Wanda Frances Piontkowski
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth Date: 22 Oct 1924 - Mount Ephraim, Camden, New Jersey, USA
Christening:
Death: 11 Nov 1982 - Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Burial: 13 Nov 1982 - Arcadia Valley Memorial Park, Ironton, Iron, Missouri, USA
Cause of Death: Multiple Myeloma
Find A Grave ID: 171078515
Events
• Soc Sec Num: Social Security #: 146-12-2685.
Parents
Father: Bronislaw Walter Piontkowski {FGID: 181059892}
Mother: Sophia Schlacta
Spouses and Children
1. *James Leslie Connelly Jr. {FGID: 171078500}
Marriage: 4 Feb 1946 - St. Joseph's Chapel, Arcadia Academy, Arcadia, Iron, Missouri, United States
Emails from Best Friend
How Jim and Wanda met, per best friend Cathy Grenhart:
To: Faye Prendergast
Dear Faye,
"How nice to hear from you. I was asked to sing for the soldiers and sailors at the VA hospital in Phila. and I could not get anyone to accompany me and your Mom volunteered. There had been a public transportation strike in Phila. that was causing all sorts of problems. President Truman, to everyones delight (republicans and democrats) ordered in the army to take over running the buses and subway trains. Your Dad was one of those soldiers. I am under the impression that he had had appendicitis and was recuperating from surgery..but I am not sure. Anyway your Dad was quite taken by your Mom and asked for our telephone numbers. He and another soldier came to my house in Camden...Myrt was probably working her usual night shift at the telephone company...anyway my parents agreed to let the two lovers meet at our house. I went back to college and they continued to meet at our house..and the rest is history."
Love,
Cathy
Wanda and Cathy's Escapades, per best friend Cathy Grenhart
"I can't believe your Mother did not tell you these stories. My kids have heard them dozens of times. Anyway here goes:
Once upon a time when we were teenagers, we decided to go to Newark, N.J. to hear Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre. WE got all dolled up and took the bus up. WE got there early, so we got good seats. All went well until the stage lights dimmed and he appeared. The whole theatre was filled with girls who absolutely went nuts and started screaming and yelling. We were going to tell them to shut up when we realized we were only three in a crowd of nuts. We got up and left in absolute amazement.
Since we had a few hours to kill before our bus left for the trip back to Camden, we decided to visit a boy I had met at a nearby swimming pool.(My Dad used to travel all over N,J. for the state department of health and used to drop me at a hotel or municipal pool while he did his business and then pick me up).We walked up to this row house on Clinton Ave and rang the bell. A huge young Italian Stallion answered the door and we stated our business. He said Guido was not at home but when I told him my name he ushered us into the living room. A heavy set man (Guido's Father ) was sitting at a large table surrounded by four or five more Italian Stallions. He said hello and sent us to the kitchen where Guido's mother and four or five young women were cooking. We spent a few rather uncomfortable minutes and then said we had to catch a bus and left.
It wasn't until the Godfather came out in the movies that I realized we had been in the home of the Newark Mafia. Needless to say, that was the end of my correspondance with Guido.
I will send you as many of these recollections as I can remember..tho' not all will be as exciting as this one was (or could have been)."
Love,
Cathy
Dear Girls, This is my second attempt..I don't know what I hit to delete the other two letters.
The three of us were about the same age and grew up in the Great Depression. There was very little in the way of summer places to vacation, however, Doris's parents had a place at Riverview Beach and we decided to spend a weekend there. This was a popular vacation spot on the Delaware River, halfway between Phila./Camden waterfront and Cape May (on the Atlantic Ocean) accessible by river boat...not some dingy, but patterned after the paddle wheels on the Mississippi. We believed all the advertising and bought our tickets and hopped on.
I remember very little other than the fact that Wanda and I were very much out of place..crowds, noise, screaming kids..no air conditioning and long lines to the food and drink and rest rooms.
When we got to the beach and departed for her place, Wanda and I almost had a heart attack. I kid you not, it was a one room shack about the size of one of our bedrooms with two bunk beds a sink and an electric light in the middle of the ceiling. The electricity went off with the closing of the amusement park. This left us in the dark listening to all the people go by on their way to the rest room..outside, of course.
