Teenage Years

After 8th grade, at the age of 14, Susan went to work in the bindery where her sister Marie worked. She is shown here (on the right) with Marie (Jungwirth) Montalbano, in 1929.

But Susan's world turned upside-down when, in 1926, her mother Katie died. Her despondent father John remarried the following year, and the Jungwirth children had frequent conflicts with their new stepmother, Margaret. One by one, the children still at home moved out to live with married siblings. Susan was not allowed to move out, however, and she spent four unhappy years at home.

Susan met Francis (Fran) Deck, reportedly at the funeral of one of his uncles, in the old Frontier St. neighborhood where her sister Marie (Jungwirth) Montalbano lived. Fran and Susan were married January 11, 1932; she was 20 years old, and he was 23.