"My mother was the bully on the block growing up. They called her `terremoto' (earthquake). She was very strong-willed. She was also a very big flirt her whole life. She always liked to have men around her. One day a man with a wooden leg came for a visit. Jewel decided she wanted a wooden leg and her mom caught her on the wood-chopping stump trying to chop off her leg. When she was 12 they were celebrating "little Christmas" (a tradition celebrated in January). You were supposed to set your shoes out by the fireplace and receive little treats the next morning. Jewel woke up to find both of her shoes filled with horse manure. She said that's when she started being a `good kid'. Mom had to use her Baptism Certificate to get her social security because she and Ray were born in their house in Jackson and their births were not recorded. She always lied about her age, in fact she collected her Social Security benefits five years late because she didn't want to admit her age to Scott, who was nine years younger than her. It was years before I knew Uncle Ray was her younger brother!

She married Scott, my dad, in 1942. He had been in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed and should have been on the Arizona that day but his orders had been changed. He always hated Hawaii and pineapple.

She was always on the go. You would have to call her before 7:00 AM if you were to get a hold of her. She would be gone all day. In fact, during the '89 quake I was able to find everyone but her. She had taken two busses and BART to the San Francisco that day and was on an escalator at the store when it hit. "  - Joyce Hughes

  Your grandmother [Cecilia] and my mother never got along; I think it was because they were a lot alike, very strong women. My mom would say `Uncle Ray and that woman are coming over".

My mother always wanted red hair, so she did. When she had her stroke and was in the convalescence hospital, her roots were really showing. She told me to get someone to wash her hair. I told her I would do it, but, of course, that's not what she meant. When she died at age 91 and a half, her hair was bright auburn and she had her hot pink fingernails.

I loved her penmanship that she was so proud of; she won first place for penmanship at Sacred Heart school in 6th grade. In 7th and 8th the nuns made her write all the test questions on the black board. I heard that story every time she saw someone else's poor penmanship. She even told her doctor that she was sure he'd be more successful if he practiced his penmanship.

                                                     - Joyce HUghes, Jewel's daughter (12-2000)

"Jewell was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I couldn't get over it. She used to work in San Francisco." -Josie Carniglia

"I was always very nosy, asking questions. In fact I was sticking and sneaking my nose out and had gotten plenty of spankings for that.

I am sure we have quite a few relatives in Rovegno, Italy on the Cunio side. Besides John and Louisa Cunio there was another sister, Teresa and a brother Luigi (or Louie), the youngest. Between Luigi and Teresa's families our family should be quite large there. I remember my mother saying that Teresa was 50 years old when she had her tenth child. Louie had a large family. It seems that all the children and grandchildren had a college education.

Now we have a skeleton in our family. A. Cunio, don't know his first name, might be responsible for all the Cunios buried in Jackson. He came to Jackson in 1850 from Italy "alone", left his wife in Italy. He worked in the gold mines for twenty years. Being alone and far away from his family he could have been a "bad boy". You could figure the births on some plot, it figures. For fifteen years, once a year, he would take a month's vacation. In those days there was no Panama Canal ; no other transportation except to go by boat around the Cape of Good Hope (Africa). It was a long trip to Italy. He stayed there long enough to get his wife pregnant (I think her name was Gullia). Then he would return to Jackson. The results of these trips were 15 children. He finally went back to Italy where he died. I actually think any children back from 1850 in Jackson were his. I checked six.

We should be proud of our family. We had a cousin Priest who passed away several years ago and a couple of nuns; all good people! Ray was a good boy in his younger days, I was more or less the black sheep in the family. Oh, well, I had fun; still do!

                                                              - Jewel Cuneo - 1984

.Jewel's first marriage was to Paul Eugene Graber. Paul Graber was born on December 5, 1900 in Glasgow, Iowa. He joined the Navy and while he was in Oakland he married Jewel around 1922. Jewel gave birth their daughter, Lucille Louise Graber May 31, 1923  in Oakland, California. When Paul and Jewell divorced, Paul, according to his family, lived the life of a hermit. He died in Flippin, Arkansas on September 23, 1968.

Paul Graber as a youth in Iowa	Paul Graber and Jewell 1922	Jewell and Lucille 1923	Lucille , Christening 1923

  Jewel's second marriage was to Gustave D. Mostovoy, (Gregory Mostoun) born in Terlitza, Poland on Nov. 17 1904. He immigrated with his father on October 9, 1923 . He joined the Coast Guard 20 May 1926, married Jewell around 1928 and left the Coast Guard 20 May 1929. They lived in San Francisco for a while then in Oakland. They divorced. Gregory died June 3, 1947 and is buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery.

Gregory and Julia	Julia, Gregory & Lucille	Jewell, Gregory, Ray, Louisa, Lucille