ELSA LAMELAS
Elsa Lamelas, a Damon Woods neighbor, died February 20, 2006 after a long illness at age 78. She was born Elsa Salazar Rupi, on July 22, 1927, in Havana, Cuba to parents Emilio Salazar Rogés and Enriqueta Rupiá. She married Francisco "Frank" Jose Lamelas Blanco, an attorney who was active in the movement to overthrow the country's dictator, Fulgencio Batista.
 
After the revolution, Lamelas and her husband quickly became disenchanted with the direction of the new government. Operation Peter Pan, an effort by the Catholic Church to help children escape from the island, flew Lamelas' two daughters to a camp in Miami, and the two wound up in a Catholic orphanage in Michigan. Elsa Lamelas and her son later flew to Florida, where a former client of Francisco gave her $100, which she planned to use to get to Michigan, pick up her daughters and return to Miami to meet her husband.
 
Frank eventually made it to Lafayette, Ind., where Elsa and the girls were stuck, not having enough money to return to Miami. In 1964, Francisco Lamelas got a job teaching Spanish in Racine at Dominican College, and his wife started working for a local dry cleaner.
 
Elsa also attended Dominican College, earning a degree in Spanish and art and later a master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She taught Spanish and art at St. Catherine's High School in Racine and, after her family moved to the Milwaukee area, taught at Kosciuszko Middle School, Morris Middle School and Rufus King High School.
 
She retired as a substitute teacher for the Wauwatosa School District about 10 years ago.
Elsa Lamelas was preceded in death by her husband. She is survived by her daughters Elsa, Blanca, and a son, Frank.