698 12th Street, Milwaukee

This wooden house is typical of the homes built in Milwaukee in the middle of the 19th century. They were put up rapidly to cope with the influx of immigrants and were usually divided into several flats.

At the time of the 1900 census, Jan Wittak rented the front flat to the Hauta family and the upstairs flat to the Hesse family while he and his family and his tailoring business occupied the bungalow in the rear. The house to the left was the Powondra Funeral Home. Also on this block were two bowling alleys, a bakery, a knitting works, a cigar factory, a drug store and a steam laundry. They lived blocks away from the Schlitz Brewing factory and close to Schlitz Park, a beer garden that provided entertainment for the whole family.


This picture was taken during World War I; the star in the window indicated a member of the family (Frank Wittak) was serving in the military. At this time, his older brother George was living in the upstairs flat with his wife, young children (shown on the porch) and his mother-in-law. Marie, who was one of these children, remembers being shushed a lot. She wrote: “Living downstairs with my grandmother were my dad’s three brothers and two sisters, who I surmise were not too tolerant of the noise of young ones.”

After George bought his own house a few blocks away, his sister, Helen and her new husband, Joe Fridl lived in the upstairs flat. Caroline, Jan's widow, lived in the house, with stepson, Joe, until her death in 1933.

Marie Fitzgerald 1917-2009

Marie Wittak was born on February 19, 1917 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was the fourth child of George Wittak and Mary Trost, but she enjoyed the role of the youngest child until she was seven years old when her mother gave birth to twins: Jack and Jeanette. She's the baby in this picture where she's shown with her older siblings: Josephine, Clarence, and George.

Marie attended grade school, as did her siblings, at St. Boniface. When she graduated, she and her friend, Marion Fuhrman, split a two-year scholarship. Marie attended Cathedral High School, which was located in downtown Milwaukee, about a half hour away by streetcar. Her high school picture (to the left) was published in the paper when she took second place for her essay on the Monroe Doctrine in a contest sponsored by the Fourth degree Knights of Columbus.

Although she won a scholarship to Rosary College in Illinois, she stayed at home to help contribute to her family. Through her high school, she heard of an opening at the General Electric Supply Corporation and started working there as a file clerk. The headquarters were in downtown Milwaukee, only a few blocks from Monarch Manufacturing, where her father worked. She attended evening classes in psychology and philosophy with her friend, Felice, at Marquette University. She and Felice also traveled to California to visit Marie’s sister, Josephine, who had moved to Los Angeles after her marriage.

Marie enjoyed working—she worked her way up from file clerk to secretary to one of the managers—but she did not enjoy the weather in Milwaukee. After her trip to visit her sister in Los Angeles, she requested a transfer to the Los Angeles office which was accepted. She rented a bedroom in a house for a while (housing was tight because so many people had moved to L.A. to participate in the war effort) and then moved into a cottage at 1039 39th Place in the courtyard where her sister Jo lived with her husband. It cost $40 a month, more than one week’s pay at that time, and was within walking distance of the Coliseum, the Rose Gardens and the LA County Museum.

Marie loved many things about California: “it was beautifully warm, the fragrance of the orange blossoms in the air, and it seemed like Paradise compared to the cold winters where I was always slipping on ice.” She was godmother to Jo’s first child, Mary Jo, a role she also enjoyed.


At an Arthur Murray dance, Marie met Earl Fitzgerald. They made a trip to South Dakota to visit his relatives and Milwaukee so she could introduce him to her parents. The picture on the right, shows Marie between her parents and the very weather conditions, cold and ice and snow, she left Milwaukee to escape.

Marie Wittak married Earl Fitzgerald on January 28, 1950. Earl had moved to Los Angeles after getting out of the Army where he was in the Corps of Engineers, serving in the Philippines. He got a degree in Engineering at Los Angeles City College and began working for the City of Los Angeles as a Civil Engineer. His office was in the newly developed San Fernando Valley where he was responsible for designing storm drains.

In January of 1951, they bought a brand new house at 7803 Genesta Avenue in Van Nuys and in September 1951, their first child, Nancy, was born. Cathy was born in 1953 and Timothy in 1956. Marie left her job at General Electric when she got married but she missed it. After the kids were in school, she took a part-time job working one day a week for the local parish, St. Bridget of Sweden.

This Christmas picture was taken at the home of Jo and Bob Gugisberg, where the families gathered every year to celebrate the holidays. The two sisters, Jo and Marie, were close and talked on the telephone weekly. The Gugisberg’s lived in Temple City, and the drive from Van Nuys to Temple City took about an hour. The kids always liked to watch out for the cat faces painted on the covers of the drains that covered pipes running into the Los Angeles River. They also enjoyed seeing their cousins, Mary Jo and Robin. Cathy played the accordion and Nancy the piano to entertain their relatives.

Marie and Earl continued to enjoy dancing, first square dancing, and then round dancing. Earl worked as a civil engineer for the City of Los Angeles until his retirement. He died in 1983. Marie sold the house in Van Nuys and purchased a home in a retirement community in Ventura in 1994 so she could live near her son, Tim, who lived in Ventura with his wife and daughter, Taylor. (Nancy and Cathy had already moved to Seattle and Reno, in 1983 and 1990, respectively.)


Marie had a major heart attack in 1997, and after that she lived in a series of nursing and rest homes. For the last few years of her life she was lovingly cared for at Greenhills Care Home. She died peacefully on February 6, 2009 at Community Memorial Hospital. Her funeral Mass was held at Our Lady of Assumption Church in Ventura on February 11, 2009 and she was buried beside Earl Fitzgerald at San Fernando Mission Cemetery.