Emma Matko Planinsek was born on April 2, 1899, in the small coal mining town of Trbovlje, Slovenia. The 4th daughter of John and Helen Matko, she had six sisters and one brother. Known to her family and friends as “Emica,” she arrived in the United States on April 14, 1921.
In 1978, Emma’s daughter, Irene M. Planinsek Odorizzi, wrote Footsteps Through Time, a collection of factual Slovenian immigrant experiences coming to the United States in the early 1900s. The book shed an insightful look at the journeys of a handful of women, including Emma’s personal story. I had the experience of growing up surrounded by Slovenians, Slovaks, Croatians, and Emma. Modest, resourceful, and courageous, this group of people sought a better way of life, to realize the dreams they brought from their homelands along with their culture, faith, and steadfast work ethic. They built supportive communities with perseverance, determination, and filled with pride.
In her own words, Emma recalled saying goodbye to her mother. “Mamma’s parting words amid tears and embraces were, ‘I know that you will have a better life in America. That’s why I won’t stop you from going. Don’t forget how you were brought up and don’t forget God.’” Emma and her mother would never see each other again. With that recollection, like that of so many young immigrant’s starting out for a new life, a better future, to build a long-held dream, Emma shared her story.
After an early morning train ride north from Trbovlje to the port city La Havre, in the Normandy region of France, twenty-two-year-old Emma along with her sister, Julka, and her sister’s husband, Pepi, began their life-altering journey. Using money Emma’s sister Milka, married and now living in America had sent for the three of them, they had arranged for a 13-day journey on the freighter, S.S. France to the harbor of New York.
The trio, registered at the local hotel for the ocean voyage which was to begin the next day, soon learned they had been quarantined along with the other passengers, 200 in all, requiring them to wait for the return of their ship before their trip to America could begin. Due back in twelve days, it had failed to arrive. Just as the quarantine was lifting, news reached them that a much smaller freighter, La Bordenaise had arrived in port. Not wanting to be delayed one day longer, despite the ship’s size, they arranged for passage on it.
After a grueling voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, one filled with storms, motion sickness, prejudice, and deception at the hands of the French and German sailors, they reached the Immigration Center at Ellis Island on April 16, 1921. It had taken the trio thirty days on land and by sea to reach America. Once inside the immigration center, there would be doctor’s examinations to pass. The voyage had left Emma in a weakened condition requiring her to pass through the inspection of six doctors. Julka worried for her sister that Emma might be refused entry after the exhausting ordeal. It would be the last doctor, a perceptive woman who would show Emma compassion and understanding. Pinning a sign on her coat, the doctor finally released Emma to rejoin an anxious Julka and Pepi for the next phase of their journey.
They made their way from New York City, boarding a train that would take them from the mountains of the East Coast through the expanse of the Great Lakes and the farmlands to Chicago. There they changed to the Wabash train line. Finding the train conductor friendly and able to converse with the trio in German, he assured them of their destination and arrival time for their final destination in Worden, Illinois. As the train pulled in at the tiny station there on the platform was her sister Milka, and her sister’s husband John, along with their two sons!
Emma’s first job in America was as a housekeeper to a German family. But on weekends, there were summer picnics sponsored by a Slovenian fraternal organization. One Sunday, as Emma joined in the singing of long-familiar songs, she would meet Matt Novak, a Slovenian storekeeper who upon learning of her heritage instantly offered her a position taking care of his two sons and employment in his grocery store.
While working for him, Emma began to study and speak the English language and learned the American way of life. It was while working in Novak’s Grocery Store that she would meet her future husband, Frank Planinsek, a worker in the local coal mines. After their courtship, the couple married on February 19, 1922, at St. Barbara’s Church in Springfield, IL. Frank’s brother, Martin, traveled from Joliet to be the couple’s best man. Many months later, in an incident related to Emma, she learned after Martin had returned to Joliet, he was asked for news about the wedding, to which he had replied, “If I could find a girl like Emma for myself, I’d get married tomorrow.”
The young couple would begin their life together 18 miles south of Springfield in Auburn, Il.
As fate would have it, in the spring of 1922 the Auburn mine would go on strike and the couple would briefly move to Joliet where Frank secured a job at the American Ruberoid Company, one of the largest manufacturers of roofing material in the Joliet area. The couple saved a little money while the brothers made plans to return to Auburn after the strike was over and together open a grocery store and meat market.
Unfortunately, that dream would fade on Armistice Day. Frank had been injured in the mine and hospitalized. In need of an operation to save his life, a doctor tried to help Frank but was unsuccessful. At 9:00 a.m. Emma became a young widow; at 11:30 p.m. she became a young mother, giving birth to her first daughter, Bertha, born prematurely. Before two years had passed in America, Emma was married, widowed, and had a child.
