52 Ancestors Year 2 #9: Clement Eugene Stefani

     My mother's Uncle Clem, Clement Eugene Stefani was born on 1 Mar 1908 in Issaquah, King, Washington.  He was the seventh child and youngest son of Frank John Stefani and Angelina Margarita Tinetti.  His father ran a saloon, then a laundry and eventually a Poultry Farm in Issaquah.
On 21 December 1929, at the age of 21, Clem married Petje Bergsma.  She was born in Friesland, the Netherlands, the daughter of Dutch immigrants to Issaquah.  They settled into a farmhouse next door to his parents and raised two children, Marian Mae and John Francis.

     On Dec 1, 1941 Clem began selling liquor at the Barney White Grocery Store, in six months moving to bigger quarters and by 1950 having his own store. On 30 Mar 1968 he retired after 26 years.  At this time Clem told the local paper that business had increased "500 fold since I started".

     When I was a girl we used to visit my mother's Uncle Clem and Aunt Peechie fairly often.  I remember his as a big friendly man, always welcoming and happy to see us. There often were various family members gathered on his porch. He lived next to his parents and took care of them as they got old, his father eventually coming to live with him. The theme for this week's blog is "close to home" and Clem was always close to home and he offered that sense of home to the entire family.