contributor: Richard LaBrosse

Special to Press-Gazette  
1954  

OCONTO FALLS, Wis.-Mrs. James F. O'Neill, 83, died Thursday noon at the home of a daughter, Mrs. G. M. Crooks, Green Bay. For the past several years the well known Oconto Falls woman had lived with Mrs. Crooks and another daughter, Mrs. Elmer John, Wauwatosa.

The former Matilda Gaubourn was born in Switzerland June 12, 1871, and came to this country when she was four years old. The family settled in Oconto Falls. In 1880 she married Odilon Desremaux, who died in 1895. Three sons, Arthur and Eugene, Oconto Falls, and Ernest, Chicago, survive this marriage. On Sept. 13, 1897, the O'Neills repeated nuptial vows, the first couple to be married in St. Anthony Church which Mr. O'Neill helped to build.

Since 1908, Mrs. O'Neill worked with her husband who at that time bought and conducted the furniture store and undertaking establishment. She continued with a son, Eugene, for five years after Mr. O'Neill's death Dec. 4, 1942.

Other Survivors Listed Survivors, in addition to the three Desremaux sons and two O'Neill daughters are two O'Neill daughters are two sons, Ted F. and Ralph J. O'Neill, Oconto Falls; and 14 grandchildren.

Mrs. O'Neill was a charter member of the American Legion Auxiliary, a charter member of the EFU, and a member of the Altar Society, the Macabees, the WBA, and the Royal Neighbors.

The body will be at the O'Neill Funeral Home at 10 o'clock Saturday morning, and the rosary will be said at 8 o'clock Sunday evening. Funeral services will be held in St. Anthony's Church at 9:30 Monday morning, with grandchildren serving at the requiem mass and others as pallbearers. Burial will be in the Oconto Falls Catholic Cemetery.