It seems like only yesterday that Rosemary Raymond Pagliaro, Class of 1958, was Monongah High three-sport athlete Bobby Raymond’s peanut-sized sister.

But on Saturday, July 16, Rosemary and Carmen Pagliaro will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in Fairmont. That’s FIFTY years as a wife and husband.

Rosemary is the only daughter of Mary Dudiak Raymond and Angelo Raymond and the only sibling of Bob Raymond, Class of 1951, whose widow, Susan Russell Raymond, lives in White Hall.  

Rosemary and Carmen’s children are Melanie Ann Pagliaro, policy analyst for the Majority Leader in the West Virginia House of Delegates, who lives in Charleston, and C.J. Pagliaro.

Rosemary’s mother’s siblings were Anna Dudiak Koval and the late Sophie Dudiak Shelosky of Monongah, who married George Shelosky, and John Dudiak. Sophie passed away in 2009. Anna’s children are John Koval, Class of 1956, who lives in Cincinnati, and Larry Koval, Class of 1968, who lives in Columbus, and the late Shirley Koval Dodd, Class of 1953, who passed away in her Idamay home after growing up at the top of Jackson Street in Monongah.

Her brothers are John Koval, Class of 1956, who lives in Cincinnati, and Larry Koval, Class of 1968, who lives in Columbus.

Bob played football, basketball and baseball at Monongah High. Before he got much larger than me, Bobby and I were inseparable friends who lived across from each other on Church and Thomas streets before either one of us showed up at Sts. Peter and Paul School.

We fought as 4-year-olds, and Bobby bit my upper lip half off. But only because his mouth was larger than mine, even though he was younger. If I had a bigger mouth, Bobby would have been the wounded party. My mom, Lena Futten Olesky, was furious and confronted Bob’s mom, Mary Raymond, over the situation. The moms were still fuming a few days later when Bob and I went back to playing with each other.

Bob’s uncle, John Dudiak, Mary Raymond’s brother, would give Bob and I boxing gloves, and paid a quarter to the one who made the other one cry. We whaled the daylights out of each other to get those quarters.

 

We were so close that, when Bobby was circumcised, I visited him at home and got to see the bandage on his penis. Hey, we weren’t much older than toddlers!

When I began first grade at Sts. Peter and Paul School, Bobby was a bit younger and couldn’t enroll. So he ran away from home and joined me at SP&P. The nuns thought it was hilarious, but called Mary Raymond to come get her son.

When Consolidation Coal Company sold the houses they were renting to the miners, my parents, Lena Futten Olesky and John W. Olesky, Sr., bought the Church Street home that the Raymonds were renting because it had indoor plumbing and our Thomas Street house did not. No more outhouses in winter for me.

The Raymonds moved to Frogtown, bought a house and ran a tavern below their home not far from where the Kasper and Kubiet families lived as you approached Swisher Hill.

Melanie, originally from Monongah, got her master’s in education administration at Marshall University after graduating from North Marion High and Fairmont State. She resided in Fairmont 2003-2007.

Bob was a U.S. Navy veteran of the Korean conflict, a former employee of Fairmont Box Factory and retired from Creative Labeling.

Bob and Susan’s children are Paula, married to Sam Adkins and living in Idamay; Robin Long of Colfax; Mary Harr of Pleasant Valley; and another Bob Raymond, married to Susie and living in Fairmont.

Since Rosemary is celebrating her 50^th wedding anniversary, I better look at my birth certificate. I must be at least 83 . . . for three months or so.