Joan Rogowski

Janina Daniela “Joan” (Wisniewska) Rogowski, age 89, passed away on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at Brookside Care Center in Kenosha.

Born on June 24, 1933 in Ugine, France, she was the daughter of the late Jan Josef and Apolonia (Pilarczyk) Wisniewski.

On May 14, 1960, Joan was united in marriage to Casimir “Casey” Rogowski in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Lodz, Poland. Their union was blessed with 46 years of marriage before Casey’s passing in 2006.

Throughout the years, she worked in the cafeteria at St. Casimir’s Catholic School, in the laundry department at St. Catherine’s Hospital, and did assembly work at Lida Manufacturing.

Joan loved to travel- she made many visits to Zakopane mountains, Czestochowa and the Baltic Sea in Poland, visited her sister, Maryla in Poland and her sister, Jadwiga in Germany, as well as side trips through Switzerland. Throughout the U.S., she went to Washington D.C., Florida, Michigan, California, Montana, and Wyoming and to her favorite places- Eagle River and Door County in Wisconsin.

She enjoyed Polish crossword puzzles and loved to read books in Polish. Each year, she loved to make Polish origami stars to adorn her Christmas tree. Joan also enjoyed going to the Polish Library in Chicago, and would come home with bags of books to read- always writing down a list of Polish authors that she’d be interested in on her next visit.

Her grandchildren, Nicholas and Hannah brought her the greatest joy and she was happiest when the family was all together.

Left to cherish her memory are her children, Helen Rogowski and Kristine Rogowski; her grandchildren, Nicholas and Hannah Zimmerman; her sisters, Jadwiga Rath in Kassel, Germany and Maryla Wisniewska in Lodz, Poland.

In addition to her parents and her husband, Joan was preceded in death by her daughter, Catherine Zimmerman and her brother, Eugeniusz Wisniewski.