Johanna “Jane” Dorothy Strauss was born on May 15, 1907 in Floral Park, New York. She attended St Hedwigs parochial school in Floral Park, New York, where she graduated on June 24, 1923. Johanna had excellent handwriting, having won the Palmer Certificate on May 19, 1923 at St Hedwigs.
She worked for a printing/bookbinding company when she was in her early twenties. We think it was Doubleday in Garden City, New York, since her sister Kinga worked there.
William “Bill” G. Gozelski was born in October 1910 in New Hyde Park, New York to parents Adolph Gozelski (1873-1945) and Josephine Okula (1873-1936).
Bill played baseball professionally at Barton Stadium in New Hyde Park, NY and was asked to sign with the Boston Red Sox. Bill refused after his father insisted he go into potato farming. He became the owner of Gozelski Potato Farms in Gainesville, New York since 1958.
Bill and Jane married on January 29, 1933 at St Hedwigs Church in Floral Park, New York. Their first child, James, died in childbirth in 1938 while they were living in Huntington Station, New York. James is buried in Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury, New York. He is buried with Lillian, John, Adolph, Josephine, and David Gozelski. His name doesn't appear on the gravestone but he's listed in the cemetery's records as "Baby Boy".
Sometime after the death of Adolph Gozelski on January 21, 1945, Jane and Bill moved to Hornell, NY and started their own potato farm on rented farmland. Their mailing address was simply, "Gozelski, RD2, Hornell NY".
On June 2, 1956, tragedy struck when their youngest son, David Michael (born on December 11, 1948), was killed when he drowned at the Arkport Dam just north of Hornell. David was in 3rd grade. He is buried in Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury, New York in a plot with John, Lillian, Adolph, and James Gozelski.
In 1957, Jane and Bill purchased 100 acres of farmland in Gainesville, New York and moved there by 1958. They added 543 acres sometime later.
Bill died in February of 1977 and is buried at St Marys Pioneer Cemetery in Silver Springs, New York. Johanna died of cardiopulmonary arrest, with atherosclerotic heart disease and hypertension as contributing factors, on May 23, 2000 in Warsaw, New York. She is buried in the family plot with Bill and other family members.
Their oldest child, William Jr, died of lung cancer on June 9, 2001. He was 67 years old.