ANNA KOBRYN BOYKO

0.5 ft.

MSS 24

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Anna Kobryn Boyko was born in 1889 in Tuchne, Peremshyl Province, Ukraine.  She married in 1907.  Three years later her husband emigrated to America, leaving her and an infant daughter behind.  In 1913 he was able to send for her and the child.  The Boykos lived in the New York City area for a while, working in factories of various types.  They then moved to Trenton, New Jersey, where another child was born, before moving to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1916 or 1917. In 1918 they settled permanently in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Boyko was very active in church affairs at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia.  When the Boyko family moved to Southwest Philadelphia, Mrs. Boyko was very unhappy because there was no Ukrainian church in the neighborhood.  She began organizing Ukrainians in that section of the city and eventually, in 1949, the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church was established.  She was a member of that parish for the remainder of her life.

She was also active in the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics in America, a fraternal insurance and benefit society, and was influential in organizing two Philadelphia branches of the Association.  For several years Mrs. Boyko was one of the supreme advisors elected by the organization.  She also founded Daughters of Ukraine, a branch of the Ukrainian Women's Organization.

Mrs. Boyko died in 1973.

PROVENANCE

Gift of Russell Boyko, 1975.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The collection consists of seven diaries, one journal of the Council of Ukrainian Women in America, and various newspaper clippings both by and about her.  Also included are essays and miscellaneous writings.  The diaries, 1910-1964, contain short daily entries, essays on the founding of her parish, reminiscences of her childhood and early years in the United States, and accounts of her interest in church activities and religion.  She describes church activities and often includes minutes of meetings and summaries of speeches delivered at meetings of church groups.  An ardent supporter of the Democratic Party, Mrs. Boyko wrote about the elections of Presidents Truman and Kennedy.  An undated autobiography, "The Beginning of My Life," obituaries, tributes, a short printed history of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church, and a few letters are included also.  The collection is written almost entirely in Ukrainian.  Short summaries, in English, of part particularly  interesting passages have been supplied by Mrs. Boyko's daughters, Theresa Grolsko and Katherine Titanich.