Green Bay Press Gazette
February 1, 1979
written by Lois Kerin

It's unfortunate that Pauline LaBudda didn't live to see Monday night's special "Backstairs at the White House". She'd been there.

Miss LaBudda and her sister, Susanna, were cooks at the White House during part of the Woodrow Wilson administration. Pauline, a former Krakow resident, died Jan 17, at the age of 95.

Pauline worked as a cook all her life, and next to working at the White House, she enjoyed her job in (boxing champion) Jack Dempsey's kitchen.

Miss LaBudda was a pioneer. She was born in Danzing, Kries, Wiestadt, West Prussia, Feb, 25, 1883. When she was about 6 years old, she came to America with her mother and sisters to join her father, Albert, who lived on a farm in Pulaski,in the town of Pittsfield. She attended the Flintville school until she finished the third grade, and then had to stay home to help her family clear land and do her share of the choirs. 

He parents taught her to read and write Polish, and to speak the language as well as some German. Her mother taught her to cook.

In 1901 the LaBudda's moved to a farm in the town of Morgan, Oconto County. Shortly after, Pauline went to Detroit, Mich., to stay with an aunt. She went to the appointed office and got her first job as a cook in Manistique, Mich.

Mrs. Laurance LaBosse (LaBrosse), Krakow, whose husband is one of Miss LaBudda's nephews, provided this background material with the help of her husband, who translated it from notes written in Polish.

From Michigan, Miss LaBudda moved to New York. Her father died in 1911, and she came home for the funeral.

In 1912, she went to Detroit to work. Two years later she went back to New York with her sister, Susanna. They were hired to cook at the White House and enjoyed their new position, even though it sometimes meant getting up at three a.m. to begin the baking for the day. Mrs. LaBosse had Pauline's White House Cookbook. Published in 1898, it is printed entirely in paragraph form.

But a love affair interrupted Pauline's career at the White House. Not her's, Susanna's.

Before she had joined Pauline, Susanna had a boyfriend. Her absence didn't make his heart grow fonder at all. In fact, he found another girl. When Susanna heard this, she wanted to go home. Because cooks were hired in pairs, that meant Pauline would have to leave, too. So she did."I couldn't break my sister's heart", she said at the time.

Pauline worked in Sayner in 1923 and 1924, then in Ann Arbor, Mich. From there it was out to California, but the climate didn't agree with her rheumatism. 

At one time she was going to go into the restaurant business. She hired an accountant to help her get it organized, but he stole everything she had purchased, including the silverware. So she sold the restaurant. 

In 1926, Pauline and her sister, Gertrude, worked on the Shaw Estate at Great Neck, Long Island. 

When Jack Dempsy's representatives went in search of a good cook, they found Pauline through Lazare's News, a journal of service. Lazare's placed its people "in homes of wealth and distinction."

Miss La Budda worked in Saratoga, Fla., and in Atlantic City, N. J., for the champion.

An Atlantic City New release, which carried Miss LaBudda's picture, described her as "a strapping Wisconsin German girl, who spent two years in the White House." According to the story, "She reigned supreme in the kitchen of Jack Dempsy's bungalow."

Demspey said, "She rattles a mean stove lid."

At that time, Pauline weighted 220 pounds, was over six feet tall, and had promised a whipping to any man of the Dempsy entourage who would come between her and her cooking for the champion, whose affable manner seemed to have won her whole-hearted regard.

Mrs. LaBosse says she remembers Pauline talking about the time that Dempsy's bodyguard turned on him. Dempsy came home and told his cook not to admit anybody she didn't know. Then he went up stairs. A short time later the bodyguard and another man arrived. Pauline admitted them, but was alarmed when the pair brushed past her and went upstairs. She found a revolver and had it in her hand when the pair finally left the house. Dempsy came down from the attic, where he had been hiding, and told her, "That man is no longer my friend."

Miss LaBudda used to tell her relatives that the champion was not a heavy eater. "He ate fruits and vegetables, and never more than a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast," she would recall.

She often visited Krakow, and many times offered help to her many nieces and nephews, so that they could pursue their goals. She was a very religious woman, according to Mrs. LaBosse, and usually had a little alter in her room. 

Miss LaBudda spent her retirement years in Green Bay and with a  sister in Krakow. She had been at the Oconto Falls nursing home for about 2 years before her death.
 

By Mary Klein

    Famous, she's not!  Wealthy, she's not!  But rich?  Yes indeed,  rich with qualities
of giving and caring that makes Annie Warrichaeit, a resident of Oconto for forty-five
years, a special person, deserving of recognition.
    Annie has done many small things that has made life more pleasant for those she
has touched in our community.  A widow of eighteen years, she has devoted much of
her time to "brightening" up the lives of the ill and elderly with flowers she grows at
her farm on the outskirts of Oconto.
    It is not unusual to find her carrying a gathering of Pansies, Lilacs, Zinnias,
Daffodils and other varieties of flowers through the halls of the hospital and nursing
homes to cheer the sick and lonely.  Shut-ins often find Annie stopping in with a
warm smile and flowers and a helping hand with cleaning and meals, knowing how
difficult it must be for them at times.
    St. Marks Episcopal Church, to which Annie belongs and is Vice-President of the
church of Guild, is often graced with beautiful arrangements of her flowers.  On Gold
Star Mother's Day, her bouquets adorn the alter and after mass, Annie delivers the
flowers to all the Gold Star Mothers, with whom she shares a special closeness, as
she also, became a Gold Star Mother after losing her son in the Korean War.
    This past Memorial Day, Annie the Vice President of the Gold Star Mothers,
proudly carried the flag in the annual parade at the request of the "Am-Vets", the
American Veteran's organization.
    One would think that she had little time left for other activities, but this vibrant
woman has, for almost twenty years, worked at the Oconto Veterinary Clinic.  With
much patience and kindness, she has helped "Doc" Drewry see many a cat through a
crisis and dog through a dilemma!  Even the animals have Annie's flowers to look at as
the office always has a vase of freshly picked Pansies, among other flowers that she
brings each morning.
    After work and along with all of her other activities, Annie still finds time for her
responsibilities as the newly elected President of the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
Auxiliary No. 3071, Oconto.  She is also the Chairman of the National Home of the
V.F.W. in Eaton Rapids, Michigan.
    When asked Annie where she finds the time to do all of these things, she laughed. 
"I don't find the time, I just do them!"  she replied, then added with a serious note,
"One gets a special kind of feeling when you know that, in your own small way, you
are bringing happiness to others and I feel a great fulfillment in all of my activities."
    It is not difficult to understand when you catch the gleam in her eye and the
warmth of her smile, how a life full of giving and the gratification of receiving a simple
"Thanks Annie", has kept Annie Warrichaiet the healthy, energetic and glowing
woman she is today.
    With all the gloom of recession, inflation, fuel shortages and whatever else lies in
wait around the corner, it's the "Annie's" of our world that makes our day brighter,
our step lighter and our communities a better place to live.