Popalis Family History
Monday, June 10, 2002
Pottsville Republican/Evening Herald
http://www.schuylkill.com
Graveyard tour summons spirit of sports hero
BY RORY SCHULER
Staff Writer
rschuler@republicanherald.com
SHENANDOAH - The crowd gasped as the ghost of Joseph Sepauley
approached.
But then they realized it was merely Gregory A. Macdonald, Shenandoah,
in costume, a baseball bat over one shoulder.
He was there to teach a little history.
The third annual Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society Cemetery
Tour led more than 50 history buffs around two Shenandoah Heights
cemeteries Sunday, telling stories of long-lost hometown spirits.
Sepauley, a former Shenandoah mayor who died three decades ago, is
remembered in the borough as the manager of the town's Presidents football
team.
The Presidents tied the Portsmouth Spartans - now known as the Detroit
Lions - 7-7, in a 1933 game.
"What's even more amazing than that, is the Spartans beat the
Philadelphia Eagles earlier that year, 25-0," Macdonald said.
The Sepauley ghost's aunt, Valerie E. Macdonald, began the tour through
time in the Old St. George Cemetery.
She donned an Edwardian outfit, and easily jumped in and out of various
character roles throughout the tour, along with several other costumed
volunteers.
Among the graves highlighted were that of the Rev. Andrew Strupinskas,
the first Lithuanian priest in the United States and founder of St.
Casimir's Church, and John and Josephine Twardzik, great-grandparents of
Timothy F. Twardzik, president of Mrs. T's pierogies.
Playing the role of Katherine Alex Zanecosky, Macdonald led the tour to
a visit of her parents Andrew and Victoria Alex's grave.
When Zanecosky was a little girl, she anxiously watched as the 1902
coal strike raged outside her fathers hotel, The Alex Hotel.
A bullet, fired from the street, whizzed past her head, embedding
itself in the bedroom wall.
Her family also owned Joseph Zanecosky Groceries, a Shenandoah market
that handed out special glass platters around the holidays.
Macdonald held out an authentic platter, and presented it to a man in
the crowd wearing a tan cowboy hat.
The man, Joseph R. "Jay" Zane, Pottsville, it was revealed, is the
actual grandson of Katherine Alex Zanecosky. Zane smiled and accepted the
plate.
Other volunteers acting as deceased tour guides included Joseph P.
Coddington, Lavelle, and Patricia Domalakes, Theodore F. Twardzik, Rosalie
Kuzma, Mary Ann Selvocki, Sherwin "Sheila" Sorin and Andrea M. Pytak.
Other visited sites featured were the William and Anna Schumack family;
Anthony P. Gwasdytos, a World War II Army veteran; the Rev. Petras
Abromaitis, first pastor of St. George's Church; and Andrew Popalis.
The tour also went to Old St. Casimir Cemetery, where seven grave sites
- Kathryn Binek, a housewife and mother; the Rev. Joseph Lenarkiewicz,
founder of St. Casimir's School; Antonina Michalewicz, housewife and
mother; Adele Sennick, artist; Mary Klocek Kruszyna, coal miner's wife,
mother and seamstress; and William and Anna Kidzium, a typical mining
family - were perused.
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