Stephen Craviotto

Steve was only related to us by marriage and he and Alice Joos had no children together, but he is in so many old family pictures and... well he just keeps showing up- so we had to give him his own profile.

Stephen J. Craviotto was born August 1, 1892 in Varazze, Liguria, Italy which is near Genoa way up in the North. He became a citizen of the United States by virtue of his father's naturalization, around 1899. He was living at 2383 Greenwich St. San Francisco at the time of the 1917 draft for the (first) World War. He was single, had no dependants, no prior military experience, no exemptions. He was 24 years old, caucasian, medium build, medium height, brown hair, brown eyes, all limbs in good working order... (this info came from his draft registration card)

At the time of the 1920 census he was living as a boarder at the home of Alice Winkler. He is listed as a Vulcanizer for his occupation. We can only assume he had already served his time in the war by then. The pictures we have of him in uniform have no dates.

He had a car. The "family" went on a lot of outings; camping, visiting family, fishing... He appeared to be in good graces with Alice's parents, judging by the photos.

I was surprised and amused while looking for Frank Ambrose in some old Larkspur Fire Department photos at the Fire Museum when in a large group photo from 1923, there was smiling Steve with a badge on. The fire chief said not everyone in the photo was from Larkspur, and that the Corte Madera FD and others were probably in there. It made me wonder if the badge I have from the Corte Madera Volunteer Fire Department was my grandfather's or Steve's!

There was some confusion about Steve Craviotto and Travis Hale looking too similar in photos. Here are two mug shots as best as I can get, that's Steve with the grapes. Trav's hair is straight and receeding differently from Steve's hair, which is also very wavy. Another discerning point is body type and height. Trav is taller than Steve, I think, relative to Bud as an adult. Finally, you have to consider that while Steve was a few years younger than Alice, he was married to her, not Alice's youngest daughter, Renee! He was an adult in the photos with Renee as a child and adolescent.