James Patrick Kane, age 93, of Friendship, Wisconsin died
Friday, April 20, 2007 at the Villa Pines Living Center in
Friendship, Wisconsin.
Mass of Christian Burial will be 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday,
April 24, 2007 at the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in
Friendship, Wisconsin. Father James P. McNamee will
officiate. Interment will be at the Quincy Cemetery, Town
of Quincy, Wisconsin.
Friends may call at the church on Tuesday from 9 to the
time of Mass on Tuesday.
James Patrick Kane was born on July 30th,
1913 in Chicago, IL. When he was about a year old, his
family moved to Cicero. He attended the Mary Queen of Heaven
church and grammar school. He had said that his grandmother
McCarthy was instrumental in getting this parish and school
started, so of course, that was where he attended.
"From the time my nose could reach the
keys on the piano, my father had me memorize songs. I
couldn�t read yet, so he would recite the words and I would
repeat them. Then he would play the notes and I had to
memorize them. Soon I was able to sing a number of old Irish
songs by myself." - JPK
He began singing at the Cathedral in
downtown Chicago when he was six. When the nuns found out he
could sing, they had him up on the stage all of the time. At
about 10 years old he became an alter boy, and by the time
he was 11, he was singing at the daily mass at 6:30 am. He
graduated from St. Mel�s High School in Chicago around 1931.
As those who loved him know, he continued
to move people with his Irish tenor at many weddings, family
gatherings and funerals throughout his life. To us he was
famous for the Tu-Ra-Lu-Ra Irish Lulla-bye and the Ave
Maria, which he sang at all our weddings. He was a member in
the church choir at St. Joeseph�s Catholic church, in
Friendship almost until his death.
As he got older he enjoyed athletic
activities and played basketball, tennis, softball and even
boxed for a year on a company team. In his later years
Grandma & Grandpa were both avid golfers.
Before he met "Jeanie", James worked at a
multitude of jobs, including doing his own mechanical work
on his vehicles. As a boy he would sort pipe-fittings for
his father and go out with him on jobs for his plumbing and
heating business. After high school he worked as a Good
Humor man pedaling ice cream to kids on the street. He
worked for the Transformer Corp of America testing
transformers, then later building speakers for radios. After
that he went to work for Spaulding and Gorham, a large store
on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. He kept inventory of purchases
and sales. It was while working there that he met and
married Lois Jean Kane. They were married on November 4th,
1936.
They had their only child on August 8th,
1937; James Moore Kane.
Once his family was started, James left
Spaulding & Gorham and took a job selling insurance, then
worked for a shop in LaGrange repairing home appliances, and
eventually was sent out in the field to work in large
heating plants installing stokers in furnaces. Grandpa moved
to Friendship, Wisconsin in 1946 and started farming. He
also worked, as many local men did, at various jobs
associated with the constructing the Castle Rock Dam. He
worked clearing the bottom lands of trees, mining local
stone for riprap (he was licensed in dynamite!), and other
similar work.
He spent the last 45 years of his life as
a member of the Steamfitters local 394 in Madison,
Wisconsin. The last 20 years before he retired he was the
Serviceman for a company out of Madison, named, Pharo.
He was preceded in death by his parents,
two sisters, grandson, Patrick Joeseph Kane and his wife of
55 years, Lois Jean (Trostle) Kane.
He is survived by his only son, James M.
Kane and his wife, Judith A. (Pogline) Kane; their children:
son, Daniel Kane, his wife, Diane Kane and their daughter,
Katelyn Kane; daughter, Kathleen Polum, her husband, Donald
Polum and their daughter, Rebecca Polum; daughter, Teresa
Veraguth, and her husband Patrick Veraguth, and their sons,
Alexander, Theodore (T.J.), and Gunnar Veraguth; daughter,
Coleen Feucht and her husband, Jeremy Feucht, and their son
Grayson Feucht; and a host of relatives and friends.
James� grandson, Dan, said he was a
teenager when his Grandpa made a comment to him that has
stuck in his memory to this day. �As Grandpa tapped his
chest, he said "My happiest day will be the day I die, as
that will be the day I get my ticket to heaven.�."