Jim's Family

 

  Jim married Bette (Elisabeth) Young (1921 -1967) in March of 1946. Bette was the daughter of a divorced German mother, Louise Young, who had been raised in the Amana Colonies. Bette had 3 older sisters: Florence, Lucille and Lillian, and an older brother Herman. Dad served in the Navy during WWII on an LST. His diaries of that time, and the invasion of Normandy are forthcoming. Jim attended high school at St. Ambrose Academy and graduated from the Illinois College of Chiropody in Chicago, and briefly was in practice in Davenport.

Pat Doyle remembers Dad and John:

            Jim and John Cosgrove disappeared during the war, having taken temporary jobs with the Navy. On one of John's few leaves, he regaled us with a vivid, breathtaking description of his beach landing during the invasion of the Peleleu (I think) Islands. He was a radioman assigned to establish shore contact for the troops. He was burdened with, besides elaborate radio equipment, his golf clubs. overnight luggage and the parrot's cage; (shouldn't every sailor worth his salt have one?) Jim was in the opposite theater as a Motor Machinist's Mate on an L. He reached CPO status just before demobilization. An enormous accomplishment in his 2 or 3 years. (In the normal course of advancement I was entitled to take the exam for 1st class petty officer only in the last few months of my fourth year.) Both boys encouraged us to remember that if we needed to choose, the Navy offered at least three hot meals a day and a place to sleep. That was the most persuasive advice I needed when it was my turn to choose.

Uncle John Remembers Jim--12-27-04

Dear Guys

Were he still alive my bro and your father would be 83 today. We always knew when Jim's birthday was as it came so quick after Xmas and he was overlooked many times I suspect as everyone worn out and broke after Xmas...Mother and Dad were married Jan l2 l921 and Jim was born Dec 27 l921... They didnt waste any time... I was 21 months later and Tom was 4 years after me and Sheila was 8 years after Tom...Your father was quite a guy. He was a READER!!!!!!! Jim never cared for sports when we were little... He preferred to read and he read all kinds of stuff. He was a real book worm. I don't recall his going to the Library (as I do now) much ... He prob bought a lot of "pocket books" which were popular in those days and all well know books came out in "pocketbooks"...Maybe he did go to library but it was way downtown but he may have stopped in ... Before he went to war he had pretty good job at Arsenal. He urged me to come over and I did... I didn't have as good a job as he did and didn't make the $ he did... I had a car pool ride to the Arsenal and the driver wanted me to get my bro Jim to also ride with us as then he could pick up two guys in one stop but Jim didn't want to red in the car pool... He would take bus downtown and then the bus to the Arsenal. He would stop downtown I suppose and play pinball machines at Martin Cigar Store which was a sort of gathering place for all the young guys... 3rd and Brady...I never understood what it was he did at the Arsenal but had something to do with time cards or some thing or job time or something. I was a mail man and rode around to the various plants with inter office mail....Had a bicycle that they furnished and in Winder it wasn't such a good job but was nice rest of the year..Mother would make coffee and we were all coffee drinkers ... Jim used to take piece of toast, put butter and PEANUT BUTTER on it AND THEN DIP IT IN HIS COFFEE!!!!!!!! I would almost get sick to my stomach watching him do that but he did it EVERY DAY....Jim was not a "people person"... He didn't have lot of friends but those he had were very close... Jack Herman (who I hated cause he always teased the hell out of me and Jim wouldn't defend me) Don Noth, Jimmy Thompson and another pal who I forget the name and those last two Jimmy and guy I cant recall the name were both killed in the war...Don Noth went to Wash DC after the war and had a Govt job...Dont know what ever happened to Jack Herman (and dont really care)..... I know Jim kept in touch with him some after the war but he lived in the South somewhere St Louis I think...Anyway, thinking of Jim today... He was always good to me and I was the "younger pain in the ass brother" I guess...

 

Moira remembers:

            We lived in Grandma Doyle's house first, then in a duplex on 12th Street, then over the Elks. (The building is gone now, but it was directly across from the police station (on Fourth?) Dad had an office next to our apartment in the building next to the Elks Club, on the second floor. Dad tended bar at the Elks Club, and would walk across the roof outside our side window to get over there to work. When it was really hot in the summer, he would bring over one of the huge fans they had to cool the banquet room.  Dad also worked second shift at French & Hecht as an inspector. I remember having to go get him once or twice when mom was sick. Mike was a baby in that apartment, then we moved up to Grand Ct. in St. Paul's parish to a big old house, that we couldn't afford to heat upstairs. We'd get dressed in the kitchen in the winter.

Sheila remembers:

I remember babysitting with Moira and Jimmy when they lived up over the Elks and their apartment had bats flying around. I was scared to death and had to keep a broom handy to hit at the bats!

