It's yours.
Sue Wallen and the Astor Hotel
Sue Wallen, Astor Hotel Assistant Manager with Packers players, (left to right) Larry Craig, Carl Mulleneaux, Tony Canadeo, and Baby Ray (photo circa 1946)
Adams Street looking North, with Hotel Astor on left and Hotel Northland on right (photo 1950s).
Sue Wallen was an assistant manager at the Astor Hotel from 1937 to 1947. During this time, Earl “Curly” Lambeau, the coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers football team, came to know and respect Mrs. Wallen. He recommended that young football players, new to the team and new in town, stay at the Astor Hotel. Newly drafted players would be instructed by Lambeau to “report” to Mrs. Wallen at the Astor Hotel.
“Surrogate Mother to the Players”
According to Packers Historian Cliff Christl, Sue Wallen was a surrogate mother to the players, many of whom lived at the Astor. Christl writes that “Wallen’s tasks while running the Astor’s front desk included everything from darning players’ socks and sewing buttons to watching their money and soothing their heartache.” During World War II, Wallen corresponded with as many as 36 players and ex-players who were in the armed forces.
In an interview with Cliff Christl, Tony Canadeo’s wife Ruth remembered Sue Wallen this way:
“She took such good care of them. She was just like a mother to them. She was a very nice lady. Pretty. She looked out for them. They’d come in late sometimes – kind of feeling good – and she’d bawl them out. I think a lot of times she kept money for them to make sure they didn’t blow it. She really looked out for them. They loved her.”
Sue Wallen
Sue was born Edith Livermore in 1896, in Oconto County, Wisconsin to parents Dell and Anna. In December 1917, at the age of 21, Sue married Earl Preston Wallen. Their only child, a son, Earl Delbert Wallen, was born in Green Bay in May 1920.
By 1927, the family was living in Escanaba, Michigan, with Earl working as a salesman. In the 1930 US Census, the Wallen household also included three other children besides young Earl. They were John Wallen, nephew, age 10; Betty Wallen, niece, age 7, and Clifford Wallen, nephew, age 4. Between 1930 and 1932, Earl P Wallen abandoned the family and, in September 1932, Sue was granted a divorce.
By 1933, Sue was back in Green Bay, living on Ashland Ave., with her mother, Anna Livermore. She continued to live there until her mother’s death in 1942. She also continued to care for her former husband’s niece and nephew, Elizabeth and Clifford Wallen. They are both listed in the 1940 US Census as residing with Sue.
In 1947, Sue Wallen married Alfred Casabona and they moved to Pennsylvania. At some point, the couple moved back to Oconto, Wisconsin, where Sue died in 1983, and Alfred died in 1989.
Earl D. Wallen
Earl Wallen, Jr. enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1939 and served with the Pacific fleet. He died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, becoming the first Green Bay fatality in World War II. In March 1944, the name of the Green Bay post of the American Legion was changed to become the Sullivan-Wallen post.
Memorial Service held for Earl Wallen at the American Legion Post, Sunday, May 17, 1942.
