Lost & found family
Gal, 47, left at Penn Sta. in ’75 tracks down kin
A woman who was left at Penn Station when she was 4 years old has been reunited with her family — more than 40 years later.
Linette Wright Smith Cheesman, 47, finally tracked down her birth family through a DNA database this month after a lifetime of wondering who her parents were — only to discover they thought she’d died all those years ago.
“I couldn’t believe it — that they were still alive,” Cheesman told The Post from her home in Olympia, Wash. “My dad thought I was dead. I was blown away.”
Cheesman’s story began when her mentally ill single mom, Barbara, left her at a candy store inside the bustling transit hub in September 1975. Barbara was hospitalized shortly after — while her own mom tried to find out what had happened to her granddaughter.
Cheesman’s dad, Richard, was working on the crew for Ice Capades. When he returned, Barbara told him their daughter had died falling off a building, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which first reported on the incredible reunion.
The 4-year-old, meanwhile, refused to speak for a month and was placed into a Manhattan orphanage.
A Post story from the time said the nuns there nicknamed her “Missy” and were looking for her parents, but couldn’t coax any information from the tight-lipped tot.
Cheesman was eventually adopted by an upstate family, who gave her a new name.
She grew up, married and had kids of her own.
It wasn’t until 1998 that she decided to look up her adoption records — discovering the Penn Station story and the Post article — and then posted on a genealogy Web site looking for her family.
Florida investigator Lynn-Marie Carty offered to help — and didn’t give up for the next 16 years.
An early DNA test found she had ancestors from Sierra Leone, but it wasn’t until the technology improved recently that Carty was able to really put Cheesman’s genes to work.
She did a new test late last year, scoured online DNA sites for matches — and found a cousin.
Carty flew Cheesman to Florida a few weeks ago and broke the big news: Both of her parents are still alive, and she was about to meet her uncle Joe and half-sister Vivian.
“It was big for her,” Cheesman said. “She didn’t know I was alive until we found each other.”
She was able to speak with both of her parents on the phone and will meet both of them on Labor Day.
Cheesman says she immediately recognized her dad’s sense of humor from her own sons. Her mom was “overwhelmed” by the call.
“I think she did understand that it was me, and I’m alive,” she said.