Pearl Tarquinio

• General Notes
  • Pearl was born in Jeannette on February 19, 1933, the youngest of 5 children of Abele Tarquinio and Assunta Rega Tarquinio.
    When she was three years old her father died in an auto accident, along with her oldest sister Vita. Her mother was left to raise the 4 children on her own. Despite these challenges Pearl had a happy childhood, filled with the strong Italian family. She remained close to her family her entire life.
    Pearl grew up on the west side of Jeannette, Pennsylvania. They lived on 13th Street.
    The family spent most Sunday’s and holidays with relatives.
    Pearl attended Gaskill Avenue Elementary School, before moving on to Jeannette High School.
    Her 1952 Jeannette Jayhawk high school yearbook talks about Pearl: “Pidegon. . . a gay, charming chatterbox with lots of pals. She was one of Mrs. Boettner’s office helpers this year and also a member of the Grex Club . . . does the impossble by drinking milkshakes and keeping her lovely figure. She’ll stop talking long enough to get a typing job when her typewriter will talk for her
    Upon graduation from Jeannette High School she went to California and spent some time with her Aunt Ann and her husband Ralph Mansolino in Los Angeles, as well as some time with her brother Amadeus and his family in San Jose.
    She returned to Pennsylvania after a few months, returning to Jeannette. In 1956 she met her future husband Cornelius Stasik, through her friend Helen Osipick. Arrangements had been made for them to meet at a club, which they did. On November 9th, 1957 they were married at Ascension Church in Jeannette, with a reception at the Penn Hotel in Greensburg.
    They continued to live with Assunta in West Jeannette until they built the house in Latrobe in 1963.
    Once they moved to Latrobe they still returned to Jeannette each weekend to visit Assunta in her apartment upstairs from an Italian family in Jeannette. There was an ever present smell of spaghetti sauce from the people downstairs.
    On July 22nd, 1961 her daughter Kimberly Ann was born. In 1964 a second daughter Caroline Ann was born.
    When Pearl’s mother became elderly and ill she came to live with the family. Pearl always made dinner, but her mother would often bake, usually for the entire neighborhood.
    Pearl and her husband develop strong relationships with their long time neighbors, especially Betty Karazak. If her children’s homework was too complex, they were sent across the street to Betty’s.
    The Stasik home had many parties, especially on the 4th of July. Pearl was an excellent cook and the neighbors looked forward to coming over for the food.
    Her husband was of Slovakian descent, and Pearl wasn’t always thrilled to go to the Kostelniks and Stasik’s for food, because it was so different from the Italian food she grew up with.
    Pearl was very structured in her daily life. Dinner was always at 5:00PM.
    Since the family only had 1 car until the 1970s, they would have family trips to the grocery store, usually the Thoroughfare Store on Lincoln Avenue in Latrobe. She was very diligent in her collection of Green Stamps at the store, giving the children the responsibility of gluing them into the books. Once full, they would visit the Green Stamp store in Greensburg, where Kim and Caroline were permitted to buy items with them.
    Pearl always insisted on the best quality foods for her family and would seek out the markets that could provide these. They would go to Couch’s meat market for all their meat. She would have the butcher cut it exactly to her specifications. She maintained a lifetime skill of being an excellent cook. She fed everyone. When she had the kitchen wallpapered she made sure the person who hung the wallpaper was fed lunch. If someone came to fix the furnace she fed them too.
    
    While a stay at home mom, she enjoyed watching the children in their backyard pool, watching daytime soap operas and reading romance novels given to her by her sister in law Josie,
    Betty got her involved in the church basketball league, and Pearl played basketball and was reputed to be good.
    She started working at her sister Jessie’s restaurant, Lakeview, in the early 1970s. This job became a fixture for her for the rest of her life. Pearl, Connie and the girls all spent considerable time working there. Both of her daughter’s had their wedding receptions at Lakeview.
    Despite the fact they weren’t well off financially, she always made sure her daughters had nice clothes.
    Her love of cooking wasn’t restricted to people. When her daughter’s family acquired a dog and would bring it to her house on visits, she would cook especially for the dog. She often made the dog scrambled eggs, using ‘Egg Beaters’ so the dog wouldn’t get high cholesterol.
    Pearl provided love and care to her immediate and extended family her entire life. She passed away June 23rd, 2007.
    

Click here for details of Pearl's family with Cornelius John Stasik

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