The colorful postcard has faded over the decades. Its edges show wear and tear, and at least one fragile corner has fallen off. The ink-written note still remains legible:
“Boy oh boy is it swell up here. We have big fields and parks to go hiking every day. We get plenty of sleep and the food is fine. We get plenty of boating and fishing. [We’re] away from the busy streets and city noises. Wish you were here to share the enjoyment. —Ed”
The nautical-themed postcard shows the USS Constellation dressed for Queen Elizabeth’s birthday during a 1937 visit of the HMS York to Newport, R.I. It was mailed to Akron on Nov. 30, 1940, from the naval training station in Newport.
Gina Koncz, 57, the youngest of 12 children born to Anthony and Mary Josephine Mollica, said her father and mother treasured the memento.
“This really, really meant something to them,” she said. “This boy gave up his life, and I think that affected my parents.”
“Ed” was Edward Emil Emery, Tony Mollica’s happy-go-lucky friend and co-worker at City Bakery in Akron during the 1930s. Emery is a legendary figure among Mollica descendants because many of them might not be alive today if it weren’t for his selfless sacrifice.
One of 16 siblings, Emery was born in November 1915 to Hungarian immigrants Eva and Demetrius “Dan” Emery, who lived on a farm in Copley. Emery graduated from Copley High School and went to work at City Bakery at 532 Grant St.
That’s where he befriended Mollica, a man of many nicknames including “Gogs,” because of the glasses he wore, and “Frank,” a leftover from the newspaper route he took over from a kid with that name — and customers kept calling him that.
Born in Akron in 1911, Mollica was the son of Italian immigrants Sebastiano and Carolina Mollica. When his mother died in 1920, Tony and a brother were sent to an orphanage while their sisters stayed with an aunt. On weekends, their father, a railroad worker, brought them home so that they could still be a family.
Off to work
In 1928, Mollica finished eighth grade and found a job at City Bakery. “My dad stopped going to school because his father needed them to work,” Koncz said.
The bakery was a bustling enterprise with eight retail stores and a fleet of 80 white trucks. Every day, it produced 44 varieties of bread. Mollica worked the slicing machine and Emery operated the wrapping machine.
Mollica was 22 in 1934 when he wed Mary Josephine Ray, 17, whose long, red hair he found irresistible at St. Mary Church. His sister fixed them up, and even though Mary thought she was going out with athletic brother George, she agreed to accompany slight-of-build Tony to a picnic. They dated, got married and soon welcomed two daughters, Carolyn (nicknamed Betty) and Loretta.
Emery was single. Although he didn’t mind working at a bakery, he wondered if there was more to life than bread. He soon had an opportunity to find out.
After World War II erupted in Europe in 1939, the United States began military conscription in 1940 as a precaution. Akron men registered for the draft, but some were excused from immediate service because their jobs were considered essential.
Sliced bread was a luxury, but wrapped bread was a necessity.
Emery could have avoided the draft, but he didn’t think his buddy Gogs, the married father of two little girls, should lose his job and face possible enlistment.
City Bakery Vice President George H. Aberth, who was friendly with Mollica and Emery, suggested that they trade jobs — if they wanted.
“He asked Daddy and he asked Ed, ‘Do you guys mind switching positions?’ ” Koncz said. “And Ed was all excited. ‘No, I’d love to go see the world.’ ”
Emery joined the Navy, training in Rhode Island, where he sent Mollica a postcard, and then continuing on to the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois. He became an electrician’s mate on the USS Quincy, patrolling the Atlantic waters of Iceland, Denmark and Norway.
Off to war
The cruiser ship was escorting a convoy from Newfoundland to Cape Town when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, drawing the United States into World War II. Emery returned to Akron in April 1942 while the Quincy was being overhauled in New York and married his girlfriend Betty Fitzpatrick. He then shipped out to the Pacific.
Mollica and his wife, Mary, expecting their third daughter, Patricia, were shocked about Pearl Harbor. Mollica became an air raid warden and patrolled his Grant Street neighborhood at night, making sure that home windows were dark.
“They had to put curtains over all their windows so none of the light would show outside,” Koncz said.
Edward Emery, 26, was aboard the USS Quincy when a Japanese torpedo sank it Aug. 9, 1942, at Guadalcanal, killing nearly 400 sailors. Reported lost at sea, Emery was officially declared dead in 1943 and posthumously awarded a Purple Heart.
Besides his parents and widow, he was survived by brothers Paul, Wilbur, Robert and Donald, and sisters Helen, Esther, Martha, Ruth, Elsie, Mary, Nancy and Grace.
Remembering Emery
In 1961, the family published a Beacon Journal tribute for Memorial Day:
“Somewhere at sea, in a sailor’s grave lies our dear son, among the brave. He never shunned his country’s call, but gladly gave his life, his all. He died the helpless to defend. A faithful sailor’s noble end.”
The Mollica family grew, adding children Patricia, Kathleen, Theresa, Mary Jo, Dolores, Eileen, Tony, Michael, Anne Marie and Gina. Mollica remained at City Bakery, later named Kaase’s, for 45 years, retiring in 1973.
Anthony and Mary Mollica were married for 72 years before he passed away April 4, 2007, at age 95 at the Village of St. Edward. His wife lived there another three years.
One night in 2010, Mary Mollica called daughter Koncz. “Gina, you’re not going to believe this,” she said. She was talking about her late husband’s job when the woman stopped her. “Oh, my goodness, my brother worked at City Bakery, but he was lost years and years ago,” she said.
She was Ed’s sister.
“Gina, I can’t find that postcard,” Mary Mollica told Koncz.
Koncz looked around but couldn’t find it either and assumed it was lost. She didn’t meet Emery’s sister or learn her name.
“We lost Mommy very shortly after that,” Koncz said. “In fact, it might’ve been the next day.”
A great-great grandmother, Mary Josephine Mollica, 93, died of congestive heart failure Aug. 28, 2010. She was buried next to her husband at Holy Cross Cemetery.
“My sisters and I couldn’t find that postcard anywhere,” Koncz said. “I was going through a box of old pictures years later, and sure enough, there it was. I keep it in a prominent place.”
The Mollica descendants — there are more than 200 — will forever be grateful to a brave sailor, Edward E. Emery, who willingly switched jobs to protect his buddy.
“It’s remarkable,” Koncz said. “My family truly had a remarkable life.”
Beacon Journal copy editor Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.