Wanda and I were absolutely petrified...scared to death someone would come in and get us. There was no air conditioning and we absolutely refused to keep the one window open. I'm sure Doris was puzzled by our behavior, but Sophie and my parents would never have let us go down if they had known. In fact, Your Mother and I would never have gone had we known.
We spent the night hugging each other in abject terror. Somehow we got to a public telephone and called my Dad to come get us. I'm sure we hurt the Mulford family's feelings, as this was their pride and joy seeing as her parents were factory workers and this was vacation heaven to them...not one of our favorite trips.
Cathy
Notes
General:
Per 1930 US Census, Black Horse Pike, Mt Ephraim Borough, Oaklyn, Camden, New Jersey 4/5/1930Medical:
Head of household, Bronislaw W. Piontkowski, is a 32 year old white male who owns his house valued at $5,000, owns a radio, was born in New Jersey, his parents in Germany, he is a real estate broker. His 31 year old wife, Sofia S. Piontkowski, was born in Pennsylvania, of Russian parents. They married when he was 25 and she was 24. They have 2 daughters, Wanda F. 5 years old and in school, and Jeronne 1 year 6 months old. Both girls were born in New Jersey.
Per The Morning Post (Camden, New Jersey) 7/4/1945
GLENDORAZ WAC, ILL. IS GIVEN DISCHARGE
...........
Doris Mulford, radioman third class, daughter of Mr. and Mrs; George Multord, Camden, and Wanda Piontkowski, seamen first class, daughter of Mrs. Sophia Piontkowski, also of Camden. were reunited at Coast Guard headquarters, when Radioman Mulford arrived at Washington to spend part of her leave with Seaman Pointkowskl. Both girls enlisted on their twentieth birthday.
SPAR Mulford joined the service in May, 1944. In August she was assigned to the Atlantic City radio
school and upon completion of this course, reported to New Orleans communication center in December. She was reassigned to the Coast Guard air station, Biloxi, Miss, where she is now stationed.
Seaman Piontkowski followed her friends' footsteps and enlisted in the SPARS in October, 1944.
She received her recruit training at the Palm Beach training station, and was then ordered to Manhattan
Beach training station to complete her training. Ordered to Coast Guard headquartsers, Washington,
in April, 1945, she was assigned to communications division.
SPAR Mallard has a brother, George 0. Mallard, BM2c. Coast Guards, stationed at Point Pleasant.
Per Courier-Post (Camden, New Jersey) 9/1/1950
Baby-Sitting Graduates:
Camden Girl and Husband Alternated Tending Own Children at College
There's a picture of a smiling family group on the mantel in the home of Mrs. Sophia Piontkowski, 402 Linden street, that tells a novel story of the American way of life in 1950.
Grins almost as broad as the graduates' bespangled mortar-board hats they are wearing light the faces of Mrs. Piontkowski's daughter Wanda and her son-in-law James L. Connelly Jr. The couple are pictured gowned for commencement exercises at the University of Missouri, where both recently received degrees.
What makes the picture unusual for a graduation photo is not just that it shows husband and wife, both happy over their honors, but each is holding an equally pleased looking child.
Alternated as Sitters
And thereby hangs the story of how James Connelly, ex-GI from Ironton. Mo., and his wife, the former Wanda Piontkowski, ex-Coast Guard Spar from Camden, alternated as baby sitters while earning their degrees at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Mo.
"For several terms," Mrs.Piontkowski said today, "my daughter Wanda, and her husband, James. spelled each other as baby-sitters for their own children while attending classes at college."
It began, Mrs. Piontkowski said, when Wanda Frances, now 3, and Jeril Ann, now 2, were still too young to be left with any outside babysitter.
Shifted for Classes
So James. who was studying for his master's degree in geology, went to college in the mornings, while his wife held down the household. In the afternoon Mrs. Connelly attended the classes in home economics which won her a bachelor of science degree, and James was baby-sitter.
The couple was wed in Arcadia, Mo., in 1946, after both had been discharged from the service. The former Wanda Piontkowski spent two years in the Spars. Her husband served in the Army.
