John Slanczka
John Stanley Slanczka was born at Clymer, a coal town in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, on 4 March 1920. His parents, Frank Slanczka and Louise K. Maslyk, had both come from Poland. He was the fourth of eight children: Rose, Telford, Lewis, John, Frank, Walter, Anthony and Helen. In 1930 the family was living in Green Township, Indiana County. His father died in 1936, when John was sixteen.
On 16 October 1940 he registered for the draft at Clymer. He was working for the Wilmore Fuel Co. He stood five feet five, weighed 140 pounds, and had brown eyes and brown hair. As the person who would always know his address he named his mother, writing her name as Ludwika Kathryn Slanczka. He served in the United States Navy, and his grave marker records it.
He married Gladys Ione Bartlebaugh, a coal miner's daughter from Commodore in the same county. They settled at Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio, where several of his brothers also went. On 3 April 1950 the census taker found them at 140 South Abbe Road in Elyria. John was 30 and worked forty hours a week as a process helper in a chemical factory. He had worked all 52 weeks of 1949 and earned $3,500, and the census marked him as a veteran of the Second World War. Gladys was 27, and their son John C. was 2. The census recorded that both of John's parents were born in Poland. A daughter, Louise, was born that April, and two more daughters, Connie and Brenda, followed.
John died at Elyria on 31 August 1983, aged 63. Gladys lived until 2006. They share one bronze marker at Resthaven Memory Gardens in Avon, Ohio. It is edged with roses, carries the words TOGETHER FOREVER between their names, and reads JOHN S. 1920 1983, U.S. NAVY, and GLADYS I. 1922 2006, over the name SLANCZKA.
Sources
If John Slanczka is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "John Slanczka (1920-1983)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-slanczka-1920-1983-912a42.