On Your Street is a regular feature that takes readers on a tour of one street in Northern Kentucky to tell the story of the people who live there.
Lindsey Drive in the Dudley Village subdivision in Edgewood runs a half mile from Dudley Road, leading to a cul-de-sac where the obligatory basketball hoop invites neighborhood kids to hone their skills.
Hermann Krallman brought his family `to the United States from Germany, which led his son, Ted, to meet a man named Dreese, who sponsored them for their citizenship tests. Ted married a young woman named Jan and they started building a family—which eventually numbered 14 children.
By 1966, the Krallmans had five children and needed a bigger home. George Kreutzjans, also from a German immigrant family, was building Dudley Village on what was then the Kahman family farm. Several members of the Kahman family had already built homes on Lindsey Drive.
“Lindsey Drive got its name from a prior owner of the property and a little street that was already there when construction began,” said George Kreutzjans, grandson of the Dudley subdivision builder.
According to Jan Krallman, her husband, Ted, wasn’t satisfied with other builders’ work, so he decided to build the family a home himself.
Today, Jan, daughter Theresa Rieselman and her teenage twin sons and daughter still live in the house Jan’s husband built in 1966.
“Our house is where the former chicken coop had been,” Theresa said.
It was a lively household and there was “never a dull moment,” said Theresa, number 10 in the lineup. “And there was always a playmate available. We had all eight girls in the biggest bedroom, with three double-beds. The six boys were in another room. Mom and Dad took the smallest bedroom. All the boys worked in Dad’s construction business. All the girls worked around the house. Everybody had chores.”
A large bell still stands in the backyard and when it rang while Theresa was young, all the kids knew it was time to come home for dinner. She said they could hear it for miles.
“You never got seconds at our dinner table,” she said. “We had a big table with benches on the sides, mom at one end and dad at the other.“
Most of the children followed their father in size – he was 6’4” tall. All played sports and were in school activities.
Even though Ted and one son have passed away, and two of the children now live in California, almost everybody else still gets together on Sundays for family dinner. Those dinners stopped during COVID, but they’re picking up again.
A family tree on the wall reminds Jan of her huge family and their birth dates. She is planning to add two more names to that decorative reminder when new grandchildren arrive.
“The neighborhood is flipping now,” Jan said. “It’s a very quiet neighborhood since everybody has air conditioning and stays inside during the summer.”
Even with such a large brood to care for, Jan volunteered in the school cafeterias as the children grew up. She also worked for 23 years as a registered nurse in the Alzheimer’s unit of Florence Park Care and Rehab Center. She retired 15 years ago and now occasionally travels to places like Europe. Last year she went to Disney with 15 members of the family.
Theresa works from home for PNC Bank in the Commercial Lending department and still plays volleyball with her high school friends. Her children all are involved in three sports each.
As might be expected, the household is never empty and often active. They’ve even got a German Shepherd named Lucy.
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Shirley and Greg Krull spent the first year of their marriage looking for a home in the area so Greg could be close enough to coparent his three children, who attended Dixie High School.
After visiting dozens of houses, they discovered their little beauty about halfway down Lindsey Drive and decided before they’d reached the bottom of the hill that this was their new home.
Twenty-two years later, the kids are grown and have produced six grandchildren. Only Cuffin, the 16-year-old dog, (named by a son in police work – hand cuffs) lives with them.
Shirley and Greg met while working in IT. Both now work from home for different companies,
The kids all have gone into public service. One of the identical twin boys is a firefighter and in the Army, the other is a policeman. Their daughter works at the YMCA. One daughter-in-law is a nurse, the other an artist.
Shirley was born in Pakistan and moved to the US to have access to a better education and a better life.
“There were not many opportunities in Pakistan for women and it is safer here,” she said.
Her brother was the first of her family to move to the US. One by one a sister, another brother and Shirley all came to the U.S. Only one sister remained in Pakistan.
Born in Cincinnati, Greg is one of five children.
He played softball and volleyball, and as a kid, he sang in the Cincinnati Boys Choir. Now, he plays trombone and both he and Shirley sing in the Trio Service choir at First Church of Christ in Burlington.
After 30 years in the IT field, working his way up from the mailroom to an IT professional, Greg went back to Cincinnati Christian University to study musical performance.
These days, Greg stays in shape with exercise classes and swimming. As a couple they garden together but Shirley says Greg is the master gardener. She seems to multitask rather smoothly. As she played a hot game of Euchre, she was also hand appliqueing a design on a quilt block during our interview. Shirley also sews and knits. Never one for recipes or detailed directions, she just teaches herself skills.
The couple took dance classes at one time.
They have looked to their future retirement by purchasing a place in Florida which they visit now but might move to eventually.
“Kentucky, however, will always be our home,” Greg said.
They live just across the street from Carol Kelley, and get together with another non-Lindsey Drive friend often for card games.
In 2019, Carol Kelley was visiting her daughter and drove by the house for sale on Lindsey Drive. Her daughter had been urging her to move here from Logansport, Indiana.
“It was a scary decision,” said Carol, who had lived in Logansport for many years. “Shirley was the first person to greet me – while the movers were still here.”
That was three years ago. They are now good friends who regularly help each other do things like evicting uninvited mice, birds and bees from their cars and storage sheds.
“I really like the restaurants and performances available here,” Carol said. “There are a lot of nice people.”
Lindsey Drive neighbors all seem to enjoy their community, which is quiet enough to enjoy a peaceful setting and near enough to all the things they want—church, school, doctors, hospital, shopping, friends and, most importantly, family.