Just a short post to revisit yesterday’s. You know, sometimes the internet is a total time sink and at others it can be a wealth of information. Case in point, last night after I posted about the Kosinski letter of June 18, 1943, I decided to give Google a little workout. Since Kosinski mentioned the wedding of choir-mate Regina Rajczewski to Lt. Anthony Wilk I googled both Regina and Anthony Wilk. I found several mentions including Regina’s obituary from the Washington Times. I was amazed by what I learned. My intention is to have an epilogue when the project is complete with follow-up on those who were involved in the letters. However, since it is likely that we might not be hearing about Regina over the timeframe of the letters again, I wanted to present what I found out about her life here while the information is still fresh in my mind.
Regina was born in 1923 in Watervliet, NY. As Kosinki notes in his letter, the couple moved to Boston immediately after their wedding on May 30, 1943. Regina worked for the War Department while Anthony fought in Europe. After the war, Anthony earned a PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1951. They eventually settled in Silver Springs, MD where they raised five sons. One son, Eric, was wounded in Vietnam in the spring of 1967. In the summer of 1967, another son, William was killed in Vietnam. As a result Regina became active with the American Gold Star Mothers and served as the organization’s National President in 1977. She was also involved with raising funds for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and helped to organize the dedication ceremony. On March 26, 1982, she was among the dignitaries who wielded a shovel at the groundbreaking for the memorial.
Photo of Regina (Rajczewski) Wilk. Photo credit: www.goldstarmoms.com
Anthony Wilk passed away on July 9, 1982. Regina passed on November 14, 2004. Oh, one more thing, both Regina and I share July 25th as our birthday. The full Washington Times obituary can be found here.