McKeesport resident Peg Luketic is featured with her husband Gene Luketic and grandchildren Geno and Gavin in a photography collage created by her daughter Andi Cartwright.

What makes a Mon Valley person? It is their friendliness, their willingness to help another person and their love of the history or shared memories of the Mon Valley.

Peg Luketic, a retired social worker who lived in McKeesport for most of her life before moving to White Oak, fits that description without reservation.  “I’ve always felt like a McKeesporter,” she said.

Peg was born in McKeesport and in her early years lived with family in the Crawford Village public housing complex, where her Scottish grandfather was head of maintenance. Their unit, 16H, along with other older sections of the complex, was demolished in the 1960s.

Today, she shops at Minerva’s Bakery, attends the McKeesport Festival of Trees at Christmastime, patronizes the Carnegie Library branch in McKeesport and volunteers at the McKeesport History and Heritage Center.“When you know about a city and those who have lived there the longest, you know it’s a place where people can call their home,” she said.

At age 5, Peg moved with her parents and siblings to Elizabeth Township, where she went to elementary and high school. She attended California State University, now known as PennWest California, and married Gene Luketic, another McKeesport native, when they were both 20.

The then newlyweds lived for three years in Washington, D.C., where their daughter Andi was born. While there, Peg worked at the High’s Dairy office and Gene worked at St. Elizabeths Hospital, a psychiatric facility.  They returned to their roots in McKeesport when Andi was almost 3 years old to be close to family.  

When she was 13, a visit to the Carnegie Library of McKeesport with her mother left her impressed with the beautiful building and the lovely big houses nearby. She later had an opportunity to buy one of those homes, where she lived with husband Gene and family for 35 years.

Her daughter attended McKeesport’s Model School, a public magnet school that offered an innovative curriculum. She transferred to Centennial, her neighborhood school, in fifth grade when the Model School closed. Peg's son, Vince, was born several years after the family returned to McKeesport. Both children stayed close. “Our son now lives five blocks away and our daughter lives five doors away,” Peg said with a laugh.

As a child, Peg remembers traveling by bus to McKeesport from Elizabeth Township with her younger sister. McKeesport was a thriving city then, the third busiest in the state after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. At its peak during the 1940s, McKeesport boasted some 55,000 residents. Today, in 2023, there are about 17,500 people living in the city.

“McKeesport had every kind of store. You could buy everything you wanted there,” she said. “People didn’t like to leave the valley to go into Pittsburgh.”

She and her sister would spend the day in McKeesport shopping and going to the movies. Peg remembers that there were four movie theaters in the city at the time. She also recalls going to H.L. Green Co., a five and dime store, to buy french fries and a Pepsi for 25 cents.

“The (John P Harris) Memorial Theatre on Walnut and 5th Avenue was elegant. I loved it. It was special. The town had nice restaurants too,” Peg said.

There were many businesses on 5th Avenue, including department stores, shoe stores, butcher shops, a furniture store, and a millinery store. Immel’s, Jaison’s and Kadar’s were among the many clothing shops. Cox’s Department Store, a local landmark from 1955 to 1983, was an upscale clothing store for women, men and children with a bridal shop. Peg often shopped at the Virginia Dare store or the Darling shop because clothing there was less expensive.

In 1976, when Peg was working for a social service agency in McKeesport, she remembers the windy day when a tragic fire destroyed the Famous Department Store and other businesses.

One of her most special memories was visiting her Sicilian grandfather, Vincent Viscuso, who emigrated to this country in 1905 at age 18. He operated a confectionary store on West 5th Avenue, where he made homemade sausage sandwiches and a salve, “Skin Q,” using a formula that he brought from Sicily. “People came from all over to buy it. I still have a jar of it.” she said.

At one time, according to family lore, the store was raided for allegedly producing moonshine.

Peg fondly recalls her grandfather, her visits to his store and him dropping by her house for Sunday dinners.  “He was very kind and sweet to me. He spoke broken English and could not read or write in English … I loved him so much,” she said. Sadly, he died in 1961 at age 72.

She still recalls stopping at the streetcar island to safely cross West 5th Avenue after walking the Jerome Street Bridge across the Youghiogheny River to visit her grandfather after leaving the movie theater.

When her grandmother died at age 30, leaving behind four boys between the ages of 15 down to 8 months, Peg’s grandfather sent her father, then 8 years old, and his 10-year-old brother to travel by train across the country to temporarily live with relatives in California. That arrangement lasted three years.

Before her mother-in-law died, Peg has fond memories of people coming to her now abandoned family home on Union Avenue for raucous Christmas Eve parties. Afterwards, everyone walked the two blocks to Shaw Avenue to Sacred Heart Catholic church for midnight Mass.

Over the years, Peg has seen many changes in McKeesport. She worries today about crime in the city, although she says that she has never felt unsafe.  Her daughter, however, was mugged once, but successfully fought off three high school boys to save the library card inside her purse. “She got to keep her purse!” Peg said, smiling proudly.

She feels nostalgic about McKeesport today, and thinks about the old people who have died, leaving behind abandoned houses that landlords buy and don’t keep up. “You have to have a sense of loyalty to a city,” she said. “You can’t always think the grass is greener elsewhere, and you have to care about people.”

- Colette Funches