the wopata family
The one-page recollections of Anna Wopata Stankek about her parents appear in a 1939 collection of memoirs about the Bunker Hill neighborhood north of Table Rock. Her parents were Albert Wopata, Sr., and Mary Strejc Wopata. They brought her and her brother Albert Wopata, Jr., to Nebraska, via Chicago with Mary's parents, the Anton Strej, Sr., and Josephine Pesek Strejc. She cites other family names, explaining relationships, although the last names are a bit ambiguous: Frank Strejc, Mary Strejc, Jane Strejc, James Vondrasek, Anna Kovanda, Anton Strejc, Joe Strejc, and Frank Kovanda, Sr.
Anna mentions that her father formed the Bunker Bill Bohemian Band in 1886 and led it for a few years. The only photo of a band currently located in the Historical Society's collection is Photo 9. The photo is almost certainly from the appropriate time period, the 1880s, but is not unidentified. It is the oldest photo of a band found in the photo collection. There were a number of Czech bands but all of the photos of them are well after 1900. Maybe, just maybe, it is father Wopata's band from that time period.....
By the way, this photograph is not the best, but here's the unretouched original:
THE WONDERFUL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE WOPATA
Thanks to the generosity of Kyle Wopata, grandson of Eugene Wopata, you can read Eugene's autobiography, written for his family.
Eugene was born in Table Rock in 1926 at the McCrea hospital, delivered by Dr. McCrea -- and he proves it with a copy of his birth certificate. He lived in Table Rock until he was six in the Bunker Hill area, going to Bunker Hill Country School at an early age. Then his family move to the six mile corner (highway 75 and 4) and lived at the filling station. The autobiography talks about growing up in southeast Nebraska, then his military experience in the Army in World War 2, including as a prisoner of war.
The autobiography is packed with photographs of the extended family, which goes back to the man local Czechs refer to as "Albert Wopata II." Family members whose pictures appear include Historical Society member Joyce Wopata, the Don Siske family, and many more.
You can download the entire autobiography by following the link below. There are 268 pages.
Eugene was born in Table Rock in 1926 at the McCrea hospital, delivered by Dr. McCrea -- and he proves it with a copy of his birth certificate. He lived in Table Rock until he was six in the Bunker Hill area, going to Bunker Hill Country School at an early age. Then his family move to the six mile corner (highway 75 and 4) and lived at the filling station. The autobiography talks about growing up in southeast Nebraska, then his military experience in the Army in World War 2, including as a prisoner of war.
The autobiography is packed with photographs of the extended family, which goes back to the man local Czechs refer to as "Albert Wopata II." Family members whose pictures appear include Historical Society member Joyce Wopata, the Don Siske family, and many more.
You can download the entire autobiography by following the link below. There are 268 pages.
| eugene_wopata_autobiography_frm_kyle_wopata.pdf |
Here are the opening parts of the autobiography set up as a slide show. You can navigate from page to page by clicking.
Joyce Wopata Newton in 2017; she is on the Historical Society's Facebook page and often contributes to discussions. Over time she has shared a few family pictures, and the museum has some as well.
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joyce wopata's family
1951 fair, Joyce Wopata with her decorated bicycle. From an album by Ines Madden, Photo 5100.
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Photo 6954. On the left are Minnie and Jesse Wopata with Joyce.
Joyce with her maternal grandma, Grandma Tenk, who was a Hubka. Photo 7700, shared by Joyce, a photo of a photo
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This is a photo of a photo and is a little skewed in appearance, but it shows two happy people, Joyce Wopata and her mom Minnie, circa 1950. Photo 3150.
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Joyce in 1957, in front of Clyde Fink's "Farmers' Phosphate" truck. Joyce didn't know what that was. Mark Mayer believes it was for fertilizer, possibly spreading lime. Photo 6999, shared by Joyce.
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Photo 6379, Joyce's high school graduation picture, from the Historical Society's collection
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A few inches down in the left column of this 1955 article you'll see that Joyce Wopata won a blue ribbon at the 4-H Dress Revue. |
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