George DeMarc

George DeMarc was born in the small town of West Pittsburg, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, February 19, 1923. He was the tenth child born to Charles DeMarc and Mary (DeMatteo) DeMarc, both of whom immigrated to the United States in the early 1900’s from the rural area north of Naples, Italy. George was baptized on April 29, 1923, by the Reverend Nicholas DeMita at St. Vitus Catholic Church in New Castle. Angelo and Antonietta Formica of Mahoningtown served as his sponsors and godparents.

George, who spoke both English and Italian, grew up in West Pittsburg and attended the West Pittsburg Public School right off Center Avenue. During the 1930-1931 school year George was in the first grade and had Myrtle Badger as his teacher. Some of his classmates included Dominic Papa, Joe Hervatine, Mary Caravella, John Tonsetic, and Joseph Cifone. In the second grade George had Florence Carlberg as his teacher.

George’s life would be beset with tragedy. It began when he almost drowned to death when he was about eleven or twelve. It was the winter time and George and his brothers Mike and Charlie were playing on a frozen pond located beside the Beaver River and under the eastern portion of the West Pittsburg bridge. The ice unexpectedly gave way and George fell into the frigid water. Charlie raced home for help while Mike, always known for being a daredevil, risked his life to come to his younger brother’s aid. Mike crawled out onto the ice and managed to pull George to safety. George surely would have drowned if not for Mike’s heroics.

The neighborhood children would often swim in the nearby Beaver River. One summer day, in either 1937 or 1938, George and his younger brother Charlie swam out to a semi-submerged concrete pillar in the middle of the river. George was intent on leaving his mark on the pillar and brought a hammer and chisel with him. He spent a good while carefully chipping his initials (G.D.) into the pillar while Charlie sat by bored. He did quite a job because the initials are still visible to this day. (NOTE: see the link on the main DeMarc page for more info on this story).

While growing up all of the DeMarc boys had nicknames and George was known as “Judge.” He was very smart, known as a hard worker, and could accomplish about anything he put his mind to. The DeMarc family kept several large vegetable gardens and George could work them like no one else. George was also very good looking and his sister Rose said he resembled famous movie star Don Ameche (click here to see).

George later graduated from the eighth grade in 1939 when he was age sixteen. Like most of his fellow students he did not attend high school and instead went out into the workforce. George initially looked for work in the New Castle area. By early 1941 he was off to Detroit, Michigan, where his older sister Josephine was living with her husband Anthony “Tony” Marinelli. Tony worked at the Ford Motor Company and was able to get George and his brothers Lou, Pete, and Mike jobs with the company – most likely at the Highland Park plant. George served as a “motor inspector,” inspecting engines for deficiencies as they came off the assembly line. Both George and Lou lived with Josephine and her husband Tony at 4464 French Road, off East Warren Avenue in Detroit.

American neutrality was ended on December 7, 1941, with the brazen attack by Japanese forces on the American naval and air fortress at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Before too long brothers Lou, Mike, George, and Charlie would all be called upon to serve their country. George, while living in Detroit, was inducted into the U.S. Army on March 25, 1943, with a service number of 36-589-701. He reported for duty on April 1, 1943, at the training center at Fort Custer near Battle Creek, Michigan. It was a nerve-wracking time in the DeMarc household as parents Charles and Mary constantly worried about their boys.

A few months later, while back at home on leave, he met a young woman in Wampum named Irene LaPatka. Eighteen-year-old Irene had just left Ted’s, a popular hotdog stand at the foot of the Wampum Bridge, and was walking home (across the bridge) from work to her family farm in nearby Chewton. George was driving a car and stopped to offer her a ride. She accepted and they hit it off right away. They spent time together over the next few days before George reported back to duty in Michigan.

