Updated 01 February 2025
Please note, any information about currently living individuals will be redacted.
Hazel Elizabeth Quinn (b. 19 May 1909, 23 Glenwood St., Brockton, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA – d. 18 Jun 2000, Colony House Nursing Home, Abington, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA) was the daughter of Marshall George Quinn and Flora Pearl Sabean. She married (1) Thure Emanuel Bergquist (b. 24 Sept 1899, Grava, Värmland, Sweden – d. 1 May 1967, Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, USA) on 19 May 1933 in Quincy, Norfolk, Massachusetts. After their divorce, Hazel married (2) Zygmunt Stanley Krupa (b. 19 Aug 1917, Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut, USA – d. 18 Nov 2004, Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut, USA) on 12 Oct 1952 in Ridgeland, Jasper, South Carolina, USA.
Hazel had two children: Elaine Pearl Bergquist, and Brenda Louise Bergquist.
Early Life & Childhood
Hazel Elizabeth Quinn was born on Wednesday, 19 May 1909 at a rented home on 23 Glenwood Street in Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts to Canadian immigrants Marshall George Quinn and Flora Pearl Sabean. She was their second child and first daughter. Hazel’s father worked as a gasfitter, and later as a foreman, at the Brockton Gas Light Company. Her mother worked for private clients making ladies garments, and her specialty was hats.1
As an infant, Hazel, her parents, and her brother Bernard lived with her maternal grandparents at 63 Wheeler Avenue in Brockton. Her grandfather, Handley Chipman Sabean, was a butcher with a popular provisions shop, and her grandmother, Ella Penelope Cogswell, was the daughter of Baptist minister Adoniram Judson Cogswell.2 The Baptist faith was important to Hazel throughout her life.
Hazel’s mother Pearl seems to have been close with her family, and evidence suggests Hazel remained close with her maternal side as well. Among Hazel’s possessions was a photo of her direct maternal great-grandmother, Mary Ann Cogswell, who had lived with her in her childhood home, and died when Hazel was 10 years old.3
Hazel’s mother Pearl would go on to have thirteen pregnancies, including Hazel, with only eight children surviving past infancy.4
Throughout her young childhood, Hazel’s family was constantly on the move, never staying in one place for long. As an infant the family relocated to West Bridgewater, and later to Bridgewater. When Hazel turned 9, the family left industrial Massachusetts to settle on a farm in Maine.
Misfortunes in Maine
In Maine, the Quinns faced a series of unfortunate events. Just over a year after moving into the farmhouse they had purchased, it was destroyed by a fire caused by a chimney defect. The night was bitterly cold, and the family was forced to stay with neighbors while they recovered, losing nearly all of their belongings.
One month later, Pearl gave birth prematurely to a son who died at birth. While still recovering, she contracted tonsillitis. Soon after, her children—including Hazel—came down with scarlet fever. Marshall cared tirelessly for his family until he himself fell ill with severe pneumonia.
In their dire condition, local health officials intervened. With support from the community and their own resilience and faith, the family survived. Marshall gave up farming and started working at a local pulp mill, while Pearl advertised her millinery skills. Despite their efforts, life in Maine remained challenging, and the family eventually decided to return to Massachusetts.
Teen Years & Young Adulthood
The Quinns settled on North Main Street in Randolph, Massachusetts, where they lived from 1922 to 1933. Marshall resumed his role as a foreman at Brockton Gas Light Co., and the family became active in the community, including the local Baptist Church and the Grange Hall. Marshall joined the regional branch of the fraternal order of the Knights of Pythias.
As a teenager, Hazel completed one year of high school. She helped her mother Pearl organize the annual Randolph Grange Fairs, focusing on needlework, crafts, gardening, and baking. Her first known job was as a lunchroom waitress.
At the age of 22, Hazel took a cruise to the Bahamas with her friend, Grace Humphreys.
Hazel remained active in the Baptist Church, and sang in the choir.
First Marriage and Motherhood
On Friday, 19 May 1933, Hazel was married at the First Baptist Church of Randolph. It was her 24th birthday. The groom was Swedish-born Thure Emanuel Bergquist, a machinist at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy.
