Two days after Thanksgiving, 1941, George Velky forged four checks amounting to $64, with which he bought paint, wall paper and groceries from stores on North Mill street. His choice of alias— George Belky—proved insufficient to keep him out of jail.
Four months later, his wife—her walls still in need of fresh paint and paper—obtained a divorce, which was soon followed by an announcement of her engagement to a young airman named Herbert Hribar, to whom she remained married for the rest of her life, raising a son who would become a record-breaking high-school athlete and, eventually, managing director of the European wing of one of America’s largest telecommunications companies.
George was released from prison but lasted only a short while before he was arrested for forging checks in Lorain, Ohio, and received two to four years in the state penitentiary. Upon his release, he resorted once again to forgery, and was imprisoned a few years later by a court in Mercer County, where he had tried to pass a bad check under the name George Stanko. He was thirty years old. There is no further record of his life.
Sources: New Castle News (29 Nov 1941, “News Briefs From City Hall”; 16 April 1942, “On Court House Hill”; 16 Feb 1943, “Velky In Jail”; 10 March 1943, “On Court House Hill”; 28 June 1974, “Navy Wedding Unites Miss Hudson, Ensign Hribar”) Youngstown Vindicator, 16 Sep 1949, “Six Ohioans Are Indicted”; Chicago Daily Herald, “Ameritech’s Belgacom Growing Rapidly”, 25 Oct, 1996.
Small Town Noir 
George was not the sharpest tool in the shed. I hope Herbert succeeded in completing the home improvement project. Perhaps Miss Hudson was attracted to that powerful chin…but this is a good argument for divorce. Thanks for your wry, dependably engaging writing style.
It’s always a good idea to be wary of men with chins that handsome.
great story, as always!
i think this is her obit. let me know if i am wrong.
http://www.vindy.com/news/tributes/2011/mar/12/valeria-j-hriba/
Thanks, Johnny.
That’s a very intriguing obit. The woman, Valeria, is the right age, as she was born within a year or two of George Velky, but George’s wife’s name was Anna Mizer, not Valeria Sedelnik.
According to an announcement in the New Castle News, Anna married Herbert Hribar in 1942 and remained married to him for the rest of her life. This new woman, Valeria, seems to have married ANOTHER Herbert Hribar in a nearby town in 1946. Who knew there would be so many Herbert Hribars running around getting married in the 40s!
Like I said, intriguing…