River City Stories

A resident of River City, Paul Zukowski, relates about his life and the lives of a cousin, and two distant relatives, all of whom were the same age and graduated from River City High School in 1946. Paul grew up on a farm. After High School he enlisted in the army and was honorably discharged after serving his term of enlistment, For a number of years, Paul then meandered from one dead end job tp another dead end job. Eventually, Paul became a design draftsman and was married. With his wife they raised three children, two girls and a boy. His daughters caused problems for Paul and his wife. The oldest daughter, Joan, after a one night stand gave birth to an out of wedlock boy. The second daughter, Janet, married shortly after graduating from high school, She gave birth to two daughters. When the marriage failed, she and her daughters moved in with Paul and his wife. The son, Bill, while in college went to work part time for a startup electronics company. After graduating from college he stayed with the company, eventually becoming a partner in managing the company.
Paul’s cousin, Wally Bruno, was an only child. His childhood was normal. While in high school, his father was killed in a railroad accident. After a length of time, his mother married a man with two sons in the armed froces and a spoiled daughter. Wally clashed with the step father and daughter. When the step father abused his mother, Wally seeked revenge by raping the step daughter and beating the step father with a two by four piece of lumber. Wally left River “City and went to Los Angeles where he engaged in a life of crime. Eventually, he was killed by gangsters after he botched a numbers racket pickup.
Upon completing high school, the distant relative, Karl Lungeer, worked with his father and brother operating farms. Like his father, Otto, Karl was a big strong man. He was engaged to be married, but his girlfriend was killed in an auto accident. He enlisted in the army, and while in Korea was killed when by himself defended his position against an attack by the Chinese. Karll was awarded the Medal of Honor for this brave deed.
The final distant relative was Sister Angelica who was not born a Catholic. Growing up in River City she was known as Denise Wetherbee an Episcopalian iike her dentist father, Eugene Wetherbee, while her mother was Jewish. Denise graduated from high school with honors and then entered college as a journalism major. Upon graduating from college she went to work for a travel magazine in New York, She had feelings that something was missing in her life. While on a flight from Rio De Janeiro to New York, she sat next to a missionary nun. The discussion with the nun eventually led Denise to join the missionary nuns as Sister Angelica. After serving for many years as a missionary nun in Central and South America, she was killed by a brutal death squad.