James Stoysich 1920-2015

STOYSICH

Posted By: Colleen Brown (email)
Date: 3/24/2015 at 16:02:47

Red Oak Express
Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa
March 24, 2015

James G. Stoysich, 94, Villisca, died March 19, 2015.

James Stoysich was born Dec. 7, 1920. James and his friend Morris Vandervoorde left Omaha in1939 in pursuit of machinist jobs in Boston, at the U.S. Naval Shipyards. After securing jobs and gaining experience, a call was put out for volunteers to transfer to the shipyards in Pearl Harbor. Being in their 20s both volunteered and were transferred.

On that fateful day of Dec. 7, 1941, James' 21st birthday, the Japanese attacked. They had just completed their night shift and were back at their barracks about a mile away. He recalled helping carry the dead sailors to a temporary morgue on the floor of the machine shop. Most of the sailors were younger than him and never had a chance of living their lives.

James and Morris married sisters eventually, becoming brothers-in-law. His brother Rudy and boyhood friends Ernest Wheeler and Donald Limpach all sought him out to visit him after stopping in Hawaii on their way to the Pacific Theater. Once the sunken ships were raised and the shipyard facilites were repaired, he was finally allowed to give up his shipyard worker deferment and entered the Navy, serving out the war in Portland, Maine.

He and wife, genevieve returned to Omaha after the war and started a family. He worked as a machinist at various machine shops and industries, including the Omaha World Herald.

James and Genevieve retired to their Villisca acreage in 1976 and lived his remaining years farming into his 70's and gardening into last year. With hospice and granddaughter Anna Stoysich and her husband Jorge Chavez'z help he was able to die at home in the house he, brother Tom, and his sons built. He had a wonderful and full life.

Preceding him in death were his wife, Genevieve ( Wozniak) , parents, Thomas W. and Elizabeth ( Kollar ) , brothers, Thomas J., Albert S., Rudy F., Frank P., and sister, Helen Quenelle.

He is survived by his children, Dan ( Cindy ) Stoysich, Claude ( Sylvia ) Stoysich, Annette ( Rich ) Wilson, grandchildren, Erin ( Matt) Bonham, Nick ( Kaitlin ) Stoysich, Simon ( Kelsey0 Stoysich, Anna Stoysich ( Jorge Chavez ) , Kate Stoysich, great grandchildren, Madison, Zander, Ashlynn, Sam, Liam, brothers,
Joseph and Paul ( Peg ) Stoysich, sister-in-laws, Rita Stoysich, Marilyn Stoysich, and Darlene ( John ) Macrander and many nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be Tuesday, March 24, 2015, from 4-8 p.m. at Korisko-Larkin Staskiewicz Funeral Home in Omaha. Funeral services will be Wednesday, March 25, 2015, at 9:30 a.m. at Holy Ghost Church, Omaha,. Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to the family for the charity of their choice.