1948. Steve Strack on his knees begs for his wife Anna’s forgiveness outside a Chicago divorce court.

 1948. Steve Strack on his knees begs for his wife Anna’s forgiveness outside a Chicago divorce court.

According to research by Chicago historian Jeff Nichols, Anna had filed for divorce from her husband on the grounds of habitual drunkenness. In Illinois at the time, a spouse seeking a divorce had to provide the court with a reason for the split, and if the suing spouse could successfully prove the destructive behavior, the plaintiff spouse was found to be at fault and could be punished by the courts with a smaller share of marital assets or alimony.

Despite Steve's public display of begging for forgiveness, Anna was unconvinced, and the couple ultimately divorced. The 1950 census shows the couple as divorced, with Anna working as a packer at a gum factory, living with her parents and her son. Steve went on to work as a railroad mechanic and lived as a boarder. Steve remarried in 1953 but died just over a decade later in 1964. Anna never remarried, and when she died in 1983, she was buried under her ex-husband's name.