George was soon posted to join the 289^th Infantry Regiment, 75^th Infantry Division, at Fort Leonard Wood in southwest Missouri. He took part in extensive training in the nearby Ozark Mountains and was promoted to private first class in December 1943. He originally served as a regular infantryman, but began training as an assistance gunner (essentially an ammunition loader and fire director) on a two-man .30-caliber light machine crew.

In late January 1944, his division was transferred south to the Louisiana Maneuvers Area near Shreveport, Louisiana – and he was possibly stationed at Fort Polk. George’s path gets a little harder to follow after this. He was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Tennessee, and subsequently reported to Camp Myles Standish in Massachusetts in preparation of being sent overseas. At some point he was reassigned to the 79^th Division, an infantry unit known for its exploits in France during the Great War (World War I) and known as the “Cross of Lorraine” Division. Whether this reassignment happened in Tennessee or Massachusetts or in England is unknown.

The 79^th Division boarded transports and departed from Boston, Massachusetts, on April 7, 1944, and arrived in Liverpool in northern England nine days later. However, George’s service record indicates he departed Boston on March 13 and arrived in England (location unknown) twelve days later. Which unit he actually traveled with remains a mystery, but he was with the 79^th before entering combat.

The 79^th Division slowly made its way south to several ports in southern England in preparation of the invasion of continental Europe. On June 12-14, about a week after the initial D-Day landings, the division was landed on UTAH BEACH in Normandy. After regrouping the division set off to the northwest to engage the German forces holding the port of Cherbourg.

On June 19, the 79^th entered combat for the first time as they battled German units on the outskirts of Cherbourg. The Americans took the city about a week later after a stubborn battle. After clearing the city the division went on the offensive to the south. They engaged in house-to-house combat while clearing the small town of La Haye Du Puits from July 7-10. It was during this urban action that George (at age twenty-one) was wounded from a shrapnel blast (on the right side of his body including his leg, shoulder and head) and put out of action for about two months. During the tail end of his hospitalization George probably learned that his older brother Lou had been killed in action in southern France on August 20.

On August 4, 1944, a telegram from the War Department notified the DeMarc family that George had been wounded in action. About a month later another telegram brought word of Lou’s death. Charles DeMarc Sr. was devastated by the news, particularly concerning Lou’s death, and took it extremely hard. He grew depressed, suffered a heart attack, and saw his overall health steadily decline. The death of Lou did allow the family to withdraw Charles Jr., then undergoing naval training in New York, from military service.

Back in France George was also disturbed by the death of his fellow machine gun crew partner, an older man known as “Pop.” Pop had suggested that they switch positions allowing George to fire the machine gun while he took the more dangerous (and exposed) task of loading the weapon. Not long after this switch occurred Pop was shot and killed in action. George felt he was responsible and had a difficult time getting over Pop’s death.

George recovered physically and rejoined his regiment in the Alsace-Lorriane region near Joinville sometime in early September 1944. Before long the 79^th was engaged in bitter fighting to gain control of the Parroy de Foret (Parroy Forest) in the vicinity of Luneville. George, taking part in the clearing of the high ground east of the town of Embermenil, was shot through the thigh while his unit advanced across a small river on October 15. He was hospitalized for several months before rejoining his unit in early January 1945. At that time his division was holding defensive lines along the River Rhine (near the German border) east of Hagenau, France.

As soon as units of the 79^th began probing into Germany a furious enemy counterattack overwhelmed them. The counterattack, known as Operation NORDWIND, was the last major German offensive of the war. The battered Americans lost ground during the vicious eleven-day battle, but were able to contain the attack while inflicting heavy casualties on the German attackers. Afterwards the division went into a much-welcomed reserve role (following the main attack) while moving northward and crossing through France, Belgium, and Holland.

