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IN 1929, AT AGE 12, GOLDEEN KALOPER CAME TO THE UNITED STATES
from the island of Slaren off the coast of Croatia. She emigrated with
her mother, sister and brothers and rejoined her father who had had
come to the country five years before.
Her family settled in
Seattle where her father was a fisherman and her mother worked in a
fruit cannery. Goldeen started working in the fruit cannery in Seattle
at age 15 and married her first husband, a Seattle fishermen from the
same Croatian island, a few years later. They had two daughters before
he suffered a fatal accident at sea.
Her second husband was
also a fisherman, also from Slaren. They met in Seattle but he was
from the fishing community in San Pedro, California. The couple moved
south in 1942 and Goldeen began working at Star-Kist, then French
Sardine where she continued for 40 years. Goldeen began as a fish
cleaner but was quickly shifted to quality control where she spent most
of her career. more →
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| Goldeen Kaloper with her daughter Annette in the house she has lived in for 55 years. |
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She and her second husband raised 5 children together in a small house in San Pedro with a garden, chickens, and rabbits.
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