My Maternal Grandmother

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Cecilia Agnes Palko was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming on December 7th, 1911. 

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Cecilia was born to Andrew Peter Palko and Julia Helen Babinchak, the 2nd out of 11 children. When she was eight years old the family moved to the farm in Harriman, Tennessee.

 

In 1926 they moved to Lynch, Kentucky where her father worked in the coalmines and after he escaped from being trapped for about eighteen hours and his brother, John was killed in 1928, he said he would never work there again so he moved his family back tothe farm in Tennessee.

 

I am not sure where Mama (Cecilia) went to Elementary School, but she did attend Saint Vincent's Academy in Saint Vincent, Kentucky for her freshman and sophomore years. Later she and her brother Andrew went to Indiana and then to Illinois looking for work. Cecilia found a job in a saloon which we think was owned by Aunt Mary Bezvoda, our father’s aunt.

 

This is where she met Antone Malenovsky and they were married on August 30, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. After moving back to Harriman, Tennessee they

built a house in 1937 in the Little Emory Community. Antone was in and out of the family life for years and eventually left leaving Cecilia to raise their nine children on her own. She was a devoted mother who loved her children very much and taught us the values of life and to be true to our faith. Her Golden Rule was, “Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.” She also believed that everyone should trust in the Lord, because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have anything.

 

She loved growing flowers both inside and outside but didn't have a favorite one. During the summer she would plant her garden of various vegetables and buy peaches so that everything could be canned for the winter. Who could forget the sauerkraut? Mama never wasted any time. She was always busy crocheting, knitting, making quilts, baking bread, cakes, pies and we can't forget the nut rolls. Besides all this she even made clothes for her children.

 

She was a member of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Harriman, Tennessee where she was very active in church functions such as washing the altar cloths and other articles used for Mass, in the Adult Bible Class, a charter member of the Catholic Women's Club where she held several offices, and secretary of the Parish Council. While her children were in school she was active in the Parent Teacher Association and served several times as President and Secretary. Later she was the Manager and cook at the school cafeteria until the school closed. She was a member of the Roane County Craft Club, American Association of Retired Persons and President of the Emory Home Demonstration Club. She was listed among Community Leaders and Noteworthy Americans 1976-1977 and Personal of the South 1976-1977.

 

By the end of 1977 her health began failing. She was in and out of the hospital several times during the next two years and the doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong with her. By the end of October, 1979 she was very ill. She was once again admitted to the Methodist Hospital in Oak Ridge, TN, where she remained until she passed away on November 8, 1979.