On March 24, while posted to the front lines once again, the 79^th crossed the River Rhine at Wesel and smashed its way into Germany. The division, while not taking participating in the march on Berlin, was part of the major operation to encircle and pacify 430,000 German soldiers and millions of civilians in the so-called Ruhr Pocket. A few weeks later, as massive Allied armies converged on Berlin and threatened to bring about the end of the war, the division was assigned to security duty in area around the city of Dortmund. After the surrender of most German forces in early May 1945, the division began post-war occupation duty. They spent the next few months moving southeast into Bavaria followed by a brief stint at Koninsburg in western Czechoslovakia.

In November 1945, sixteen months after landing in Normandy, the heavily-traveled 79^th was relieved of its occupation duties and ordered to return home for demobilization. The Cross of Lorraine Division had proved its mettle once again while suffering a total of 13,432 casualties including 2,461 killed in action. The unit boarded transports at the port of Marseille in southern France, and after a brief respite in England the 79^th Division arrived in the United States on January 1, 1946. Five days later George was honorably discharged from service at Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and returned home.

He stopped at home in West Pittsburg to see his father, who had been generally ill with heart trouble for over a year, and his dear mother. Afterwards he showed up unannounced at the LaPatka farm in Chewton to surprise Irene. George looked for work as he began to spend a lot of time with Irene. Before long they got engaged and were married at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in New Castle on November 16, 1946. The very next day they were off to Detroit to start their new life together.

George, with his newlywed wife Irene in tow, took up residence with his brother Mike and his wife Mary on French Road in Detroit. George and Mike’s older sister Josephine and their older brother Pete lived nearby and just down the street. George began working at Ford again, but soon found employment with the highly-skilled Bower Roller Bearing Company as (or training as) a tool and die maker.

George and Irene soon moved out of Mike’s house and into an apartment house owned by the Zuber family on Concord Avenue. Sometime in the spring they would have found out that Irene was pregnant. Not long after that, on May 20, 1947, George learned that his father Charles, who had been in declining health for the past few years, had passed away. They briefly returned home to attend his funeral services.

Their first child, Carol Jean “Jeannie” DeMarc, was born at Holy Cross Hospital in Detroit on Christmas Day, December 25, 1947. George, who had just recovered from a serious bout with the flu, soon informed Irene that they were moving back home for good. George and Irene, though they got along fine in Detroit, had a tumultuous relationship upon returning to Pennsylvania. They initially lived in the DeMarc family home in West Pittsburg, but Irene and mother Mary DeMarc generally did not get along. Sometime later, in the spring of April 1948, they moved into a small trailer on the DeMarc property and alongside the main house.

After being unemployed for a short while, George was able to find a good job with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company (YS&T) in Youngstown, Ohio. George and Charles actually went to YS&T together and were both hired in the tube mill. George grinded steel tubes and Charles, not as physically strong as his brother, served as an inspector.

It could not have been too long before they learned Irene was pregnant with their second child. Mary Ann (later given as MaryAnn) DeMarc was born in St. Francis Hospital in New Castle on November 9, 1948. Sometime later (exact time unknown) George and Irene moved into a trailer at the Sunny Village Trailer Park off Route 224 in Union Township (NOTE: I believe the Westlake Shopping Center now occupies the spot).

George was apparently haunted by the things be had witnessed during the war and would occasionally come by the DeMarc house and talk to his brother Charlie about it. He would be brought to tears when he recounted the story about how Pop was killed in action. This incident really bothered him. In March 1951, he sought treatment with Dr. Heindel in Youngstown for treatment of a lingering nasal condition, severe headaches, and what he described as “nervousness” (what later came to be known as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD).

George also struggled with the bureaucracy of the Veterans Administration (VA) while seeking assistance to deal with the lingering effects of his “nervousness” and from physical wounds he had suffered in combat. Eventually, in September 1952, he was granted a small measure of relief and provided with limited (30%) disability pay for injuries to his right shoulder and right lower leg.

