Malugani Family History, Part V; Joe Malugani Chapter

Joseph Constantino Malugani, Jr. (1925-2023)

11A61. Joseph “Sonny” Constantino Malugani was born on April 11, 1925, in “rural Calistoga,” Sonoma County, California, an area that refers to the hills above Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa, but on the Sonoma side of the county line. Joe married Donna Guglielmetti and had three children:

As a young man, Joe worked with his father at his shale pit on Porter Creek Road above Santa Rosa. According to his 1943 draft registration, at the age of 18, Joe was 5' 6" tall, 140 pounds, with brown eyes, brown hair, a ruddy complexion, and a scar on the palm of his left hand.^{[Draft 1943]} The following year, Joe enlisted at the age of 19 as a Private in the U.S. Army on August 17, 1944.^[WWII] He and Donna married not long afterward and settled at 4512 Porter Creek Road, adjacent to his father's shale pit, by 1950, and continued to work as a shale pit operator.^{[Cen 1950]}

Donna was also a descendant of Valle Maggia, Ticino, Switzerland, and as it turns out, she and Joe were unknowingly half fifth cousins, tracing back to Giovanni Battista Lafranchi (1732-˜1783). Her Guglielmetti ancestors were from Coglio and Joe's Cerini ancestors were from neighboring Giumaglio.

The family moved over the hill to Calistoga, Napa County, in 1958, but their home later burned down during a brush fire in September 1964. Later the family relocated to Smith Valley, Lyon County, Nevada.

Donna (Guglielmetti) Malugani died on July 5, 2016, at the age of 90.

Joe Malugani, Jr., died seven years later in November 2023 at the age of 98.

Aurelia (Malugani) Thompson

11A62. Aurelia “Sis” Malugani was born in Sonoma County, California. She married Clifford Thompson and had three sons:

Aurelia moved to Whitefish, Flathead County, Montana.

Josephine Evalina (Malugani) Kearns^Δ (1929-2007)

11A63. Josephine “Beb” Evalina Malugani^Δ was born on May 30, 1929, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. She was apparently named for her aunt Josephine and her mother. She married Robert “Bob” Henry Kearns, Jr., a World War II Navy veteran and widower from Florida, on April 27, 1950, in Hollister, San Benito County, California. Bob had a son from his first marriage to Evelyn May Puffer, who died at the young age of 23. Bob and Josephine had one daughter together:

Robert Henry Kearns, Jr. died on July 23, 1996, in Santa Rosa at the age of 73. He is buried at the Santa Rosa Memorial Park in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California.

Josephine “Beb” Evalina (Malugani) Kearns died on March 14, 2007, in Santa Rosa, two months short of her 78th birthday. She was buried three days later at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.

Richard Eugene Malugani^Δ (1939-2004)

11A64. Richard Eugene Malugani^Δ was born on December 2, 1939, in Sonoma County, California. He was named by his elder sister Aurelia and his middlename was given to him in memory of his paternal cousin Eugene Magatelli who died the year before his birth. Richard married Ellen Leona Ross, a native of Salina, Saline County, Kansas, on November 20, 1960, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. They had three children:

Richard served in the Navy in the late 1950s, and one year while home on leave his sister Sue introduced him to Ellen. Sue and Ellen worked together at the Cal Theater on B Street in Santa Rosa. They wed on November 20, 1960, at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Rosa.

Richard ran his father's shale pit on Porter Creek Road above Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. Their home at the shale pit was a common gathering place at Easter and an excellent location for Easter egg hunts. Richard retired and sold the shale pit in April 1979 and moved to a new home on Mark West Springs Road.

Richard and Ellen divorced in 1991. Ellen went to work for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. She later developed cancer and died on September 18, 1997. She was only 54 years old.

Not long after this Richard developed Progressive Supernuclear Palsy, a rare, debilitative, brain disease, and after a long struggle succumbed on August 11, 2004. He was 64 years old.

Sue (Malugani) Long^Δ

11A65. Sue Malugani^Δ was born in Sonoma County. She married John Arthur Long in 1960 and had three sons.

Sue worked at the Cal Theater on B Street in Santa Rosa with Ellen Ross, who went on to marry Sue's elder brother Richard in 1960.

John Arthur Long died on January 7, 1999, at the age of 58.