This is the tombstone for my Great Uncle, Theodore Pacheco a.k.a. Ted P. Smith, and his first wife, Angie (Margie) Smith. The couple is buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Oakland, California.
Theodore was the son of Theodoro Pacheco and Maria de Braga. He was born in Kilauea on 12 Mar 1901. He migrated with his parents to Oakland, California about 6 years later. Somewhere along the way he acquied the nickname “Kid Cyclone”.
Angie was the daughter of Antone Margie and Rose Joseph. Interestingly, her Italian parents also went to Hawaii, where Angie was born in 1904. I’ve yet to root out her parents immigration story. The Margie’s ended up in Oakland by 1910, living on Highland Avenue.
The couple started off 1924 with a bang. They were married on January 1st of that year!
The couple’s happiness would not be long lived. As you can see from the stone, Angie died in 1927. She was only 23 years old. She died of toxemia of pregnancy on the 5th of August 1927. They barely had three years together.
Theodore got is life together quickly, but perhaps too quickly. He remarried to Madeline Algrava, the daughter of his cousin, in 1928. This marriage would also be short lived, but because of a different reason. As a family member put it, Theodore had never really gotten over Angie’s death. For whatever reason, he started drinking and he took out his grief on Madeline. He treated Madeline bad, making her life miserable. The young bride who was only about 22 left him. The couple divorced sometime around 1931.
Madeline remarried and left the state. Theodore stayed in Oakland but never remarried. He died in 1960 at the age of 59.
I think the stone says it all. Theodore didn’t really have much money, but he bought this stone, and he emblazoned upon it “To My Dear Wife”. It appears he never really did get over Angie. The tragedy is that he married the second time, making that poor woman’s life miserable because he was miserable.
I hope Madeline was able to find happiness and that Theodore found some measure of serenity as he aged. Some of the stories we learn aren’t all that happy.
