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Ralph Owen Coplien (I293)
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Personal Facts and Details
  Events of close relatives | |
| Birth | 16 December 1911  25 24 Family Farm, Juda, Wi, Green Co. |
| Christening | Union Church, Spring Grove, Green, WI |
| Marriage | 25 September 1939 or 1930 (Age approx. 28) Marjorie Juanita Blackford - [View Family (F192)]
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| Marriage | 5 February 1949 (Age 37) Catherine Anne Donker - [View Family (F193)]
Home of John Donker, Freeport, Steph. Il |
| Divorce | Marjorie Juanita Blackford - [View Family (F192)]
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| Death of mother | 18 February 1973 (Age 61) Lola May Zimmerman (I7302) (Age 85) - [Relationship Chart] |
| Death of father | 12 November 1977 (Age 65) Albert Oscar Coplien (I7303) (Age 91) - [Relationship Chart] |
| Death | 1 March 1999 (Age 87) Mercy Manor, Rock Cty, Janesville Wi Cause of death: Parkinson's Related Ilness Note: 4th Floor |
| Reference Number | 2 |
| Universal Identifier | A8A7F623CF89D511973400E02931A951A564 |
| Burial | Milton Lawns, Janesville, Rock Cty, WI Note: section G |
| Last Change | 9 September 2007 - 20:29:51 Last changed by: dcoplien |
Notes
 Note |
nickname Jim given to him by his Grandpa Christ Coplien. Christ had a German accent. Believe ed he was saying Joachim, the name of Christ's uncle. At age 14 his father was ill and asked Ralph to quit school and run the farm. Not only did he provide for his family at the ripe old age of 14, he also provided for his Grandmother Tillie ‎‎‎(Matzke)‎‎‎ Coplien. For a reward, when he turned 16, he was allowed to buy a car....an Aw-Tay-Mo-Biel, as his father called it. Loved to hunt and fish. Played catcher for a baseball team in Brodhead for many years. After retirement he learned to play golf and once shot a hole in one. He was on the GMAC Bowling league for over 50 years. As a young man, he shot a hole in the kitchen floor, set his new car on fire when he was 16 by dropping a cigar down the window well, ran his next new car into the river while trying to launch a new fishing boat, drove his motor cycle through his mother's fence and got thrown into the Juda jail for telling the sheriff he had a big butt. He, his father and Grandpa Coplien would often sit outside of the general store, eat pickles out of the barrel while listening to the civil war vets recount their battles. Both of his grandfather's were his best buddies. His pride was an old and broken pocket watch given to him by his Grandpa Zimmerman. For many many years he carried that broken watch in his pocket, attached to his belt with a shoestring. On Sundays, he and his cousin would head to a hill by Juda and race their motorcycles up a hill. When I drove my motorcycle home one year from Florida, my Dad wanted to take it for a drive. His bike had the gear shift on the tank and the clutch was where my brake was. He got a little confused, drove my new bike into a light pole and dumped it. Not even his pride was hurt. It just gave him one more story to tell. His horse as a young boy was Old Ned, a retired Belgin plow horse. He and his uncle Clayton would go north on horse back every spring to bring back new livestock. It is assumed his father ‎‎‎(probably via his Grandpa Zimmerman)‎‎‎ arranged for a better horse for the long trip. Just before the start of WWII, he and a buddy joined the Navy. Ralph was turned down due to medical reasons and made bombs at the GM plant in Janesville instead. His buddy David Riely was on the USS Oklahoma when it went down and was killed. My Dad never forgave himself. He thought he should have been the one that died. At the end of his life, my Dad thought he had died at Pearl Harbor and that his good friend David had survived. I never knew until a few years after my father died that David had been raised my my Dad's relatives, Elmer and Della Matzke Asmus. Member of the original sit down crew that formed the UAW but he worked for security and was not a member of the union. death: Parkinson's |
Media
 Multimedia Object |  Ralph and Catherine (Donker) Coplien
Format: JPG Image Dimensions: 450 x 300 Type: tombstone Catherine Anne Donker - [View Family (F193)] |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph Catherine (Donker) Coplien 50th
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 1381 x 1035 Type: newspaper Catherine Anne Donker - [View Family (F193)] |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph and Catherine (Donker) Coplien Wedding
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 650 x 929 Type: photo Catherine Anne Donker - [View Family (F193)] Note: At the home of Catherine's father and step-mother, Freeport, Stephenson, IL |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph and Catherine (Donker) Coplien
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 964 x 1134 Type: photo |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph Coplien WWII
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 394 x 444 Type: photo Note: Ralph making bombs during WWII at the Fisher Body (now GM) plant, Janesville, Rock WI |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph Coplien (young boy)
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 456 x 787 Type: photo Note: This was Ralph's favorite picture of himself. Taken on the family farm in Jefferson township, Ralph was about to go rabbit hunting. He is holding a box of .22's in his hand. |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph, Doris, Wilma Coplien about 1918
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 650 x 977 Type: photo |
Multimedia Object |  Ralph, Wilma, Marion Coplien
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 650 x 469 Type: photo Note: 1998 - Mercy Nursing Home, Parker Place, Janesville, Rock, WI Ralph was a resident there. left to right, Ralph, Wilma, Marion |
Multimedia Object |  Christian Coplien Homestead
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 650 x 428 Note: Farm of Christian and Tillie(Matzke)Coplien. Sec 24, Jefferson, Green, WI. Grandson Ralph Coplien was born on the kitchen table. |
Multimedia Object | Ralph O. Coplien
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 221 x 360 Type: photo |
Multimedia Object |  Chateau de Harourt, France
Format: jpg Image Dimensions: 650 x 435 Type: photo Note: Ancestral home of Malinda (Walters) Zimmerman. Malinda Walters is the 6th great granddaughter of Jean Henri De Harcourt, descendant of Jean II d'Harcourt , Viscount of Châtellerault, Lord of Harcourt, (died 1302 ), Marshal of France in 1283. Jean Henri is the 9th great grandfather of Malinda's great grandchildren. Jean I De Hardcourt OR Preudhomme,1180 Ponthieu, , Nord, France, is the son of Richard De Harcourt and Jeanne De La Roche-Teston. See URL |
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Family with Parents - [View Family (F194)] |
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Family with Marjorie Juanita Blackford - [View Family (F192)] |
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Family with Catherine Anne Donker - [View Family (F193)] |
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Research Assistant
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