Ron's aunt and uncle

Northern California  (1942)

Left:  Joseph Felix Kaczmarek  (1913-1995)

Right:  Devina (Taggart) Kaczmarek  (1915-2000)

Born in Bay City, Michigan, Joe spent his formative years in Chicago, Illinois, and always

called the Windy City home.  As a precocious ten-year-old, he and a friend rode a cattle

train from the freight yards of Chicago all the way to Mexico and back.  During World

War II, he served as a foot soldier with the famed 7th U.S. Infantry Division, first on

the coast of northern California where he met and married his wife, Devina, and later in

the Pacific Theater where his unit participated in the allied "island-hopping" campaign

toward Japan.  Hitting the beach on every island from Attu to Okinawa, Joe was one of

a fortunate few to survive unscathed.  After the war, Joe and Devina settled in southern

California with daughter Marie Ann (1942).  In rapid succession, three more daughters

arrived: Helen Joyce (1946), Joan Frances (1947), and Janis Mae (1949).  By the mid-

1950's, the family had relocated to Eureka, Devina's home town, nestled on the coastline

about a hundred miles south of the Oregon state line.  There, Devina taught school while

Joe worked in a lumber mill.  Some time later, Joe landed a position with the California

State Department of Highways from which he eventually retired.  At the onset of their

golden years, Joe and Devina moved again, this time to Gig Harbor, Washington, closer

to their daughters, grandchildren, . . . and a growing multitude of great-grandchildren.