Joe was born in Les Eboulements, Province of Quebec, Canada, as the 3d son/ 4th child of Albert Kendell [the french spelling] and Marie Luce Bergeron Kendell. Albert relocated shortly after Joe's birth to become church sexton in the Upper Frenchville, Me potato farming community astride the St Johns River, i.e.., the international boundary with New Brunswick, Canada. Joe's oldest brother, Alfesh, predeceased the family's relocation. His older sister, Valeta, died in the 1940s as did his mother. Albert died in 1952. Joe's younger brothers were Sylvio {'Ed"} (Joe's life-long charge, who died in approximately 1950 -- see family tomb at Cote Des Neiges Cemetary on Mt Royal in Montreal, Canada to which the family sans Joe relocated shortly after Joe left home), John (who died in the early 1970s , having been a Golden Gloves champion of the City of Montreal, a Lieutenant in the police Vice Squad decorated for going undercover, later co - trustee of the 1200 apartment Succession Bergeron established by Adelard), and Thomas ( retired as a foreman of Dominion Rubber, past chequers champion of the City of Montreal and president of the city's provincial-sponsored Age D'Or senior citizen clubs who died in the 1990s). Joe also had a younger sister, Therese, who died in the early 1980s in Quebec City, her husband, Omer Levesque, was a partner in the notorious Hotel Levesque. Joe left home [viz.,Upper Frenchville, Aroostook County, Me ] in approximately 1920, first to work in a lumber camp with which his uncles Abel and Adelard Bergeron were affiliated, later -- thanks to the generosity of his Uncle Fr. Edouard Bergeron, the Upper Frenchville parish rector, to study at the Fort Kent Academy and eventually to live with his oldest surviving brother, Victor (who died in the late 1980s) , and sister in law Elise, in Salem, MA. By age 19, he was the plant or factory manager of Peabody, MA.'s Ivory System, the world's first athletic equipment reconditioner. He was married and divorced in his 20s, with no issue from that marriage. By the late 1940, Joe left Ivory System, ultimately founding All American Co, a reconditioner based in Elyria, OH. On November 9, 1949, he married Lola Henson Tonry with whom he eventually had three sons, viz., William Robert, Ronald Edward and Gary Thomas. In December, 1949, Joe began working as Plant Superintendant at Olympic in East Stroudsburg, PA from which he retired in approximately 1980. After living in rental houses on Broad Street, Pocono Park Dr and Wallace Street in Stroudsburg , Joe and Lola in 1954 purchased a duplex at 739 Bryant Street from the guardian of the Violet Ehrgood Estate where they resided until shortly before Joe's death nearly one year after suffering a severe CVA.
ADVERTISEMENT
BY
Looking for more information?
