Mary J. (Maryanna Joanna) Grochowska was born in Milwaukee, September 2, 1906 to Rosa (Kuszewska) and Simon (later James) Grochowski, Jr. She attended several grade schools, including St. Casimir's, Lapham Park Open Air School, and Palmer Street Public School, followed by Riverside High School. She also took the two-year commercial course offered by the Milwaukee school systems, and attended McDonald's Business College, finishing before she was sixteen years of age. Mary then worked for her uncle, Joseph B. Kuszewski, at his grocery store on North Bremen Street for three years, and later in the office of the Milwaukee Shoe Company until her marriage on May 22, 1934. Throughout her youth and following her marriage, Mary Kosmatka was active in numerous civic, church, and social organizations. When she was nineteen, she was accepted as a member of the Marya Konopnicka Dramatic Circle, which gave performances at St. Casimir's Church.
In 1936 Mary and her husband, Valentine Kosmatka, opened the Lincoln Gift Shoppe on West Lincoln Avenue, which they operated until 1940. Both Mr. and Mrs. Kosmatka subsequently held a variety of jobs in several Milwaukee businesses. Their daughter, Rose Marie, was born in 1936. Valentine Kosmatka died in 1961. In 1966, Mary Kosmatka joined VISTA and spent a year working with families on the Navajo reservation at Ft. Defiance, Arizona. Since that time she has lived in Oconomowoc, Milwaukee, and in Watertown, where she has lived with her daughter and son-in-law since 1977.