Mrs. Connelly attended Holy Name and Camden High school; was a counsellor at Camp Roosevelt and Camp Kimble, girl scout camps, and was active in the Soroptimist club. Her father was the late Bronislaw Piontkowski.
Per Times-Picayune 6/3/1960
New officers of the St Andrew the Apostle church in lower Algiers were installed at ceremonies held in the school cafeteria. They are Mrs. James Connelly, president; Mrs. L. H. Beaudean, vice president; Mrs. Roy Edgecomb, secretary and Mrs. Kenneth Gerhart, treasurer.
Per Obituary in the Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) November 12, 1982 Page 12
CONNELLY, MRS. WANDA P.
Died at 2:50 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, 1982 at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. She was 58, a native of Mt. Ephraim, N.J., and a resident of Baton Rouge. She was a retired teacher. Religious services at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church at 9 a.m. Friday. Burial in Acadia Valley Memorial Park, Ironton, Mo. Survived by her husband, James Connelly, Baton Rouge; mother, Mrs. Sophia Piontkowski, Haddonfield, N.J.; four daughters, Wanda Connelly, Fort Worth, Texas, Mrs. Fabian (Therese) Prendergast, Brownwood, Texas, Mrs. Mary Alexis Silbernagel, New Orleans, and Mrs. Jeril (Ann) Ferrara, New Orleans; three sons, Paul James Connelly, Lafayette, Peter Andrew Connelly, and John Patrick Connelly, both of Baton Rouge; and four grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, danations may be made to Girl Scouts of U.S.A.
[Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 1 A-L, Ed. 6, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: Aug 2, 1999, Internal Ref. #1.111.6.50365.193]
Individual: Connelly, Wanda
Social Security #: 146-12-2685
Issued in: New Jersey
Birth date: Oct 22, 1924
Death date: Nov 11, 1982
Per U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
Name:Sophia Schlacta
Gender:Female
Spouse:Bronislaw W Piontkowski
Child:Wanda Frances Piontkowski
Per Findagrave.com Wanda P Connelly
Birth:Oct. 20, 1924
Death:Nov. 10, 1982
Burial: Arcadia Valley Memorial Park Arcadia, Iron County, Missouri, USA
Created by: Judie Latshaw Huff
Record added: Oct 09, 2016
Find A Grave Memorial# 171078515
Per Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) December 24, 1982 Page 32
PROBATE DOCKET Filed 12-17-82
Succ. of Wanda P. Connelly.
She died after a three year fight with multiple myeloma, a pervasive cancer of the plasma cells of the bone marrow.Marriage Notes (James Leslie Connelly Jr.)
Per Marriage License:
Authorizes marriage between James L. Connelly, Jr. of Ironton, in the county of Iron, in the state of Missouri, who is of the age of twenty-two years, and Wanda Piontkowski of Camdem, in the county of Cambden, and state of New Jersey, who is of the age of twenty-one years.
Witnessed by Clara Schwab before the clerk of court R. C. Jones on February 1, 1946.
The marriage was solemnized by Catholic priest J. S. Moser of Acadia in Iron County on the 4th of February, 1946 and filed at the clerk's office on February 8, 1946. Father Moser is pastor of St. Joseph Parish of Arcadioa, Missouri.
Per Courier-Post (Camden, New Jersey) Feb 20, 1946
Announcement is made of the marriage of Miss Wanda Barbara Pointkowski, daughter of
Mrs. Bronislaw Pointkowski, 402 Linden street, and the late Mr. Pointkowski, to Mr. James Leslie Connelly, Jr., son or Mr. and Mrs. Connelly, Ironton. Mo., which took place Feb. 4 at a Nuptial Mass in St. Joseph's Chapel, Arcadia College, Arcadia, Mo., with the Rev. J. S. Moser officiating.
Miss Jeronne Pointkowski was her sister's only attendant, and Lieut. George Pallo, AUS, Arcadia, was best man.
The bride has returned to Washington, D. C., where she is serving with the Coast Guard
assigned to the Communications Division at Coast Guard headquarters.
Mr. Connelly was recently discharged from the Army after more than a year's service in the European theatre. Both he and his bride will resume their studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia, following her discharge.