Frank C. and Mary (Niedrich) Gasdorf married in Detroit, Michigan on April 21, 1924. Jack Gasdorf was born to Frank and Mary in Detroit on September 15, 1924. Sadly, on June 25, 1927, 34-year old Mary died from peritonitis leaving two-year old Jack motherless. She is buried at Grand Lawn Cemetery in Detroit.

That same year Frank's father Joe and stepmother Lulu Mae came from Tulsa, Oklahoma to help care for Jack while Frank worked as a Detroit police officer. During their time in Detroit, Joe, a deputy sheriff, and Lulu Mae took physical custody of twin babies Patsy and Peggy Burgin, born in March 1929 in Detroit. Their 23-year old mother Ruth (Lee) Burgin died days after child birth. Their father John agreed to let Joe and Lulu Mae raise them on the condition he would receive updates on their schooling and general well-bring.

Joe and Lulu Mae stayed in Detroit for about five years. Sometime between 1930 and 1932 they took Jack, Patsy and Peggy with them to live in Tulsa. Lulu Mae (Linzel) Gasdorf couldn't have children. She was delighted to have these children to love and call her own. This family remained in Tulsa until Joe died on January 10, 1947. Lulu Mae remarried a man named Don Norris. She died May 15, 1966 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Joe and Lulu Mae are buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa.

After Mary's death in 1927, Frank married Jewell McMunn in about 1930. They had a son they named Frank in 1931. They are buried in Christuf Gardens, a part of Cadillac Cemetery in Westland, Michigan.

As a child Jack played the violin, which he detested, achieved the eagle scout rank in boy scouts and delivered newspapers. He served in the Army-Air Corp during World War II as a radio technician. He was stationed in Hawaii, in Salina, Kansas and in Madison, Wisconsin where he met Verna on State Street one evening during a night out on the town. He married 22-year old Verna Mae Topper, daughter of John and Gladys (Barsness) Topper, on March 16, 1946 at Luther Memorial Church in Madison, Wisconsin. Their children: Terry, Jill, Roger and Brian. He played on city and company basketball and baseball teams and bowled in leagues. Jack and Verna golfed together in the 1950s. She taught Sunday school and he was a boy scout leader for the troop associated with Luther Memorial Church in Madison. For many years Jack worked as a civil engineering draftsman in Madison and Phoenix. Most of Verna's working life was spent in the finance office at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison. After 16 years of marriage they divorced in Phoenix where they lived from 1960 to 1963. Nine years later in September 1971 Jack married Cristela Balli in Imperial, California. He died of cancer and cardiac arrest on October 14, 1978 at his home by the public library in central Phoenix, Arizona. Jack is buried at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery in Phoenix. Verna died from complications of Parkinson's disease on September 28, 2011 and is buried at Sunset Memory Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin. Cris died March 8, 2010 and is buried in Monterrey, Mexico. prepared by Jill S. (Gasdorf) Topper

Frank Gasdorf (1892)