as I was still dating Bob McGurrin. My mom and Pat Padden wanted to leave early and I told them I would find a ride with one of my friends. It seemed like some of my friends rode with Frank, so I asked him if I could ride home. He said ok if he could drop me off last. I said,“You’re driving...” that was the beginning of our friendship.Your guessed it, he drove me home last and parked at little down the street from my mom’s house. After talking a while and a few kisses, he tried to put his hand up my skirt and I hit him and started to cry (no one had ever done anything like this before.) He, of course was sorry and apologized.We dated from then on and married a year later.. Frank use to send a taxi to pick me up and I would meet him at his hangout Magnotta’s Cafe in the hill section. I didn’t drink, but he always insisted. So, my first drink was a Slow Gin and 7UP. This went on for months and I don’t remember him taking me anywhere else. We would sit in a booth in the back room and talk and play the juke box. Amazingly enough, his favorite song was “The Tennessee Waltz.” I was also seeing Tommy Portanova whom I met before Frank. One afternoon I received a call in my room that I had a visitor downstairs. It was Tommy. We sat in the lounge on one of the couches and he presented me with a beautiful diamond ring and asked me to marry him. I had never even kissed this fellow. I was shocked to the core. He put it on my finger and asked me to think about it. I did not want to accept it. I said I wouldn’t and thought,“What would Frank think?” as I had a date with him that evening. Up to this point, I had no thoughts of marriage as I was happy just stepping into the world. The taxi arrived and drove me to Magnotta’s and Frank was eating. We sat in the back lounge ordered a drink and then he saw it. “What is this? ” I told him the crazy story and he kept telling me to give it back, give it back. “I was planning to get you one.” Another shocker, only I loved Frank and it just snowballed from there. We were married in a large Catholic wedding September 23, 1950. I was much too young, but very mature, yet I cannot regret it as I have two wonderful, intelligent, and beautiful daughters whom I love to the enth degree. We were married five years.
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