Martin Joseph "Joe" O'Rourke
Birth: 12 Dec 1899, San Francisco, CA
Death: 12 Nov 1955, San Francisco, CA
Spouse: Catherine Mercedes Cecelia Murray
Birth: 17 May 1905, California
Death: 31 Aug 1948, San Francisco, CA
Marriage: abt 1926
Children: Dorothy E (1927-2005)
Robert Joseph (1930-2007)
Spouse: Elnora B Homan
Birth: 22 Sept 1898, Kansas City, Kansas
Death: 20 Jan 1983, Alameda, CA
Marriage: 1 Feb 1950, San Francisco, CA
Divorce: 1952
Martin Joseph O’Rourke was born on December 12, 1899, in San Francisco. Like his brother James, who always went by his middle name, Martin always went by Joe, as there were at least four other Martin Joseph O’Rourkes in the City at the time. He grew up on Harriet Street in the SOMA district until the Great Fire drove the family to Potrero Hill. He lived at 216 Texas Street, in St. Theresa Parish, and had an eighth grade education, likely from Irving M. Scott School, on Tennessee near 22nd Street.
His World War I draft notice said he was of medium height and slender, with black hair and blue eyes. At the time, he was working in South San Francisco at the Schawbatcher Company as a “holder-on,” which is a riveter’s assistant who holds the backstop for the rivets. The City Directory listed him as a machinist. Schawbatcher’s had a shipyard in South City, and they produced the 8800-ton freighter The West Calera for the Emergency Fleet Corporation in 1919. By 1920, he had left Schawbatcher’s and was working as an auto mechanic.
After his parents sold the house on Texas Street, Joe lived with his sisters. In 1924 and 1925, he was a member of the Fire Department working as a stoker and living at 8 College Terrace with Irene. On April 19, he appeared in the newspaper as one of five firefighters who were injured fighting “a stubborn fire last night in a two-story brick building at 142 California Street.” He received cuts to his hands and face and, after being treated, returned to fight the fire. But the experience of the three-alarm blaze was enough to instigate a career change. On July 1, 1925, he left the SFFD and was appointed to the police department. He would remain on the police force for the next 21 years. Somewhere around this time, he met Catherine Murray.
Death: 12 Nov 1955, San Francisco, CA
Spouse: Catherine Mercedes Cecelia Murray
Birth: 17 May 1905, California
Death: 31 Aug 1948, San Francisco, CA
Marriage: abt 1926
Children: Dorothy E (1927-2005)
Robert Joseph (1930-2007)
Spouse: Elnora B Homan
Birth: 22 Sept 1898, Kansas City, Kansas
Death: 20 Jan 1983, Alameda, CA
Marriage: 1 Feb 1950, San Francisco, CA
Divorce: 1952
Martin Joseph O’Rourke was born on December 12, 1899, in San Francisco. Like his brother James, who always went by his middle name, Martin always went by Joe, as there were at least four other Martin Joseph O’Rourkes in the City at the time. He grew up on Harriet Street in the SOMA district until the Great Fire drove the family to Potrero Hill. He lived at 216 Texas Street, in St. Theresa Parish, and had an eighth grade education, likely from Irving M. Scott School, on Tennessee near 22nd Street.
His World War I draft notice said he was of medium height and slender, with black hair and blue eyes. At the time, he was working in South San Francisco at the Schawbatcher Company as a “holder-on,” which is a riveter’s assistant who holds the backstop for the rivets. The City Directory listed him as a machinist. Schawbatcher’s had a shipyard in South City, and they produced the 8800-ton freighter The West Calera for the Emergency Fleet Corporation in 1919. By 1920, he had left Schawbatcher’s and was working as an auto mechanic.
After his parents sold the house on Texas Street, Joe lived with his sisters. In 1924 and 1925, he was a member of the Fire Department working as a stoker and living at 8 College Terrace with Irene. On April 19, he appeared in the newspaper as one of five firefighters who were injured fighting “a stubborn fire last night in a two-story brick building at 142 California Street.” He received cuts to his hands and face and, after being treated, returned to fight the fire. But the experience of the three-alarm blaze was enough to instigate a career change. On July 1, 1925, he left the SFFD and was appointed to the police department. He would remain on the police force for the next 21 years. Somewhere around this time, he met Catherine Murray.
Catherine Mercedes Cecelia Murray was born on May 17, 1905, in Menlo Park. She was the youngest (and the only daughter) of the five children of John Jarvis Murray from La Honda and Katharine Phelan from Kilkenny, Ireland. She grew up as a farmer’s daughter on the Peninsula. Her mother died in 1912 when Mercedes was just 7 years old. She moved to the City in 1925 and became a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital. She was living on 22nd Avenue, and Joe was renting a place at 1485 Waller, near his uncle Jim Silk in St. Agnes Parish. It is unknown exactly when they married, but they were in the 1927 City Directory as a married couple, living with the Costas at 1170 Hampshire Street.
In October of 1927, their first child, a daughter they named Dorothy, was born. They moved to 134 Staples Street in the Sunnyside District near St Finnbar Church and would live there for the next two years. In 1930, with another child on the way, they bought a newly built Doelger Home at 1551 – 29th Avenue in the Outer Sunset.