Moira:

            We moved to East Moline when I was in third grade, and I cried my eyes out for days. I hated leaving Davenport. I guess I also knew moving into the projects, called "the courts" was a step down. Dad worked as a staff podiatrist at the East Moline State Hospital. (Michael works now at the same facility--only it has become a prison).  Mother had open heart surgery at Iowa City when I was in fourth grade, shortly after Kathleen was born. I remember how bad mother was before her surgery, because mother wasn't supposed to lift anything over five pounds and Kevin was born weighing more than eight. Kathleen was a seven pounder, and after she was born, and after mom's surgery, we had a little dwarf woman from Catholic Charities to take care of us. Christmas that year was awful. She felt good for a few more years, and had two more children, but the mitral valve clogged up again.  There was a time when there were four kids in diapers (Kevin and Kath just in night diapers). We would hang all those diapers on the line in the winter. They would freeze into solid ice. When we took them in the house the ice would evaporate and they would be dry. Magic.

            We moved to the top of 7th Street hill, into an old summer house. Mother hated that old house, and I just loved it. There was a circular gravel drive and trees all around and a path to the bottom of the hill. Later Mom & Dad built a house on 39th Avenue, Mom worked at night at the Gas & Electric Company, Dad tended bar at Regal Lanes and later the Legion, still working at the State Hospital. Bette died in the fall of 1967, the night before a scheduled second heart surgery.  I had graduated from college in July or August, and came home and substitute taught and worked at Ben's Gourmet House.

 

            Bette and Jim's kids are Moira Fiedler "Mimi" (12/101946), James Edward (11/28/1949), Michael Patrick (10/12/952), Kevin David (12/8/1954), Kathleen Louise (8/9/1956), Christopher Joseph (2/26/1958), and Daniel Brian (1/5/1960). The other great love of Jim's life, Pat Freiburg, survives him in East Moline. They were together since 1968. Pat has seven children of her own, yet stays in touch with us.

 

Moira (Mimi) was briefly married to Rodney Pate, and had no children. She has lived in Louisville, KY since 1971, currently in the Cherokee Triangle landmarks district. She was a grant writer and public relations person for a technical school in Indiana, and now, is happily retired. On Thanksgiving, 2015, she married Jim Fiedler who has a farm in Rome, Indiana.

 

Jim married Linda Lazak in Lansing, MI April 3, 1976. Their eldest son, Bryan (b. 1974), died of leukemia in 1981. Son Joshua was born April 27, 1983. They lived in the Seattle, WA area (Chehalis), later they moved back to Montana and Jim worked at West Yellowstone. Linda died of advanced COPD on December 14, 2003. Jim is a retired Air Force medic, got his nursing degree in Billings and is now retired in Mesa, AZ. Josh was in the Army, in Korea, and is now working in Montana. Josh married Emily McGeachy on September 10th 2011.

 

Michael's daughter Amy Christine was born in June, 1991.  Michael is retired and lives in New Boston, IL. 

 

Kevin and Christopher never married and have no children. Kevin lives near East Moline, and Chris also lives in New Boston, IL.

 

Kathleen married John Lewis in 1986 and lives in Boise, ID. They had no children together, but John has three children and together they have 4 grandchildren. Kathleen is a commercial banker for Idaho First Bank (soon to be retired); John worked for an NBC affiliate and passed away on May 13th, 2017.

 

Dan married Dori McHenry (b. 1961) in 1978. They live in Moline, IL  and have three children: Brian (b. Aug. 29, 1983), Sean, (b. July 5, 1985) and Melissa (b. July 24, 1987) Dan is an electrician.

 

John's Family

 

John Doyle Cosgrove went to St. Ambrose Academy for two years, and to Davenport High for two years. John was in a class with Mom at Davenport High; also with Pat's husband Fred and his brother Roger in college. John served in the Navy during WWII between '43 and '46 in the South Pacific. He graduated from St. Ambrose College in 1949. He married Mary Mona Greenwood (b. 1921) of Farley, IA in 1948. He worked in sales for many years, Nichol's Wire?

 

Their children are Anne Veronica Clarke (1949), Mary Lou Buelow (1951), Nancy Cody (1954), John Aloysius, "Jack" (1957), and Joseph Patrick and Julie Patricia Kammerer (1960).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne married Tom Clarke in 1971. They had two children Tom (1973) and Amy (1976). They are divorced; Ann lives in West Worthington, Ohio, and is the City Clerk for Dublin, Ohio.

 

Mary Lou married Tom Buelow in 1973. They had 4 sons: Jeff (1980), Matt (1981), Brian (1985), and Ben (1987). Mary is divorced and lives in Cincinnati.