Hazel moved in with Thure and his mother Louise Nord at 33 Cranch Street in Quincy. On 7 September 1933, the Rev. Philbrook wrote Hazel a letter of recommendation of transfer to the Central Baptist Church at Quincy. She remained involved with the church, and was a member of the Junior Women’s Union.
Hazel and Thure welcomed their first child, a daughter named Elaine Pearl Bergquist, on 14 June 1934 at Quincy Hospital. Five years later, on 13 September 1939, Hazel gave birth to their second daughter, Brenda Louise Bergquist, also at Quincy Hospital.
Custody and Divorce
Hazel was enumerated on the 1940 US Census at 33 Cranch Street alongside her husband Thure, their two daughters, and her mother-in-law Louise Nord. But after this record, the specifics of her life become hazy.
On 30 October 1944, Thure appeared at Plymouth County Court, petitioning for custody of his daughters Elaine and Brenda. On 29 January 1945, custody was granted to Thure, and the divorce brought by Hazel was finalized. The specifics of the divorce are not yet known, and there is certainly more to learn about this part of Hazel’s story.
Much has been speculated about Hazel’s experiences during this period, though the details remain unclear. It has been suggested that she may have struggled with what we would now recognize as postpartum depression. Additionally, rumors indicate that her husband may have been unfaithful, eventually marrying another woman. Some records even suggest that Hazel may have spent time at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, potentially related to her mental health challenges. This may ultimately be why she was denied custody of her daughters.
While the documentary trail seems to go cold at this point, there are still many avenues left to explore.
Hazel reappears in the 1947 Brockton City Directory, where she is listed as rooming at 33 Goddard Road and employed by Gilchrist’s Co. Department Store, located at the corner of Clivedon Street and Parking Way in Quincy. After this, however, she disappears from the record once again and has not been located in the 1950 U.S. Census, despite extensive efforts to find her.
Second Marriage and Career Moves
On 12 October 1952, under the warm South Carolina sun, 43-year-old divorcée Hazel Bergquist stood before Probate Judge Willie Cook in Ridgeland, Jasper County, to marry 35-year-old Zygmunt Stanley Krupa. Judge Cook, widely known as the “Marryin’ Judge,” was a local legend, having performed more than 40,000 weddings during his 40-year tenure. Couples from neighboring states, including Georgia, frequently sought him out due to stricter marriage laws elsewhere. With a reputation for quick, no-fuss ceremonies—sometimes even in his own living room—he played a unique role uniting couples, including Hazel and Zygmunt, on that October day.5
Zygmunt was a second-generation Polish-American, and a native of Connecticut. He had served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and was at Pearl Harbor during the attack on 7 December 1941.
Hazel and Zygmunt are listed together in the 1955 Hollywood, Florida City Directory, but the exact duration of their relationship beyond this point remains unclear. By September 1956, Hazel was residing in Galloway Township, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, while Zygmunt remained in Hollywood, Florida.
In the late summer of 1957, Hazel’s younger daughter, Brenda, traveled to Atlantic City to seek her mother’s blessing to marry Robert Andrew Miller, III, after her father, Thure, forbade the union. On 14 September 1957, just one day after her 18th birthday, Brenda and Robert were married in Absecon. At this time, Hazel’s elder daughter, Elaine, was also living in New Jersey with her husband Neil Gardner Patt , suggesting that the sisters were reconnecting with their mother after time apart.
In New Jersey, Hazel worked as an Executive Housekeeper at Seaview Country Club from 1956 to 1959. It appears she briefly reunited with Zygmunt in Hollywood, Florida, during 1959-1960. From 1961 to 1963, she once again set off without her husband, to Arlington Heights, Illinois, where she worked at Rolling Green Country Club.
Around 1963, Hazel moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where her daughter Brenda had settled with her own growing family. serving as Executive Housekeeper at the Palm Beach Plaza Hotel until after she divorced Zygmunt Krupa in 1969.