Joe was not often in the newspapers, unlike his brother-in-law Charlie Russell. He was named in a 1930 Chronicle article about the formation of thirteen new motorcycle units to help combat an 42.8% increase in traffic fatalities during the first five months of that year. The traffic division was Joe’s career. On July 3, 1940, he was promoted to sergeant. He was just over 40 years old.
The other article was from March 5, 1942, when Joe was injured as a result of a barroom brawl between a 21-year-old sailor and a 25-year-old discharged private over the merits of the Army vs. the Navy. The argument started at The Roxy Club, on Market Street, and spilled out onto the street. According to the article,
Sergeant O’Rourke , in plain clothes interrupted the scene and attempted to take Latera to Harbor Station. Coming to the “rescue” of his former “enemy” Birchfield hit O’Rourke from behind and knocked him to the sidewalk. He fled, leaving his hat, and the Navy police later picked him up at the Embarcadero YMCA, and delivered him to the City Jail. O’Rourke, according to doctors, is in a critical condition.
Joe, who was 43 at the time, had a fractured skull, but he recovered. The family always believed it was a contributing factor to his death later.
In 1946, Joe took a disability retirement based on increasing problems with hypertension and heart issues. Since he did not reach the full 25 years, his retirement package was not as strong as it could be, and he went to work part time as a truck driver.
Like her mother, Mercedes always had health problems. In 1938, she was diagnosed with hypertension. She was under the care of Dr. AB Diepenbrock for the next ten years. On the evening of August 30, 1948, she was admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital. She died at 3:25 am on August 31, 1948, of a cerebral hemorrhage which was brought on by the hypertension. She was on 43 years old. There was a rosary at Duggan’s Mortuary on Valencia and a Requiem Mass at St. Anne’s of the Sunset Church, followed by burial in Section R2 of Holy Cross Cemetery.
With his wife gone, his son away in the Army, and his daughter recently married, Joe was lonely. He met and quickly married Elnora Ross.
Elnora Belle Homan was born on September 22, 1898, in Kansas. She was the daughter of Albert R Homan, an Oklahoma livery stable owner, and Cora Belle McMillan. She was a high school graduate who had been married and divorced twice before and had a 27 year-old daughter named Phyllis Van Antwerp who still lived back in Oklahoma City. It is not known when or why she came to California, but she married Joe on February 1, 1950, in Alameda. The marriage did not last, though. By 1953, Elnora was gone and so was the house on 29th Avenue. The house belonged to Eldon and Phyllis Schue, and Joe was living with his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson at 1345 Shafter Avenue. A year later, the son-in-law was gone and Joe, Dorothy, and 4-year-old Robert Underwood were living at 1A Lundy’s Lane in Bernal Heights, in the house where Joe’s parents had lived when they first married. (The property was not owned by the family, though. It was owned by a Clarence Bacon.) Elnora would marry one more time, to a man from Fremont, California, named George Bere. She would die in Fremont in 1983 at the age of 85.
Elnora Belle Homan was born on September 22, 1898, in Kansas. She was the daughter of Albert R Homan, an Oklahoma livery stable owner, and Cora Belle McMillan. She was a high school graduate who had been married and divorced twice before and had a 27 year-old daughter named Phyllis Van Antwerp who still lived back in Oklahoma City. It is not known when or why she came to California, but she married Joe on February 1, 1950, in Alameda. The marriage did not last, though. By 1953, Elnora was gone and so was the house on 29th Avenue. The house belonged to Eldon and Phyllis Schue, and Joe was living with his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson at 1345 Shafter Avenue. A year later, the son-in-law was gone and Joe, Dorothy, and 4-year-old Robert Underwood were living at 1A Lundy’s Lane in Bernal Heights, in the house where Joe’s parents had lived when they first married. (The property was not owned by the family, though. It was owned by a Clarence Bacon.) Elnora would marry one more time, to a man from Fremont, California, named George Bere. She would die in Fremont in 1983 at the age of 85.
Joe had been under the care of Dr. John Elliot since September of 1952 for his hypertension. On November 11, 1955, he was admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital, just as Mercedes had been. At 4pm on November 14, 1955, Joe died from a pulmonary thrombosis. Joe was just a month shy of his 56th birthday. Just as with Mercedes, there was a rosary at Duggan’s Mortuary on Valencia and a Requiem Mass at St. Anne’s of the Sunset Church, followed by burial in Section R2 of Holy Cross Cemetery.
Not a whole lot is known about Joe and Mercedes O’Rourke as people. Since they died young, their grandchildren, grandnieces, and grandnephews did not know them and all the people who would have known them—including both their children—are gone. The obituaries are fairly generic, showing that he was a member of the Police Widows and Orphans Benevolent Fund and California Municipal Motorcycle Officers Association. No other club, organization or church affiliations were stated in either of their obituaries.
Not a whole lot is known about Joe and Mercedes O’Rourke as people. Since they died young, their grandchildren, grandnieces, and grandnephews did not know them and all the people who would have known them—including both their children—are gone. The obituaries are fairly generic, showing that he was a member of the Police Widows and Orphans Benevolent Fund and California Municipal Motorcycle Officers Association. No other club, organization or church affiliations were stated in either of their obituaries.