Mary Catania Heywood, Class of 1945, who lives in
Covena, California, reports “my health is poor” and “I am not in touch with
anyone in Monongah” any more.
Her sister, Carmella Catania Allard, widow of Air
Force veteran Omer Allard, passed away in 2018, making Mary the last surviving
sibling of the crowd of children on Thomas Street two doors down from the
Olesky rental, with the Frank and “Boss” Mangino family between the Olesky and
Catania houses.
Angelo
Catania, Class of 1943, a few years before he passed away, took
his daughter, Paula Catania, who retired as vice president
of Martin Brinkerhoff
Associates in Covina, to see the former Catania residence on Thomas Street. “I love the entire street,” Paula said.
Mary
added:
“Angelo
and Paula were in Cleveland for our great-nephew’s wedding and, from there,
went to Monongah for several days. Your ballfield, as you call it, was something he found very
changed. He just couldn’t believe how different it looked.
“They
saw so many changes. They had a great time. They brought back pictures of the houses on Thomas
Street. Hard to believe the changes. However, he said they all looked nice.”
Then
Mary gave me perhaps the greatest compliment of my life:
“It's
beyond me how many hours you spend doing the MHS blog. Without
contradiction, it is excellent, very newsworthy and what a wonderful updater.”
It’s
just my way of paying back Lions everyone for the marvelous childhood I had in
Monongah with the entire town my surrogate when I roamed the streets. If I did
a misdeed, the neighbors straightened me out, reported it to my parents and,
when I got home and my father stood there with his miner’s belt to whack me, I
didn’t ask why. I knew the people trying to keep me from killing myself were at
it again.
I think
God, Sister Agnes and Mary Turkovich, who embarked me on my 43-year newspaper
career, were just preparing me to pay back with this Monongah High Alumni blog
venture, 25 years after my 1996 retirement from newspapers in Charleston and
Williamson, West Virginia, St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dayton and Akron, Ohio.
The
Brinkerhoff firm’s writers, producers, artists and editors produce
award-winning entertainment spectacles in Los Angeles, Paris, Orlando, Tokyo,
Hong Kong and Shanghai to help businesses woo clients and to sell their
products. Its
clients include Honda, Accura, Mitsubishi, Six Flags and Ringling Brothers.
It was Angelo who convinced his
siblings and their father Mandala Catania to make the move from Thomas Street
in Monongah to Covina, which he discovered and fell in love with during his
Army Coast Artillery training days of World War II.
By then, Mandala was the widow of Schiro Catania and Covina reminded Mandala of
his native Italy.
Alex Catania, Class of 1944; Mary Catania Heywood, Class
of 1945; Josephine Catania, Class of 1952; and their father, Joseph, joined
Angelo, Class of 1943, in the expedition to a new land and a new life.
Angelo married a Monongah girl, Pauline Layne Catania,
who passed away in 2001. Paula was named for her mother, Pauline.
Mary is the widow of Arthur Heywood, who
passed away in October 2015.
Angelo’s sister, Carmella Catania Allard, Class of 1947,
wound up in San Antonio because her husband, Omer, still was in the Air Force
when the Catania migration took place. He retired after a pair of decades in
The Wild Blue Yonder branch.
Alex died in 2007, Josephine in 2009 and Carmella in
2017.
Alex Catania sponsored the Confirmation of Frank Franze,
Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana near his daughters.
Angelo and Alex once owned and operated the Sinclair
Station on U.S. 19 behind the Thomas Street homes’ row of garages and adjacent
to the Lawrence and Regina Godby residence. They covered up our “ball field” to
put up the building.
The Manginos also moved, to the
Germantown section of Philadelphia in the 1950s. When I visited the Manginos in
my summer hitchhiking tour that took me from Monongah to Chicago (family
friends from Italy lived there) to Philadelphia, Boss Mangino slapped my face
and said, “Go home; you’re mother’s worried.” Mom was Lena Futten Olesky, born
in Pellizzano, Italy, who regularly fainted over my childhood escapades,
thereby earning her place in Heaven.
If you want to make Mary’s day, you
can email her a holiday greeting at heywood1am@verizon.net or post the holiday greeting on her Mary Catania Heywood
Facebook page. Or send her a holiday note to:
Mary
Catania Heywood
833
S Fenimore Avenue
Covina,
California 91723
Better
yet, phone her at (818) 339-4702 and wish her happy holidays and catch up on
your Monongah High days with her. She’ll love it and you’ll feel good about it,
too.
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