John and Rose Marie Granieri’s Autobiographies
John Granieri was born on September 10th, 1922 to Anthony and Guilia Granieri in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. I had one sister, Annie and five brothers. Two of my brothers died as infants, my brother Frank served in World War II and died in action in Italy, my brothers Ernest and Anthony, Jr. worked on the farm with my father. They farmed land to raise vegetables and we had a dairy farm. In my young years I lived on the farm, and I also lived with my Uncle Johnny and Aunt Theresa. Uncle Johnny owned a grocery store on Flores Street and I spent many days and nights with them and working the store. On the farm I had a small pinto pony that I had to take care of. We had a creek that ran in the back of our farm, and that is where I learned to swim when my brother decided that he would simply throw me in the water and it was either sink or swim. My worse fear though was a chicken we had that really didn’t like me and would chase me all over the place. I left home at the age of 19 and went to England with the 8th Air Force. In 1944 I joined the Navy and spent 18 months on a minesweeper, The USS Howard. My job most of the time was in the engine room where no one else wanted to work because it was so hot. I went through five different invasions and my last invasion was Iwo Jima. I also crossed the equator. My base headquarters was Hawaii and we did get to enjoy some time there once in a while. I came home after the war and met my wife RoseMarie Granata in 1945. We were married on November 24th, 1946. My wife’s parents were Salvatore and Michelina Granata. My parents and my in-laws all came to the United States from Italy. My wife, better known as “Rosie” had five brothers, Gabriel, Pete, Sam, Jr., Frank and Louie. After many years with the City of San Antonio, Rosie’s brother Sam became City Manager of San Antonio, which was a great accomplishment. I went to work Civil Service at Kelly Air Force Base where I put in 30 years. Rosie stayed home to raise our two daughters, Janice & Jo Ann. When JoAnn entered high school, Rosie went to work at a day care for a while and then started working for the San Antonio Independent School District as a teacher’s aide and worked with the physically challenged children. She worked for 18 years with the school district and retired in 1989. From May 1980 until February 1981 I cared for the two girls, until our daughter Janice quit working to wait for the arrival of our third granddaughter, Lisa. Rosie retired in the meantime and we spent many happy days with our daughters and granddaughters and in August of 1983 our daughter JoAnn had a son, John Walker Coleman. From the grandchildren’s early years we took family vacations to Rockport Texas and Corpus Christi where the kids enjoyed the beach and fishing. Rosie and I loved being there with them, and trying to teach them how to swim and how to fish. My favorite pass time is fishing and I just love being at the coast. Now that the kids are older we enjoy being together and going to the movies and on little day trips to Fredricksburg, Wimberly and Bandera. We haven’t even made a dent in all the things to do and see in this beautiful state. The grandkids and daughters gave us a beautiful 50th wedding anniversary party in 1996 and this November 2004 we will celebrate our 58th wedding anniversary.
