Ron's Paternal Grandparents

Ron's paternal grandparents

on their wedding day (circa 1914)

Front Row (fourth from left): Angeline (Glowiak) Karpinski (1892-1982)

Back Row (third from left): Jan (later John) Karpinski (1894-1972)

As a young woman in Gdynia, Poland, Angeline GLowiak played an active role in union politics. In 1915, not long after their wedding,

she and husband Jan emigrated to The United States, settling in the Midwest metropolis of Chicago, Illinois. There, on the north side

of town in a predominantly Polish neighborhood, they had a new two-story house built on a vacant lot at 2819 Melvina Avenue. In their

new home, the couple raised six children: Stephen Francis (1917-1944); Edward Joseph (1919-1986); Emily Sophie (1921-2006); Irene

Florence (1923-1988); Joseph Stephen (1927-1998); Jeanne Agnes (1935-2015). For many years, Jan worked for a local ice company.

In an era before home electric refrigerators, Jan delivered heavy blocks of ice door-to-door, carrying them on his shoulder from the street

into each customer's kitchen. Angeline and Jan lived out their remaining years in Chicago, rarely venturing beyond the city limits.

Late in World War II, Jan and Angeline's oldest son, Stephen Francis Karpinski, a sergeant in the U.S. Army infantry, fell in battle at

Luxembourg in September 1944. As a result of his courageous actions, he was posthumously awarded a third Purple Heart and the

Bronze Star Medal for valor. Angeline never recovered from the loss of her first-born child and refused to spend any of the government

life insurance money she and Jan had been paid. "That's Stevie's money," she insisted. "He's coming home some day."

In 1948, following normal policy, government officials contacted Jan Karpinski and offered to repatriate his son's remains from the U.S.

War Monuments Cemetery in Luxembourg, Belgium, and re-inter them at Rock Island National Cemetery, located in Moline, Illinois,

not far from Chicago. Jan quietly agreed. He never told his wife.