Julianne “Julie” Lazorishak Radkowski

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Julianne “Julie” Lazorishak Radkowski passed away on All Soul’s Day, November 2, 2022 at the age of 98 years, joining her husband, Peter Paul Radkowski Sr., who passed away on All Soul’s Day, Nov. 2, 2010.

Julie was born in Sharon, Pa. on April 5, 1924 to Frank and Anna (Rifgon) Lazorishak. Julie grew up with an older sister Mary, a younger brother Ted, and two orphaned cousins who were raised as Julie’s brothers, John and Frank. As a child, Julie looked forward to the circus coming to town, took in big band acts (including Gene Krupa) at the Columbia Theater, and listened to baseball games on the radio. At Hickory High School, Julie took up the Double Bass and played with the orchestra at her 1942 graduation ceremony. Julie enrolled in the three-year Registered Nurse Program at Buell Hospital, entered the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, trained in Philadelphia, and undertook graduate studies in Public Health Nursing at the University of Pittsburgh. Always eager to learn, Julie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Redlands, with an emphasis on literature, in 1983.

In 1946, while Julie lived with her parents and worked as a Registered Nurse, a high school classmate called on Julie. He was returning from the service to continue his war-interrupted college education. The classmate was Ensign Peter Paul Radkowski, USNR. Julie and Peter married on August 20, 1949 – then took a train to Boston and moved into their first home, an apartment at 223 Beacon Street.

Julie and Peter shared 61 years of dancing, dessert, and parenting. Julie, Peter, daughter Julianne Jr., and son Peter III savored clams, rings, and frappes in Julie’s white-with-red-trim 1960 Impala convertible in Massachusetts. After moving to California, the family took in El Capitan and Pike’s Peak from Julie’s top-down tan 1963 Impala Super Sport.

Julie and Peter relished the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and the Hatch Shell, Guy Lombardo at the New York World’s Fair and when the ball dropped at midnight on television, and the San Diego Pops along the Embarcadero. Although teetotalers, Julie and Peter thrilled at the Mardi Gras parades and multi-course cuisines of New Orleans. They danced to Tex Beneke at Carnation Plaza in Disneyland, and they dined dockside after sailing in San Diego.

While Julie (and her frequent flyer points) flourished in jet age coast-to-coast commutes to babysit grandsons Luke and Paul, Julie’s wanderlust began in the age of steam. In the 1930s and 1940s, Julie and her mother wore white gloves to guard against the soot spewed by the steam locomotives that took them to Pittsburgh to shop at Kaufman’s – and to be quizzed by Julie’s grandmother in Canonsburg. In 1949, trains carried newlywed Julie and Peter to their first vacation on Cape Cod. In 1963, Julie, Julie Jr., and Peter III boarded the Super Chief as part of the family’s move from Natick, Mass. to Riverside, California. And, in 2018, Amtrak sleepers carried Julie on what would be one of the last of Julie’s vacations: leaving Boston with Julie Jr. on the Lake Shore Limited, passing Julie Jr.’s alma mater Wellesley College, pausing on the California Zephyr for a mid-trip visit with Luke in Omaha, and finally arriving at the Bay Area to join and reminisce with Peter III.

Julie’s life was not a lark. In early 1951, Julie traveled to Sharon to mourn with her mother after Julie’s first child, Peter Paul Jr., succumbed to congenital rubella syndrome – not knowing that she was with child, Julie had been exposed to rubella while a Public Health Nurse in Boston’s South End. In 1992, Julie and Peter moved to Longwood Towers in Brookline for his-and-her battles against cancers (Julie’s breast cancer and Peter’s prostate cancer). They won.

Losing a child focused Julie’s parenting. Convertibles were nice – but they were most valuable when Julie chauffeured Julie Jr. and Peter III to music lessons and performances, to libraries and bookstores, to ballgames and concerts (including The Monkees at the Hollywood Bowl), and to museums. As Julie Jr. and Peter III neared college-age, the convertibles were cast aside. Money went to proper clothes, to encyclopedias, and to good meals – and to new compact cars for Julie Jr. and Peter III while still in high school. And Julie’s last days centered on praying to St. Anthony that Julie Jr. would be elected to the school board in Portland, Maine – one week after Julie passed away, Julie Jr. won.

Julie stood taller than her five foot three – especially after asking St. Anthony for strength and patience and resilience. When Peter took ill in the 1970s, Julie bolstered him and joined him in Radkowski Associates which invented, developed and tested novel material configurations for the Department of Defense, including DARPA, the Army Research Office, the Department of Energy, and private firms, including Bell Aerospace Textron, first in Riverside then expanding to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

When a retaliating hospital administrator “lost” Julie’s paycheck for several weeks, Julie demanded justice. Acting as her own attorney, Julie filed a suit then represented herself in a trial in Superior Court in Riverside. For hours, Julie went toe-to-toe with two condescending white-shoe attorneys ‘brought in’ from Orange County. At the end of the day, Julie won a $1,000+ penalty judgement. Julie chuckled when the litigators realized that they had just lost to a ‘pro se’ woman in her fifties.

Julie liked helping. In the 1950’s, Julie helped raise funds for a new church and rectory at St. James on Route 9 in Wellesley, and Julie and Peter donated an altar in Peter Jr.’s memory. In the 1960s, Julie led the charge to keep art and music in the Riverside Unified School System. When refugees arrived in 1975, Julie and Peter volunteered and pitched in at Camp Pendleton. In the 1980s, Julie was a Senior Citizen ombudsman and, at Riverside’s Public Library, Julie prepped immigrants for the citizenship exam.

Julie accepted closure. In 2008, after 45 years in California, Julie and Peter returned to New England. Julie Jr. and her husband John R. Opperman sponsored a bay view apartment at The Park Danforth in Portland, Maine. Julie and Peter appreciated the care and the kindness of Denise Vachon and the staff – who often provided answers to Julie’s prayers to St. Anthony. In 2009, Julie and Peter enjoyed their 60th Anniversary at the Seadogs baseball game in a suite hosted by Julie Jr. and family friend Katie Harris. In 2020, Julie returned to California to wait out the pandemic with her son Peter III in Riverside.

Julie celebrated her 98th birthday by eating Mickey Mouse yellow cake at New Orleans Square in Disneyland and by dining at the Napa Rose restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel with Julie Jr. and Peter III.

Julie was preceded in death by son Peter Jr., by parents Annie and Frank, by sister Mary, by brothers Ted, Johnny and Frank, and by nephew Mark.

Julie is survived by daughter Julianne (Julie Jr.) E. R. Opperman and Julianne’s husband John R. Opperman, by son Peter P. F. Radkowski III, by grandson Lucas J. Opperman of Council Bluffs, Iowa, by grandson Paul D. Opperman and Paul’s wife Jamie Bova, of Newport, R.I., and by nieces and nephews.

Mass will be said at Sacred Heart Parish, Portland, Maine, on Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. Cupcakes and coffee will follow Mass.

In lieu of a formal funeral, a dinner be served to the catechism students of the Portland Peninsula and Island Parishes on Wednesday April 12, 2023. Julie will be interred with Peter in Arlington National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers,

please donate to:

Refugee and Immigration services at Catholic Charities of Maine

Julianne “Julie” Lazorishak Radkowski