Later Years and Passing
In the 1970s, Hazel continued her long career as an Executive Housekeeper at the White Elephant on Nantucket before retiring to Whitman to be closer to family. She maintained strong bonds with her daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. In her old age, as she struggled with dementia and diabetes mellitus, Hazel was moved to the Colony House Nursing Home in Abington, Massachusetts.
Hazel Krupa lived to see the millennium, passing away on 28 June 2000, just 15 minutes after midnight, at the age of 91 years, 1 month, and 9 days. She was laid to rest on 30 June, a sweltering summer day, at Fern Hill Cemetery in Hanson. Years later, both of her daughters would also be buried in the same cemetery.
- Brockton, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1909, p. 12, no. 524, Hazel Elizabeth Quinn, 19 May; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5062/images/41262_b139546-00150), image 1440. For her older brother see, Brockton, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1907, p. 26, no. 1125, Bernard Marshall Quinn, 19 Oct; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5062/records/2746931), image 1448. City directories confirm the residence was rented, as well as occupations for her parents; see Brockton Directories, 1907–1909 (Boston: W.A. Greenough & Co., 1907-1909), entries for Marshall Quinn. ↩︎
- 1910 U.S. census, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Brockton Ward 1, enumeration district (ED) 1180, sheet 8-B, dwelling 131, family 170, Handly [sic] Sabean household; imaged database, “United States, Census, 1910,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RVP-QKB). For her maternal great-grandfather’s death record see, Brockton, Plymouth, MA death register 1897, p. 13, no. 277, Adoniram J. Cogswell, 13 Jul, clergyman; image, “Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DCTW-FM) > 0961522 (004225017), image 584. ↩︎
- An image of Mary Ann Cogswell, inherited by Hazel and later passed down to her daughter Brenda (Bergquist) Pickett, is currently in the private collection of her descendants. ↩︎
- The following are birth records for Pearl’s other children: (#3.) West Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1911, p. 1, entry 16, Arnold Boice Quinn, 21 April; “Massachusetts Birth Records, 1840-1915,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5062/records/8001211), image 2. (#4.) West Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1912, p. 2, entry 65, Muriel Eleanor Quinn, born 30 December; “Massachusetts Birth Records, 1840-1915,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5062/records/8045224), image 2. (#5.) Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1914, p. 4, entry 161, Handley Sabean Quinn, 30 October; “Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Records, 1840–1915,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5062/records/8305554). (#6.) Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1916, p. 1, entry 19, Phyllis Penelope Quinn, 29 January; “Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638–1927,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G1GT-X72?i=148). (#7.) Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA birth reg. 1917, p. 2, entry 47, Melba Pearl Quinn, born 26 February; “Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638–1927,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-81BF-WKF?i=142). (#8.) Canton, Oxford, ME birth reg. 1918, female Quinn, 19 June; “Maine, U.S., Birth Records, 1715-1922,” Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1960/images/31515_204131-02208) > Oxford > 1918 > Q > image 1. (#9.) Jay, Franklin, ME birth reg. 1920, male Quinn, 21 January; “Maine, U.S., Birth Records, 1715-1922,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1960/images/31515_204131-02264) > Franklin > 1920 > Q > image 1. (#10.) Randolph, Norfolk, MA birth return 1921, no. 60, male Quinn, 3 July; “Massachusetts, birth records,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS1T-B3RT-9), image 274. (#11.) Randolph, Norfolk, MA birth return no. 51 (1922), Roy Quinn, 3 August; “Massachusetts, birth records,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QB-XD5L), image 55. (#12. & #13.) Boston, Suffolk, MA birth reg. 1923, nos. 13092 & 13093, twin female and male Quinn, 9 September; “Massachusetts, birth records,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-9Q7X-RH9G), image 193. (#14.) Brockton, Plymouth, MA birth return 1927, no. 1021, female Quinn, 27 August; “Massachusetts, birth records,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-4QXJ-RV1J), image 254. ↩︎
- “Willie Cook was the ‘Marryin’ Judge’,” Bluffton Today (https://www.blufftontoday.com/story/news/jasper-sun-times/2014/02/12/willie-cook-was-marryin-judge/14016061007/), ↩︎