Bill was born on the same date as me, November 5, but six years later. It was in 1939 when our mother, Anna Zokuskie Kudrick, brought him home from the Hazleton State Hospital in Hazleton, PA for my brother Jack and me to get our first look. He was a winner then and he continued to be one throughout his all too short life. Our "little' brother is shown in the picture to the right probably within a year of being brought home from the hospital. He is being held by our loving and protective mother, a proud Lithuanian woman from Gilberton, PA.
Bill, Jack and I lived at 19 West Cranberry Avenue in West Hazleton, Pennsylvania within walking distance of the Cranberry Coal Breaker where our father, Joseph Kudrick, was employed as a shaker table operator. The house we lived in was the same house that our grandfather, Ellis Kudrick, purchased in 1916, twenty five years after he had immigrated from the town of Kalusa in the Austria/Hungary Empire to the anthracite coal fields of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Soon Bill had charmed all of his uncles and aunts on both the Kudrick and Zokuskie sides of our family. Most of our dad's siblings lived in the vicinity of our house on West Cranberry Avenue, a block east of the famous Cranberry Ball Park, and therefore they saw young Bill frequently. The Zokuskie side of our family only saw Bill when our father took our five member family to Gilberton, south of Shenandoah in Schulylkill County. This trip was normally made on a Sunday afternoon which allowed our mom to visit with her mother and the rest of us all devoured our grandmother's fantastic Lithuanian cooking. Great memories of the Zokuskie house in Gilberton, PA!!
Young William quickly grew and soon he was ready for school and what awaited hiim in the West Hazleton School System. His first school, following in the footsteps of me and Jack, was the wooden three story Monroe Avenue Elementary School building where the picture shown to the left was most probably taken. The old Monroe Avenue school had been built in 1898 and would serve as his introcuction to formal schooling just as it had for Jack and me during the preceeding six years.
Before Bill would turn 11 years old, our family left West Hazleton in 1950 and headed for a new life in our sister state to the south, Maryland. Our father had lost his job at the Cranberry Coal Breaker, but soon found employment in the Baltimore Area so he and our mother purchased a home at 1203 63rd Street, a narrow street off of Pulaski Highway in Rosedale, Maryland. My father's sister, Helen McDeshen lived across the street from us and we became very close to the McDeshen family. Our new house needed lots of tender loving care so we all rolled up our sleeves and pitched in giving the house and grounds a thorough cleaning. By June, 1950, the North Koreans invaded South Korea and the military draft was re-established. I enlisted in the Army, in 1953, and lost daily contact with my brother Bill for the next three years. Bill, shown in the 1953 photo to the left, is giving the summer house screens a good scrubbing using lots of elbow grease and something new to us called "wooder."
In addition to Bill's formal eduction in West Hazleton, his religious instructions in the same city were also progressing. All the Kudrick children attended St. Mary's Greek Catholic Church in Hazleton with our father. We also went with our mother to the Lithuanian Roman Catholic Church on Diamond Avenue, but our formal religuous eduction was obtained from St. Mary's. Father John Koval was the priest at St. Mary, a grouchy man who yelled and screamed at the parishioners and scared the "beejeebers" out of us young kids, but we survived. It was Father Koval who administered catechism teachings and other religious training to the children in the parish. The culmniation of the religious training was our First Holy Communion. My brother Bill, the boy on the left in the photo to the right is shown in his first Holy Communion suit. I never saw a sweeter or more angelic looking boy than he was in this 1947 photograph.
I was discharged from the service in 1956 and the following year, 1957, Bill graduated from Kenwood High School in Baltimore County. He is shown in his graduation gown in the photo to the right with our father, Joseph Kudrick, and our mother, Anna Zokuskie Kudrick. They are standing in front of our home at 1203 63rd Street. The formstone (an imitation stone and Baltimore trademark) on the house was one of the first upgrades made to our house after my parents purchased it in 1950.
I once again lost daily contact with Bill because I started classes at the University of Maryland in 1956 while Bill soon after high school graduation was drafted into the service and stationed at Fort Collins, Colorado. Meanwhile our brother Jack was busy working for Glen L. Martin and obtaining a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel so he too lost contact with our brother Bill for short periods of time.
Bill's personality and willingness to follow instructions along with his overall attention to detail earned him a choice job in the military. He was the Company Commander's personal chauffer. Not too shabby a job for the youngest member of the Kudrick family.
Bill's military service resulted in the first two years of what would become an astonishing 47 years of unbroken government service. After an honorable discharge from military service in 1959, Bill obtained employment with the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, Maryland. Bill would remain with the Social Security Administration until December 29, 2003 when he retired. On page two, Bill is usher at both his brother's weddings plus he meets Mary Compton and their wonderful life together begins.