After a year filled with daily tears, sorrow, and regret, still grieving while under her doctor’s care in Auburn, Emma’s physician advised her to allow the wound from the loss of her husband to heal and encouraged her to get on with her life.
Invited to return to Joliet, she was attracted by the city’s large, close-knit Slovenian community. Here she saw the opportunity to rent a small apartment, look for employment and save enough to return to Slovenia.
Again, fate would step in and Frank’s brother, Martin, and Emma would become better acquainted. Not long after that, he proposed. With a dispensation from the Bishop and a little family persuasion, the couple married on November 21, 1923, at St. Joseph’s Church in Joliet.
The original idea of a family-owned grocery store which had been shared by Martin and his brother, Frank, now became the dream of the young couple. They would hire George Perush, a master Slovenian builder to construct a grocery market and family home. By 1925, the ambitious couple had purchased a lot at the corner of Elizabeth and Russell on which they would build their dream. Quickly their dream had become a staple of the working-class neighborhood.
Throughout the coming years of hard work and struggle through illnesses, the Great Depression, and the war years, their family grew as did their market, and so too, did Emma’s influence on the women and children in the Joliet community.
As co-owner of “Martin Planinsek Grocery & Meat Market” (1925-1961) at 1314 Elizabeth Street, Emma also served her community as President of the Slovenian Women’s Union (SWU), Joliet Branch 20 for 47 years (1935-1982). The union was founded in 1926 by Marie Prisland to financially help Slovenian immigrant women living in America. Through sisterhood and moral support, the union assisted women with education, citizenship, and participation in civic affairs.
The love of her Slovenian Heritage made Emma a dedicated leader. Progressive in her vision for Slovenian women, in 1938, she along with Josephine Erjavec, co-founded and promoted SWU Cadets for young girls and women. In 1942, along with Mary C. Terlep, the trio formed the Junior Drill Teams, with all competing on the national platform as well as Joliet civic events and parades.
Recognizing the reach in opportunity, Emma’s many projects also included the SWU bowling league, choral group, sewing circle, baton twirlers, and children’s ethnic dance group in the 1940s.
During WWII she arranged Branch 20 war bond drives raising more than $50,000. And, after the war, Emma was influential in organizing food and clothing relief sent to the Slovenian people.
The women so loved Emma, she was honored by them as the branch’s first Mother of the Year in 1951.
Not one to rest on past achievements, in 1977, Emma initiated the Slovenian Heritage Festival at St. Joseph’s Park.
Emma’s reach inspired countless women. For all of her years in Joliet, she transported the language, culture, and customs of her birthplace to the American-Slovenian community she and Martin were both so much a part of. They enjoyed the best of two cultures and two worlds.
Many years have passed since Emma closed the Planinsek Market in 1961. It seems like a lifetime ago that my parents and I lived on that block in the tiny apartment at the back of the Planinsek home.
Emma and I knew each other since I was a baby. My momma would take me with her to shop their market at the front of the property, other times, we would visit Emma inside her home. Over the years momma would recall how I would chatter upon seeing Emma, and Emma would remark, “if we only knew what she was telling us!” I took my first steps and learned to peddle my tricycle up and down her sidewalk in the summer. Even now, I can still remember her lovely flower gardens with their huge fragrant blooming peonies and lilacs in the spring. And as I grew older, there would be brisk fall days raking leaves into piles alongside my momma for Emma. There were many friendly conversations between us with Emma always offering positive encouragement. Throughout my early childhood years and as I started grade school, without realizing it, she had created a lasting influence.
Recently, I rediscovered a 1986 Christmas card she had sent to me. We had kept in touch through my high school and college days. I had saved this card because of her tender, introspective handwritten note. She had gently tapped my heart yet again.
Emma was a phenomenal woman who left her imprint on my life. She was a trailblazer for Slovenian women in Joliet and remains an inspirational figure in local Slovenian American history.
On October 2, 2022, the Joliet Area Historical Museum, with the assistance of St. Joseph’s Church, KSKJ Life, and the Slovenian Union of America held a Slovenian Grape Harvest Festival at the Rivals Park Picnic Grounds and opened the Slovenian Immigrant Museum at the sight of the Planinsek Market and Home located across the street from the park.
Research for this article included: Zarja-The Dawn, issue May-June, 1990; and Footsteps Through Time by Irene M. Planinsek, as well as the Slovenain History Museum in Joliet, Illinois, and Images of America JOLIET, by Marianne Wolf.