Kunagunda “Kinga” Scholastica Strauss was born on April 1, 1903 in Floral Park, New York to parents Michael and Johanna Strauss. She was baptised on April 12, 1903 in St Hedwigs Church, Floral Park. Her godparents were Anthony Makowski and Scholastica Kapucinska.
Note: Saint Scholastica was a 6th-century Benedictine abbess, and is the patron saint of education.
Kinga was a proofreader at Doubleday in Garden City, NY. She died on May 3, 1982 in New York from heart failure brought on by urinary track sepsis. She is buried in Holy Rood Cemetery, Westbury, New York with her husband.
Leon Dominick Lubowiecki
Leon Dominick Lubowiecki was born on August 10, 1894 in Jargovo, Poland, which is about 50 miles south of Kraków. His father was Konstanty Lubowiecki, and was born in 1860. His mother was Katherine Wisniewski. His brother Henry was a school principal in Poland.
Leo arrived in New York in 1912. He was 17 and did not speak much English. He met an accommodating police officer who helped him to find his way to his brother-in-law’s apartment in New Jersey. His brother-in-law, John Subkowski, left the next day to go back to Poland to bring his wife, Leon’s sister, here. Leon lived with his sister, Jean, and her husband John. They eventually made their way to New Hyde Park.
Jean and John Subkowski eventually bought a butcher store across from the Strauss home and lived above it. Michael Strauss and his family shopped at the store.
Leon’s father crafted wagon wheels back in Poland, so Leon learned carpentry from him. He honed his carpentry skills and his grasp of the English language in the following years.
One day, Leon saw Michael working on his porch (414 First Ave, New Hyde Park) and he offered to help. Leon was
attracted to Kinga, and started courting her. They married on November 20, 1921 in Floral Park, New York.
They lived in 15 South 8th St in New Hyde Park, close to Jean and John Sublowski's store. This is the house Virginia was born in. Leon built the house at 21 North 10th Street in New Hyde Park in 1927.
Leon worked for Hempstead Bus Company in Mineola, New York. Along with Semke Bus company, these two bus companies provided bus service for much of Nassau County.
Leon died on April 7, 1969. He's buried in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, New York.
Marriage
Kinga and Leon were married on November 20, 1921 at St. Hedwigs Church in Floral Park, NY.
Kinga lost her U.S. citizenship after marrying Leon who was not a citizen at the time. Her citizenship was later restored by a judge who apologized to her. Leon became a U.S. citizen on November 28, 1931.
