Ken and Colette Santucci, the parents of 16 children will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in June. It will also be the first time all 16 kids are together since 1981.
May 18, 2006 (Press Release) --
Long Beach, Calif., May 18, 2006 – Ken and Colette Santucci, Long Beach residents and parents of sixteen children, will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on June 2. The couple will renew their vows on June 3 at the same church in which they were originally married in 1956 – St. Bartholomew’s Catholic Church in Long Beach. All sixteen children will be in attendance, marking the first time since 1981 that the entire family has been together.
Ken, originally from New York, and Colette, a California girl, planned to have a dozen children. They had their first child, a girl, in 1957. Over the next 23 years, Colette gave birth to fifteen more children, all single births - ten boys and five more girls, with the last born in 1980.
Over the years, the family endured a number of obstacles and hardships. In July of 1989, Ken was literally run over by a Long Beach Transit bus when he was thrown from his bicycle on the way home from work. Miraculously, he survived, suffering only a broken pelvis and other minor injuries. Six months later, he was back on the job at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing), where he worked for over 40 years as an electrical engineer before retiring in 2003.
In an effort to make more room for the kids, the family built a second story on their Long Beach home, adding five bedrooms and a bathroom. Most of the planning and construction, which lasted from 1972 through mid-1974, was completed by the family themselves, with Ken’s father also helping out.
The Santucci children, who range in ages from 49-26, are (from oldest to youngest): Anna, Susan, Kenneth, Patrick, Theresa, Francis, Paul, Monica, Christopher, David, Peter, Jerome, Mark, Anastacia, Gregory, and Rebecca.
Ken, originally from New York, and Colette, a California girl, planned to have a dozen children. They had their first child, a girl, in 1957. Over the next 23 years, Colette gave birth to fifteen more children, all single births - ten boys and five more girls, with the last born in 1980.
Over the years, the family endured a number of obstacles and hardships. In July of 1989, Ken was literally run over by a Long Beach Transit bus when he was thrown from his bicycle on the way home from work. Miraculously, he survived, suffering only a broken pelvis and other minor injuries. Six months later, he was back on the job at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing), where he worked for over 40 years as an electrical engineer before retiring in 2003.
In an effort to make more room for the kids, the family built a second story on their Long Beach home, adding five bedrooms and a bathroom. Most of the planning and construction, which lasted from 1972 through mid-1974, was completed by the family themselves, with Ken’s father also helping out.
The Santucci children, who range in ages from 49-26, are (from oldest to youngest): Anna, Susan, Kenneth, Patrick, Theresa, Francis, Paul, Monica, Christopher, David, Peter, Jerome, Mark, Anastacia, Gregory, and Rebecca.
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