 

Nancy, an attorney, married Richard Cody in 1978 and has a son Phillip, b. 1988. She is divorced and lives in Hudson, OH, near Cleveland. She is counsel for Picker, Intn'l, Inc. a company that makes diagnostic imaging and scanning equipment.

 

Jack is not married and lives in__________. He is an air-traffic controller.

 

Joe, a pharmaceutical salesman, is married and lives in ___________.

 

Julie married Doug Kammerer in 1984. They have three children: William (1992) and Joseph (1994), and Ellen (Ellie) born in March of 1997. They live in Cincinnati.

 

Tom's Family

 

Tom m. Phyllis Lenburg (b. 1938; later married to Mike Salzarulo, now deceased). Their children are Bethann Shannon (1958), David Brian (1959), Stephen (1961), and Andrew (1968 or 69). Tom worked for the railroad for most of his career. When passenger service died back, he was in freight, and involved in the "piggyback" of trucks on flatbeds. They lived in Chicago, a suburb away from Sheila and Barry for a long time, then in Cincinnati.

Pat Doyle remembers:

            After one of these 'reunions', Tommie [Cosgrove] and I walked Marilyn down to the riverfront park, with the bandshell, where Tommie intended that Marilyn should instruct me in the art of kissing. He and Marilyn hit it off pretty good, but I just couldn't (or didn't want to) gets the hang of it. I believed Marilyn was keen on showing her small-town cousins how citified she was. Anyway, it all seemed overrated at the time.

            Occasionally, brother Don did a sleepover at your grandparents' house [Jack & Kathleen], guest of Tommy's. They were fast friends. Don described how Tommie disposed of dessert, some leftover chocolate cake. He gave Don the smaller piece. When Don protested at the impolite sharing, Tommie asked which piece he would have taken if he were the host. Of course Don assured him it would have been the smaller. "Well then, you got it!"

          Don [Pat's brother] was drafted and given a choice of the Army or Marines. He was more macho than me. Tommie chose the Marines as well. He and I shared a weekend leave in Laguna Beach in 1951 while he was at Camp Pendleton. We had supper, got sloshed and visited a newly-wed Marine reservist friend of mine from college in Laguna, enjoying his honeymoon until we arrived to take up overnight lodgings with them. That guy hasn't spoken to me since.

 

Bethann m. Timothy Shannon (great wedding; Tom impressed at least one of his nieces with his fabulous dancing--skilled at the "dirty dip"!)  and has 3 sons: Thomas (1982), Robert (1983) and Joseph (1987). They live in Cincinnati. Her husband is manager of  a pizza.

 

David lives in Mission Viejo near L.A. with his wife Julia and two children: Victoria and Sean.

 

Steve m. Julie and lives in Rochester, NY with one daughter born at the end of 1995.

 

Andrew is single and lives in D.C.

 

Sheila's Family

 

Sheila Ann went to ICA (Immaculate Conception Academy) in Davenport, and received her RN from  St. Anthony's Hospital in Rock Island, IL.  She married Barry Kautz of Pekin, IL in August of 1961. They lived in Homewood near Chicago for many years where Barry taught speech and theater at Homewood-Flossmoor High.  Sheila has always been a nurse and has just retired from her position as a medical case manager. They live in Savannah, GA

Sheila remembers

            After I moved to Chicago to work, met Barry and got engaged, we used to come down on weekends to make wedding plans and play "Rap Poker" on Gallaghers' porch with Agnita, Dolores, Jim, Kathleen and Jack--always a fun time! Neoma (Darrell Doyle's wife and Barry's aunt) had a shower for me and besides a gift everyone brought their favorite recipe. Dolores, Julie and Mary Gallagher all brought crazy recipes and I still have them: RIC HAL--GADO- GADO!

Upon our arrival home to pick up all the wedding presents to take back to Park Forest, all the gifts were unwrapped! Kathleen opened everything to see who it was from and what it was--so I come by this trait naturally! She didn't fill names in the book, though, and some of the cards were missing, and I'm sure some people never received thank-you notes. One was an aunt of Barry's who wrote to his mother--so I really made points with her!

            Moira remembers:

When I was in high school, Sheila had a glamorous job as a nurse/stewardess on transcontinental trains, and was based in Chicago. She lived near Mr. Kelly's--in those days her life was nearly the ultimate (from my perspective) of a single woman in the big city.

Sheila and Barry had Thomas John (6/13, 1962) and Julie Ann (9/9, 1968) BKautz33@msn.com

Tom has one son, Keith Richard (named after, yes, you guessed it) born March 1984. In 1994, Tom m. Kathleen Cooley, and now has a stepdaughter, Mary Rebecca Warbington (1979)

Julie m. John Slattery in August 1994, lives in Chicago, where she sings and is an actress.  They separated in July 1997, and had no children.