August (Gust) John Heiden was the first child born to Heinrich and Emma (Stock) Heiden on September 28, 1901.

Gust never married and worked at Monroe Paper Products for many years. He lived in Monroe for a while and spent the rest of his life living in Ida, Michigan. His mother, Emma, lived with him after the death of her husband in 1922. At first, they lived in Monroe but later moved to 3157 Lewis Avenue in Ida, Michigan where they lived in 1960.

He died on September 22, 1961 at a hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the age of 59.

 

"I remember visiting Grandma when she lived in the big white house (I think it was just down the street from where Aunt Libbie & Aunt Esther live now) Uncle Gus lived with Grandma then and he wanted me to sing to him.

I don’t know whether it was his favorite song, or the only one I knew, but I would sing "Kiss me once, kiss me twice, & kiss me once again". That was the only person that ever wanted me to sing. I also remember him buying me Orange Crush pop. I rarely had pop at home, so this was a real treat, he bought me as many orange crush’s as I wanted. To this day, I cannot drink ORANGE CRUSH."

Ted remembers spending the night at Uncle Gus’ and going to work at Gruber's Grocery store in Ida the next morning.