Eugene V. Rebescher circa 1960. (Submitted by Geri Ellerbrock). (Click to enlarge, 17K)

Eugene had the normal life of any young Catholic boy during his childhood. He worked from a young age with his father Bernard at the construction business that his father owned along with his older brothers. Eugene went to the Catholic school, as did all children of that time. At the age of 12, he decided to prepare for priesthood.

Eugene had a wonderful sense of humor and was a real prankster. He always enjoyed a good laugh. He loved acting and was in the St. Mary Of Sorrow Church Drama Group presentation of "Who Wouldn’t Be Crazy;" while in high school.

Upon graduating from high school, Eugene went to the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., to finish his studies and to prepare to become a priest in the Josephite Order. He had studied for this from the age of 12 to age 23. One year before being ordained into priesthood, Eugene met Miss Rose Brendel (also spelled Brendle or Brendl). At this time, he started to have doubts about becoming a priest after having invested 11 years of preparation.

Rose Brendel on her wedding day, January 25, 1936.. (Submitted by Geri Ellerbrock). (Click to enlarge, 24K)

On the January 25, 1936, Eugene married the love of his life, Rose, in Buffalo, N.Y. (Rose was born on January 27, 1915, in Buffalo). Eugene and Rose had five children.

Eugene stayed in the family construction business until about 1947, when he moved his family to 1429 Burns Road, Derby, N.Y. At that time, he went to work for the Federal Portland Cement Company. While in Derby he raised Pedigree Golden Retrievers, and at one time he had nine of them.

In 1957 Eugene moved his family back to the Buffalo area both because of his declining health and because they would be closer to the hospitals and family. He had several heart attacks by this time. The children would go with different family members while Eugene was in and out of the hospitals and recovering during his illness.

The family lived on 89 Roehrer Street in the home that had been Rose’s parents, and Eugene worked in Rochester, N.Y., at a branch of the company he had worked for in Derby. It was called Rochester-Portland Cement Company, and Eugene was the Director of Technical Engineering in a facility the company had built so he could be closer to home and the hospitals.

While working for them he would travel in the area giving seminars on the business. On Thursday, September 10, 1964, in Corning, N.Y., at the Corning Glass Company, as he was giving a seminar on concrete he suffered a moving embolism that went to his brain. He died instantly at the seminar.

At the time Eugene's youngest child, John, was only 4 years old, and life became rough for Rose and the children. She purchased a house in West Seneca, NY, and rented out the upper half. But the tenants made it rough on Rose, and she had to ask them to move. At this time some of the children were grown and on their own. Louise (née Brendel) and Gay Moran, Rose’s sister and brother-in-law, offered for her and young John to move into their home, which they did.

Rose was a very prim and proper lady. Never saying a bad word about others. She died on December 31, 1985, in Saint Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida.