SIEDEL, FRANK (5 Sept. 1914-9 May 1988) popularized aspects of state history in radio, television, and print under the title of "The Ohio Story." The son of Frank and Mary Ann Junglas Siedel, he was born in STRONGSVILLE, where his father operated a general store. He went from CATHEDRAL LATIN SCHOOL to Ohio State University, where he graduated with a degree in journalism. After marrying Clevelander Alyce Louise Van den Mooter in 1936, he worked as a radio writer in Pittsburgh and New York City before returning to Ohio in 1941. In 1947 he sold a script about Ohio sharpshooter Annie Oakley to the Ohio Bell Telephone Co. (see AMERITECH (AMERICAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP.)) as a pilot for a proposed radio series. "The Ohio Story" made its debut that year, broadcast from Cleveland 3 times weekly to a statewide network. Including a later television version, it ran for 20 years over 20 stations. Siedel published some of the scripts in The Ohio Story (1950) and Out of the Midwest (1953). He founded Storycraft, Inc., in 1947 to produce radio and television scripts for education as well as industry. Located in LAKEWOOD, it numbered the WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORP. among its major clients. A longtime resident of ROCKY RIVER, Siedel served as president of that suburb's board of education and in 1955 was elected to the first state board of education. During the 1980s he moved to Catawba, O., where he died and is buried. Following the death of his first wife, he had married Mardith Jacobson in 1982. He was survived by her, sons James and Jonathan, and a daughter, Jeri Audiano.

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