Amelia Mildred Koehn
(1918-1992)
Photograph Gallery
Mildred (15) and her mother Libby (45) in 1933 at the family home in Middle Village, Queens, New York
George (2) and Mildred (1) Koehn, 1919
Mildred (24) and Otto (52) on 1 Mar 1942, five months prior to her wedding in August.
Mildred, Otto, Libby and Otto's brother George, in the back of the Middle Village house, 1942.
With Frank at her parents house in Middle Village, Queens NY, summer 1945
Family photo with Frank and their children Alice (nearly 4) and Len (5) in their Elmhurst, NY apartment, 26 Dec 1948
Mildred with her children Alice and Len, Elizabeth Schmidt Koehn (mother) and Aunt Dora (mother's sister), 18 Apr 1948
The family - front: Bruce and Brian Koehn, Alice and Leonard Romanker - back: Aunt Rita Koehn, Libby Schmidt Koehn, Aunt Dorothea Schmidt, Mildred and Frank Romanker - Apr 1950
Announcement
1942: Mildred and Frank’s Wedding
Mr. and Mrs. Otto J. A. Koehn announce the marriage of their daughter Mildred to Mr. Frank G. Romanker on Saturday the twenty-second of August, Nineteen hundred and forty-two, New York City
Certificate
Frank George Romanker of 8449 Elmhurst Ave married Amelia Mildred Koehn of 6142 62nd Ave, Covenant Lutheran Parsonage, Ridgewood, Queens, New York, 22 August 1942.
Frank and Mildred were married on August 22, 1942, in Ridgewood, Queens, New York. They were married by a Justice of the Peace because despite Mildred being a practicing Lutheran, Frank was in rebellion against the Catholic faith by which he was raised.
One little story is that Mildred had been engaged to another man and had a hope chest and all, but he did not seem to be eager to move forward with their relationship. So Mildred went to a dance and met Frank, who was able to woo her into marriage!
Mildred and Frank's first home was in a one bedroom apartment in Elmhurst, Queens. They stayed in the same apartement until 1953 when they moved to Dover, New Jersey, for Frank's new job. Alice loved the Elmhurst apartment where she spent the first years of her life. There was a doorman and an elevator man and a doctor's office on the first floor. She could put her head out the door and yell "rollerskating" and the other kids on the floor would come out to roller skate on the sidewalks. The skates in those days bolted on right over their shoes. There was always someone to play with.
After the move, Alice found the sudden isolation of living in a house on the outskirts of town in New Jersey jarring and not a happy situation leaving the ready access to friends her age.
The family got its first car, an Oldsmobile, in 1953. Frank taught Mildred how to drive. They moved into a house divided into condos. This was to be a temporary situation while they found a house, but they wound up living there for six years. When they finally bought their house in 1959, Frank insisted they pay cash and did not believe in debt of any sort.
This was the family's first two bedroom house. The two children, Alice, 8, and Len, 10, had to share a bedroom. In the Elmhurst apartment, the whole family shared a single large bedroom so this was a step up, but sharing a bedroom was a source of sibling conflict nevertheless.