Early Life
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein was born July 31, 1910 in Marinette Wisconsin. He was the second of three sons by Edwin and Clara Von Bruenchenhein. Within a few years, the family moved to Green Bay and eventually settled in Milwaukee where Eugene's father worked as a sign painter. In the 1930s, Edwin built a small home on Milwaukee's west side at 514 S. 94th Pl (eventually razed in September 1983) from which he ran a grocery store. It was within easy walking distance of the state fairgrounds.
Von Bruenchenhein's mother, Clara, died in 1917 when Eugene was seven years old. His father then married Elizabeth "Bessie" Mosely, a schoolteacher who had returned to the U.S. from Panama to become a chiropractor. In 1926 she had authored a pamphlet entitled, "Evolution: The Law of Progress Based on Truth", along with several other treatises on evolution and reincarnation. She painted floral still lifes and the young Eugene regarded her as a mentor until her death in 1938.
In the late 1930s, Bruenchenhein built a greenhouse behind his father's home to house his growing collection of exotic plants and cacti. He became a member of the Milwaukee Cactus Club, worked at a local florist shop and studied books on botany. When asked, he told people he was a horticulturist.
Bruenchenhein was a man of small stature, so much so that he was prevented from serving in the Army during WWII because he did not meet the minimum height requirement.
In 1939 he met Eveline T. "Marie" Kalke at the Wisconsin State Fair. She was 19, he was 29. They married in 1943 and a year later Eugene took a job at Carpenter Baking Co. in Milwaukee. He worked there until 1959 when health problems and the closing of the bakery led to his premature "retirement" at the age of 49. In the last year of his life, Bruenchenhein and his wife were living entirely off his $220 monthly Social Security checks.
Bruenchenhein owned a Nash Rambler but once admitted to a friend that he only filled the gas tank twice a year.
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