Over the next few years George continued to wrestle with the demons of his wartime experiences. He often drank alcohol to excess to help him forget his troubles. In April 1952, he was accepted for treatment at the VA Hospital at Aspinwall, just outside of northeast Pittsburgh. He was admitted into the hospital on May 9 and remained there until June 29. What exactly he was treated for remains a mystery, though it was undoubtedly related to the war. (NOTE: No one seems to know if this was strictly for physical injuries, psychological issues related to his combat experiences, or a combination of both). At the hospital he was treated by Peter Lindstrom, a renowned Swedish-born neurosurgeon well known for having been involved in a high profile relationship (and scandal) with ex-wife Ingrid Bergman.

At about this time he was also approved by the VA to commence “Advanced Automotive Mechanic Training” in September 1952 at the New Castle School of Trades. His enrollment was initially delayed and it’s unclear if he ever actually undertook the training course. It is known that George left YS&T sometime in the latter half of 1952 and found employment as a brakeman with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) in New Castle. George’s 1952 W2 tax statement (issued in January 1953) from YS&T reveals he made $996.03 while employed with the company the previous year.

Things soon turned tragic. On the evening of Wednesday, February 11, 1953, George and Irene got into a heated argument and he stormed off in his car. He presumably headed to Canton, Ohio, but exactly where he went is not known to this day. Irene said she believed he went to the home of his sister Rose (DeMarc) Fratini or his niece Rose “Honey” (Venditti) Harrison, but both told me personally that they did not see him that night.

His whereabouts that night seem of little consequence now as at 3:45am on Thursday, February 12, George was involved in a horrible automobile accident east of Poland, Ohio. While traveling along Route 224 in Mahoning County, Ohio, (about one mile east of Struthers Road and a few miles from the Pennsylvania border) he attempted to pass a tractor-trailer operated by twenty-five-year-old William R. Staats of Akron, Ohio. George must have quickly noticed oncoming traffic because he attempted to swerve back into his lane – either in front of the tractor-trailer or back to his original position behind it.

Unfortunately, it was too late. The front driver’s side corner of his car impacted the front end of a cargo-laden heavy truck, the lead vehicle of a convoy of five vehicles carrying supplies for the U.S. Navy. The collision saw both vehicles spin out of control and leave the roadway. The front driver’s side of George’s car was heavily damaged and the roof and dashboard area basically caved in on him. Wooden planks, possibly one of the side walls of the cargo bed of the heavy truck, flew into the cabin area and nearly decapitated him. The collision was so violent that the front axle and wheel base was dislodged from the heavy truck.

George died instantly from severe trauma including a fractured skull, a broken neck, and a crushed chest. His body was pinned in the mangled wreckage and had to be cut out by emergency personnel. He was pronounced dead at the scene. George was only twenty-nine years of age. His remains were taken to South Side Hospital in Youngstown pending notification of his family. The civilian driver of the heavy truck, twenty-two-year-old Samuel Uphaus of Ann Arbor, Michigan, suffered minor injuries and was admitted to the same hospital. (NOTE: Sam Uphaus, now approaching eighty years of age, currently lives in Lake City, Florida. The driver of the tractor-trailer, William Staats, passed away in Akron at the age of seventy in August 1997.)

Common perception is that George was traveling east and returning home to New Castle from Canton, yet an article in the Youngstown Vindicator does not support this. In the newspaper article the Mahoning County Sheriff states that George was headed west on Route 224. The article also states that the truck convoy was headed to Williamsburg, Virginia, which would normally have it traveling to the east.

Funeral arrangements were handled by the Marshall Funeral Home in Wampum. A service, presided over by Father John Gibson, was held at St. Vitus Catholic Church in New Castle at 10:00am on Monday, February 16, 1953. Serving as pallbearers were Patrick Marinelli, Gene Russo, Anthony Pennachio, Steve LaPatka, George Teck, and George Migut. George was laid to rest in St. Vitus Cemetery later that day, not far from the plot where his father and brother Lou are buried. George left behind his wife Irene, who never remarried, and his two young daughters.