1943
Ray Langner
Al Dolecki
Aloysius Frank DOLECKI was born 15 Jun 1909 in a railroad boarding house in Cicero, Cook County, Illinois, a son of Frank and Maryanna (LASZEWSKI) DOLECKI. After his father died and his mother remarried, John LaVigna became his step-father.
He was only nine months old when his father died. His mother married his second father whom he came to love.
There were only three siblings (girls), in the family during his childhood.
According to Al, Cicero was a neighborly place in which to grow up. Mothers on the block helped each other at home births. He slept often in friendly homes. Kids went to the candy store en masse.
When he was ten years old his stepfather began taking him to work during summer vacations. He became, to his great pride, a full dressed laborer (in overalls). His father bossed a crew of Italians, Croatians, Germans, and Ukranians working on the tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad near Cicero. 'I was the water boy. The men even passed food to me from their lunch boxes.' The engineers of a work train allowed him to put his hand on the throttle while the train was moving. 'My life then was good!'
He attended grammar school, even played on the baseball team. But his second father died and 'I ceased to live.' He attended high school briefly, but by this time his mother was unable to keep her small family going. He got a job as mail boy for Western Electric, the largest manufacturing plant around. As the years went by, always seeking to support his mother, he served the plant on the assembly line, on the bench (piece work), at low pay always.
The depression of the thirties left him jobless at first, his mother on relief. He took menial work in restaurants, rising to the Gold Coast level -- helping chefs in their kitchens.
Western Electric took him back during WWII and by 1971, when he retired, he had spent 50 years with them. He had married in 1935, but later was separated from his wife.
He has a daughter, a medical lab technologist of whom he is very proud; he also has two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren." [*WM]
Al married Charlotte JEDYNAK (born 1914, died 2007). They had one child,
Patricia Lucille, born 1938. Patsy married Robert CHIERO and had two
children: Anthony (1967) and Eleanor (1968). Patsy died in 2012.
"One day when I was little, we were visiting Aunt Marie and Uncle Harry. Uncle Al was there and I remember asking his favorite color. Everyone I knew said either red or blue, so I was very surprised when Uncle Al claimed 'Green' as his favorite." [*ML]
“Uncle Al worked for Western Electric as an inspector. When he got divorced he went to live with his mother in this one bedroom place. He lived with her until she died. The neighborhood became pretty rough. When he got older and retired he went and bought a retirement home apartment. He had the old family Bible with all the births, deaths, marriages, written in it.” [*KPL]
1943
Ray Langner
Al Dolecki
1956
Mae Dolecki Piasecki
Patsy Dolecki
Bessie
Dolecki Langner
Marie Langner Pietrzak
Al Dolecki
1962
Patsy Dolecki
Al Dolecki
1963
Ray Langner
Katharine Prevenas Langner
Al Dolecki
“Uncle
Al lived in Austin, Texas, in a retirement community since his
retirement from Western Electric. Last year it occurred to me that he was
the last of that generation, and I had photo albums full of pictures of
people that I could not identify. One afternoon, when Connie was attending a
sorority tea, I took the albums to Uncle Al and had him identify
as many people as he could. He did very well on the Langner & Dolecki side,
but knew very few of my Dad’s family. I’m glad I did that too, because he
died about 6 months later.” [*CMP]
“Uncle Al passed away this past Tuesday [September 10, 1991, in Travis County, Texas]. It happened pretty fast. He had a small cell carcinoma on his lung and it attached itself to the spinal cord. It started about three weeks ago. The doctor called Pat and she came out here last Saturday. He knew that she was with him.
“We flew to Houston on Thursday to Carl’s house and the four of us drove to Austin. The service is at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning (Saturday) We’ll go back to Houston and then to Petaluma on Tuesday.” [*JFL]
"Al Dolecki was buried in Austin, Texas. Pat, Herb, Jennie, Connie & I were the family members there at the funeral." [*CMP]
[*CMP Carl Martin Pietrzak, *JFL Jenny Franczkowski Langner, *KPL, Katharine Prevenas Langner, *ML Marty Langner, *WM Westminster Manor]
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Our thanks to Marsha Bryant for graciously hosting this LANGNER Family History website on her server.