Sylvia Marlewski was born 7 March 1901 to Sylvester and Anastasia (Malinowski) Marlewski. Her maternal grandmother was Pauline Kolpacki Malinowski. When Sylvia was six years old, her father died; her mother later married his brother, Theodore T. Marlewski. Both Sylvester and Theodore Marlewski operated a pharmacy in Milwaukee, which is now part of the exhibit on 19th century medicine located at the Milwaukee County Historical Society.
Sylvia Marlewski graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1921, and subsequently taught home economics in Milwaukee grade schools and at West Allis High School. In 1925 she married Joseph J. Adamkiewicz, a physician and surgeon who was also on the faculty of the Marquette University School of Medicine. Dr. Adamkiewicz (1898-1977) was a graduate of South Division High School (1915) and of Marquette University and its medical school. Prior to his graduation from medical school, he began teaching there, a position he held for more than 40 years. He also maintained a private practice in the same building that housed the Marlewski pharmacy at 1401 W. Lincoln. The Adamkiewiczes had four children, Gloria, Donna, Joseph, Jr., and Marcia.
Like his brother, Ladislaus L. (sometimes the Polish spelling of Wladyslaw is used) Adamkiewicz (1893-1971) graduated from South Division High School, Marquette University, and its School of Medicine. Ladislaus was a pathologist, and served as a physician in the U.S. Navy during World War I and for many years thereafter. He ultimately joined the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Medial School.
Other Adamkiewicz family members include parents, Francis and Victoria, who came from Poznania (Prussian Poland), and their other children, Bernard J. (d. 1957), an attorney; Theodora Pawlicki, a school teacher; Felix (or Felician, d. 1969), and Cornelia Marlewski (who married Dr. Cyril Marlewski, a brother of Sylvia Marlewski Adamkiewicz).
