Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Rena A. Koontz and Jesse Tinsley

Plain Dealer Reporters

Three-month-old David J. Telban Jr. was baptized in old clothes.

The hand-me-down baptismal gown is a right of passage in his family. It was made 100 years ago in Yugoslavia by his great-grandmother, Mary Telban, when she was 16. Her first two children didn’t live to wear it, but since 1910, family members say it has been worn for 34 baptisms.

“My grandmother made this dress a hundred years ago, and everyone in our family has worn it,” said the ecstatic father, David Telban Sr., after his son was baptized Sunday. “I wore it, my father wore it, my sister wore it . . . it’s been passed through our whole family as a tradition.”

Family historian Kathy Telban, Mary Telban’s granddaughter, said Mary’s first child, Marie Telban Kovacic, was the first to wear the baptismal gown in 1910.

Marie came to Cleveland from Yugoslavia in 1928. Like her mother back in the old country, Marie Telban worked as a seamstress at the Grdina Bridal Shop.

In 1936, she married Edward Kovacic, who four years later was elected to Cleveland City Council. At some point - either when Marie first came or she had her first child - the gown made its way to Cleveland and was used for Marie’s firstborn.

In all, kin throughout four generations have worn the gown. It’s about five feet long from neck to hem. Seamstress Nancy Kovacic, who married Marie Telban Kovacic’s son, keeps the gown, making repairs when necessary.

“In the last few years the lace bodice has shown some wear,” Nancy Kovacic said. “I’ve had to repair some tears, but I haven’t replaced anything. It is all still the original fabric. It’s not yellowed at all. It’s pure white.”

The gown is made of lawn, a lightweight, sheer and delicate cotton fabric in a plain weave. Kovacic said the gown is sewn in layers of ruffles and trimmed in lace.

The outfit buttons up the back and “is very hard to get on the baby. Some of the babies couldn’t get the neck buttoned,” Kovacic said, laughing.

There is an underskirt that the baby wears beneath the lace dress and Mary Telban also made a coat and an extra dress for after the baptismal ceremony. Kovacic said that is long, too.

“Most of the mothers take the pictures and then take the gown off the baby,” Kovacic said. “The babies are lost in it. All you see is their little head.”

About 40 relatives and friends gathered for the baptismal Sunday in the oratory of Our Lady of Angels Church on Rocky River Drive to see yet another family member don the beloved gown. Little David was at first a little fussy being put into the gown, but turned quiet as family members took snapshots.

The baptism was also special to the Rev. John J. Cregan.

“I’ve baptized a lot of prisoners, policemen and firemen,” Cregan said. “But of my 46 years as a priest . . . never anyone with a gown 100 years old.”

original article can be found here:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1187167414257600.xml&coll=2