It’s that time of year when many tell stories to get through the long nights. Among these longtime winter storytellers are Ojibwe of northern Wisconsin, who play a role in this tale.
Credit to the Facebook group “Janesville GM End of an Era” for reminding me of this. It was Dec. 23, 2008, and General Motors workers were leaving the Janesville plant for the last time. Some production continued into 2009, but this was the end for many.
Billy Bob Grahn, a local man and member of the Bad River Band of Ojibwe, was moved.
So as the cars streamed out of the GM plant, Grahn, who never worked at the plant, bundled himself against the cold and snow and held an American flag, its staff tilted toward the traffic as the wind whipped Stars and Stripes into the snowy air. A 69 photo of that moment went viral, worldwide.
Winter had come to Janesville in more ways than one. And like many winters before, Janesville would survive this one, even as individual workers and families suffered.
“It just hit me that morning,” Grahn recalled to Janesville 69 reporter Marcia Nelesen in 2017.
“I just wanted to say thank you to GM and the employees—mainly the employees,” Grahn said. “People forget about how much the employees supported so many nonprofits and so many cities in Rock County. It was endless.”
Grahn, who ran a transitional living house for people recovering from alcohol and drugs, predicted the job losses would take a toll.
“A lot of them lost their jobs, and you can pretty much set your watch to the drug and alcohol abuse and the breakup of the family,” he said.
Grahn knew what drugs and alcohol could do. He had experienced that nightmare himself, as had many who had lived in his Red Road House over the years, including some GM workers.
A truth Grahn learned from his own struggles was that recovering from addiction is nearly impossible without stable housing, so he spent 30 years providing it.
Grahn went for long stretches without a salary so he could keep the Red Road House going. He repaired the old house in the Fourth Ward Neighborhood with salvaged materials, just as he hustled with local service providers to get his clients counseling and health care. He did it all with humor and humility that endeared him to many. He would have told this story with flair, but we lost him last spring, to heart disease and cancer.
The Red Road House’s seven beds continue to serve the community, taking tiny bites out of homelessness and helping people resurrect their lives. We will never see the likes of our dear Billy Bob again, but we, the board members of the Red Road House, are working to ensure it remains a part of the local social service network that helped those GM workers and so many others when life took their legs out from under them.
Here's wishing everyone a new year in which you’ll tell the old stories and inspire new ones.
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Frank Schultz is a former Janesville 69 reporter who, with fellow Red Road House Board member Janet LaBrie, is writing a biography of Billy Bob Grahn. Frank can be reached at francwrite@gmail.com.
