Lykes Steamship and Orest Pena

[Steve Thomas]

Lykes Bros. Steamship Company

 

Orest Pena WC testimony:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/pena_o.htm

 

Mr. LIEBELER - When did you leave Cuba?
Mr. PENA - I left Cuba in September 1946.
Mr. LIEBELER - Have you been back to Cuba since that time?
Mr. PENA - Yes.
Mr. LIEBELER - Would you tell us when?
Mr. PENA - Oh, many times I went to Cuba. My last time I went to Cuba was about 8 months, I believe, after Castro took over, but before, I used to go very often because all my family is in Cuba, my mother, my father-- before my father died, I used to go to Cuba many times. I was a seaman, too. I used to ship out with the United Fruit Co. and the Lykes Brothers Co. That's before Castro took over.

Mr. LIEBELER - You stopped working as a seaman in 1957?
Mr. PENA – Yes.

 

"They (The FBI) asked me if I saw Oswald; so I said I saw him once. He went to my place of business with one or two friends. I don't know exactly. My bar is a very long bar, so to me it looked like he was with two friends. My bartender, Evaristo Rodriguez, said he was with only one man, so I don't know exactly."

 

OBITUARY of Frances Whitmeyer:

Whitmeyer, Frances Raby was born February 21, 1922 and passed away April 4, 2009. Frances was born in Athens, Alabama to S.W. and Donna Raby. She graduated from Alabama Women's College in Athens. She moved to New Orleans and worked for the Lykes Steamship Co. and also for the City of New Orleans helping to translate French law into English. She later married George Whitmeyer and they moved to Germany where he was stationed after the war.They moved to Fort Worth in 1961 and then to Dallas in 1963.

 

The Monroe News-Star from Monroe, Louisiana · Page 13

March 15, 1954

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/90445615/

 

"George L. Whitmeyer, whose wife, Frances Whitmeyer, resides here at 217 Pargoud Drive, has recently completed a 17-week Associate Infantry Office Advanced Course in Fort Benning, Ga.,"

 

The Monroe News-Star from Monroe, Louisiana · Page 3

October 23, 1956

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/84343273/

 

"William F. Pipes, Jr. right, was promoted from first lieutenant to captain in the U. S. Army Reserves at ceremonies Monday night at the USAR training center, Selman Field. Looking on as Capt. Pipes reads his new commission is Major George L. Whitmeyer, unit advisor."

 

So, it looks like Frances Whitmeyer was working for the Lykes Steamship Company at the same time that Orest Pena was working for them as a seaman.

Oswald would use a ship from Lykes to get to Russia in what, 1959?

 

Very interesting.

 

Steve Thomas