Anna Jane Devine
(May 11, 1900 - December 1, 1937)
Anna Jane Devine was my grandmother, one I never met for she died in 1937, long before I was born. Married at the age of fourteen and dead by the time she was thirty-seven, Anna's life was short and difficult. She married a Lithuanian immigrant coal miner and gave birth to four children, three of whom lived to adulthood. I don't know what my grandmother was like but I've heard stories about her short temper and how she once chased her son around the yard wielding a butcher knife. I do know that all three of her children turned out to be fine citizens, people of strong moral character, hard-working and trustworthy. I believe their mother played an important role in shaping and molding their personalities and character.
Anna Jane Devine was the second child born to Thomas Maple "Mape" Devine and his wife Gertrude Mae Johnson Devine. Mape was born in Martin County, Indiana on March 15, 1876. Gertie was born in Terre Haute, Indian on February 25, 1883. They married in Knox County, Indiana on August 11, 1896. Their son John William "Spot" Devine was born November 07, 1897 in Davis County, Indiana. Anna Jane followed on May 11, 1900 at Petersburg, Indiana. Another daughter, Inez Lorece was born July 07, 1903 and then a son, Charles Leroy Devine on September 11, 1906. Roy Hershel Devine came along July 01, 1908 in Grayson, Illinois. The last child, Orval Lee Devine, was born January 1912 and died three months later.
I know nothing about how Anna Jane met Joe Uknavage, if there was a courtship, what her family thought of her marriage at age fourteen to a man twice her age, none of that. I do know that her first child, Petrona, a pretty little girl, went to live with Joe's sister Frances and her husband Louis many miles away - Westville, Illinois. Frances and Louis had no children of their own and they probably were better off financially than Joe and Anna. Maybe that's the reason she lived with them until she was a teenager. My dad, Joe Uknavage, Jr. told me that he didn't realize he even had an older sister until she came home for a visit late in her childhood.
Anna Jane Uknavage died at her mother's home in Raleigh, Saline County, Illinois, on December 1, 1937. Her death certificate says she died of chronic Bright's disease (kidney disease) . A relative told me she may have been pregnant. Her death was a blow to her husband and children; just two years later her husband also died. Both of her sons joined the Navy and served our country in World War II. Petrona was already married with a child of her own when her mother died and turned to her Aunt Francie for solace and support.