By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
An Italian immigrant raised in Pennsylvania met the love of his life in the little town of Antonino, Kansas, during World War II.
It was an 80-year love story that would burn brightly through war, sickness and even death.
Jo Ann Jennings of Hays told the incredible love story of Frank Malizia and his wartime bride Irene Deter during a presentation at the Hays VFW on Feb. 16.
The Hays Arts Council, of which Jennings is vice president of the board, sponsored the event. The center accepted free-will donations for its Heart of Hays capital campaign.
SEE RELATED STORY: Hays Arts Council launches $3M capital campaign
Jennings met Malizia through her connection with the Coffelt database, the most comprehensive collection of information on U.S. Armed Forces casualties in Vietnam.
Jennings's husband, Richard Coffelt, with the assistance of others, established the database over many years. It is now available to access for free through the National Archives.
After Richard’s death, a veteran's magazine published a story in 2013 about the database. Malizia, who was 92 at the time, read that story and recognized Hays as a familiar place. This led him to contact Jennings.
This would spark a friendship that would span years and 227 pages of correspondence between Jennings and Malizia in which Frank detailed his love story with Irene and the eventual heartbreak that followed.
Jennings said the couple's love story came through the letter in short "chapters," as Frank called them, as he said he would become too emotional to share all of his memories of Irene at once.
Frank was born in Italy. Shortly after he was born his father left to settle in America. When Frank was 7, he and his mother came to the United States on a ship, entered the country through Ellis Island and joined Frank's Father in New Castle, Pennsylvania.
In his first letter to Jennings, Frank explained how the article had sparked memories of his time at Walker Airbase and Great Bend during World War II.
Frank was drafted into the Army in 1942. He was based in Salt Lake City before being transferred to Great Bend. He was friends with Sylvester Sauer, an Ellis native.
Malizia wrote in his first letter about “the most beautiful girl in the world” from Antonino, whom he met through Sauer at a local dance.
“At that time in my life, I didn’t dance,” he said, “but at the end of the evening, Sylvester introduced me to this beautiful girl from Antonino, Kansas. Wow! Was I overcome! I asked this beautiful girl if the next time I was in town if she would like to go to a movie, and she said all right,” Malizia said in his first letter to Jennings.
Malizia rented a bike built for two, and the lovebirds took a ride into the country.
"I was so, so impressed with her," Malizia wrote. "I just had to see her again. This beautiful girl was 17, and I was 21. We hit it off great. I proposed to this beautiful girl from Kansas."
The two were married on Nov. 23, 1943.
After receiving the letter, Jennings realized the couple's anniversary was approaching, so she, accompanied by her mother, took flowers to Irene's grave.
Jennings mother, who was about the same age as Frank, heard the story and was filled with questions. Jennings was at first reluctant to pry.
"He'll tell me when he wants to tell me," she told her mother.
Her mother said, "Jo Ann, he's 92."
But Frank was forthcoming, laying out more of his life with Irene in letter after letter.
Irene became pregnant with a son. Before Irene gave birth, Frank was deployed to the Pacific. Irene went into labor. She was taken to the hospital in Hays, but the doctor was unavailable.
Jennings said it is unclear what happened next, but according to Frank, a belt was tied either around Irene's belly or her legs to keep her from delivering before the doctor arrived. As a result, the baby, which the couple named Robert, was stillborn. He was buried in the Antonino cemetery.
"I think Frank never really got over that because even after the war ended and he came back to Hays, he went to the hospital to try to find answers to what happened with Robert, but he was told it would be best if he didn't cause any trouble," Jennings said.
After the end of the war, Irene and Frank moved back to Frank's home in Pennsylvania.
Irene became pregnant again and delivered a healthy baby, Carol Ann, on Dec. 8, 1946.
About a month after Carol Ann was born, Irene was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The family worked with multiple doctors seeking treatment for Irene. She was in sanitoriums in Pennsylvania and then Illinois.
Despite Frank and the doctor's efforts, Irene's condition deteriorated.
"She was 19 years old. Imagine. She was 19 years old, and she tells him, 'I think I'm dying. I have a 1-year-old baby and a wonderful husband. I don't think I'm going to live, and I want to go home to my mother and dad," Jennings said.
Against the doctors' recommendations, Frank hired a private car for himself and Irene and returned to Kansas. Doctors saw Irene in Wichita before being transferred to another sanitorium in Norton. Frank worked at a meat packing plant in Hays during the week and visited Irene in Norton on the weekends.
Irene died on May 30, 1949, of tuberculosis at the age of 22. She was buried in the Antonino cemetery next to their infant son, Robert.
Frankn said of Irene in the very first letter to Jennings, "I never stopped loving that most beautiful girl from Antonino."
Irene's parents had been raising Carol, but Frank decided to return to Pennsylvania, where he raised Carol Ann. He later told Jennings that taking his daughter out of Kansas and away from her maternal family was one of the biggest regrets of his life.
"At that time, I was 27. I had been in a major war. I lost the love of my life. I had a 2-1/2-year-old. I didn't know what I was going to do," Frank told Jennings.
Frank would go on to have a full life. He remarried about 20 years after he lost Irene. He had two more children, Kim and Frank. However, his second marriage ended in divorce.
Frank retired as a Hotel and Restaurant Owner of the Leslie Hotel, The Hut and Dino's. He had also worked as a food equipment salesman.
According to his obituary, he also enjoyed playing Bocce, going golfing and having coffee with friends.
Frank told Jennings that since Irene's death, he had been traveling every other year to Antonino from his home in Pennsylvania to decorate his former wife's grave.
On one of these trips, Jennings and Frank met and spent about two weeks together. Frank shared more stories about Irene and his time in Kansas.
He continued to travel back to Ellis County to visit Irene until his health began to fail.
He asked Jennings to continue the tradition of visits to Irene's grave.
On Jan. 12, just short of his 102nd birthday, Frank died. His last request was to be buried next to Irene in the Our Lady of Help Cemetery in Antonino.
On a blustery day on Jan. 23, with a cousin, Jennings, a couple of members of the Antonino parish, Father Curtis Carlson, and the Hays V.F.W. Post No. 9076 color guard, Frank finally rejoined Irene.
"It's a long love story," Jennings said. "We should all be so lucky to be loved for 80 years and a love that was deep and strong."
Frank asked Jennings to continue visiting and maintaining his and Irene's graves in the small cemetery off a dirt road in Antonino.
"I had been taking care of Irene's grave since I found out about this love story, and I promised I would take care of his, the two of them," Jennings said. "As long as I'm here, it is now my responsibility."
She said she usually takes flowers near the anniversary of Irene's death, which falls close to Memorial Day. She also decorates the graves on Frank and Irene's anniversary.
"And I shall do it as long as I can for both of them," she said.