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Guest Book
Catherine Lucich Duncan said: August 5th, 2014 4:12 am
It makes me very sad to read this beautifully written history of your life. I graduated Moreland Notre Dame High School the year you were born. I baby-sat with Jolene and Kathy they were infants at that time, also, with Marlene Massera. I used to wash Bud's car for one dollar on some Saturdays when he visited Nellie who lived next door with my Aunt & Uncle Lucich. He started his business in the shed behind my family's house. I helped with bundling green onions..There was never any talk about you in my family. There was no gossip or raised eyebrows..My mother would have told me if she.had known anything. I have memories of Pete visiting us when he was on furlough from the Service with his girlfriend ..So many memories.... Now that I know that you exist, I am happy welcome you to our Family...As my Mother would have done long ago , had she known..... Your Cousin, Catherine
JOHN EDMONDSON VUKASOVICH
(Maleta)
Old Secrets -- New Revelations
JULY/AUGUST 2024
" . . . In this we can agree: We all have 'something,' and for some, many things for which to be thankful.
Let us pray for all victims and for the justice to which they are entitled."
"LACRIMOSA"
(The Requiem in D Minor, K--626)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
--111 Years--
John W. "Bud" Vukasovich
Agricultural Legend
B. 12-2-1913 Watsonville
D. 12-26-1991 Yuma
P T S D
Harvard University, Chan School of Public Health, UCSF Geneticist Jeremy Willsey, and Stanford University research have now determined that PTSD is transferable, i.e., genetically, to the children of those affected, including Jolene, Kathy Ann, Colette, and myself, as the children of orphaned brothers of the Spanish Flu Pandemic.
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REFERENCE:
CHERISHED NIECE AND NEPHEWS
AT END OF PUBLICATION FOR FURTHER REMARKS REGARDING THIS MATTER.
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Thoughts and Prayers
Anna Louise B.B. Resetar Radin
1935 -- 2022
My sincere condolences to Peter and Michelle. Our families are related, cousins, have shared mutual business interests (Apple Growers, Packing and Shipping, we processed your family brand). Pete and B.B. celebrated decades of New Years Eves together with John and Mildred Maleta, often including Apple Growers Cold Storage Board of Directors Holiday Events, San Francisco and Palm Springs venues. All of us born and raised in Watsonville, the "privileged legacy" of wealthy, pioneer farming families: A.L. Resetar, John BUD Vukasovich, Harold Trafton and our intertwined families and destinies. B.B. and I mutually enjoyed playing the piano, sun bathing, a great steak, and the talents of Sammy Davis, Jr. Like a California Poppy overlooking the Pacific Ocean, B.B.'s memory is transcendent. But
as business associates and defenders of liars and my betrayers, behavior personally destructive to me, the vulnerable and innocent: These people, my family, have NO PROBLEM DECEIVING ME, AND NOW THEY WANT RESPECT for what they have done?? SUBJUGATE, DEMEAN, DENY!! APPALLING! Because my BUD Vukasovich family has been cruel to me, in our hometown Watsonville, that doesn't give you or anyone else the right! Your mother, B.B., deceived me in 1999 after June Kovacich revealed my birth identity, and thirteen years later admitted she knew all about it (2012). Why should I believe anything you say? I no longer trust you. Remember, our families became wealthy "off the backs of non-union, minimum wage farm workers." Should they protest or honor their oppressors?? This is why I will no longer attend memorials for people, to whom my existence is antithetical.
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FOLLOW-UP
Unrelated Molly Resetar
and the "others"
I am reminded of your in-laws Jerry and Gloria, whose widely known combative and threatening behaviors, abused me in full view of my parents and other children during a multi-family picnic at Mt. Madonna Park ('62-'63). I was forced to lock myself in a car for protection from Gloria's toxic, hateful behavior, a result of my refusal to participate in her baseball game as an object of their derision.! And as I lived only a block away, I never felt safe in Watsonville around them or their family again!! The Maleta Family always gave their greatest respect to Pete and Pauline Banovac.
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More Thoughts and Prayers
Clarification and Amplification
Watsonville Register-Pajaronian,
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Obituary for
Dave Moore
1953 - 2021
I attended Watsonville High School 65-68, along with Dave Moore, Matt and Lyda Lettunich, Marcie Estrada, the Pine and Woolpert brothers, classmates, friends, and Martinelli St. neighbors including my adopted brother. Dave's father Eugene operated a Watsonville bar with Ray Pasley, and later both men found decades of employment working for my father, Bud Vukasovich, Yuma and C & V Farms. . . . "small world, isn't it?" I'm glad Dave found a place in the industry his family served and by benefitting from the kindness and help of his employer, Matt Lettunich, who maybe now can retire and devote his efforts to philanthropic causes. Help the "farm workers" that made some Watsonville families so very rich! GIVE BACK!
COUSIN
Ann Lucich Johann
1932 - 2018
According to information available...
Why did you omit Bud Vukasovich, Pete Vukasovich and Nellie Vukasovich Mir, your first cousins and their children??
My Grandmother Marie Lucich Vukasovich, is your father's (Lucich's) immediate family and the mother of Agricultural Legend "Bud" Vukasovich and grandmother of my sisters, Jolene, Kathy Ann, and me, John Edmondson Vukasovich Maleta. Your close association with the William and Marie Lucich Vukasovich family dates to their tragic passing, and to their orphaned children, "Bud", Peter, and Nellie. Including the early founding of my father's multi-million dollar business success; i.e, representing the most successful Lucich (Vukasovich) family in the history of Watsonville, and did Bud assist with the establishment of your business,too? Most importantly, your omissions, in view of the fact that my Aunt Nellie Vukasovich Mir and her Husband are entombed in the Lucich Family Mausoleum!, and your sister Catherine Duncan, in her email response to me in August, 2014 welcomed me, on behalf of your mother, to the Lucich family, sadly, it seems to be part of a pattern of betrayal, mendacity, and obfuscation. So, how can this be interpreted as proper Catholic behavior, BOO---HISS! Obviously, we cannot change who we are by birth or anyone's resentment of it, and in the name of my Grandmother, Marie Lucich Vukasovich, I REJECT YOUR REJECTION!
REQUIESCAT IN PACE
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Condolences
Martin Colendich
(1929-2017)
C and V Farms
Upon continued investigation I have found that Madeleine and Anthony Colendich signed my grandfather Nick Maleta's memorial book (1972) proving beyond a three generation family connection.
Regarding my BETRAYAL and EXCLUSION, I FEEL VINDICATED BY YOUR PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF GRATITUDE TO MY FATHER BUD VUKASOVICH; for his contribution to the foundation of your family's successful farming business! It's easy to understand why you and business partner, Cousin "Boogie" Vukasovich were so intimidated, that you didn't dare to speak openly of me for fear of Bud's wealth and retribution. Like others, including a local state senator, you "went along to get along." And NOW inextricably involved in the legacy of my Vukasovich Families' and their associates' UNJUST AND IMMORAL TREATMENT OF BUD'S SON, by which some have OBVIOUSLY benefited greatly! An IRREFUTABLE perspective I was given by birth!!!
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JUNE 2024
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