James Mulvey

*"Jimmy Mulvey" redirects here. For his son, see James Mulvey Jr. For his grandson, see James Mulvey III.*

**James Vincent Mulvey** (Ukrainian: **Джеймс Вінсент Малві**; 9 July 1922 – 6 October 2022) was a Ukrainian-Croatian carpet salesman who worked for his own business from the late 1940’s to the early 1990’s. He also served with the Royal Yugoslav Navy (later Yugoslav Navy) alongside with his brother-in-law Nikolai Obic during World War II and later, his nephew Nikolai Obic Jr. during the Korean and Cold Wars. Mulvey ran his own company “Mulvey Carpets & Co.” over in Velika Kladuša from 1951 until the company went bankrupt in 1983.

Born in Kyiv, in the Ukrainian SSR, Mulvey's father Edward Mulvey (born Myshkowsky, 1879–1926) was in Warsaw when he heard about the birth of his son. His mother was Julia Mulvey (née Clover, 1886–c. 1948), the sister of James Clover. When James was four, his father took his own life on 6 November 1926, aged 47, after being in finance for three years. In 1929, his sister Anna married Nikolai Obic, the son of a Serbo-Croatian family. She had eight children with him. During the war, Mulvey met his wife Jessica Myers in London. The two settled their lives in Velika Kladuša, where they raised three children, James Jr., Shelby and Volodymyr. However, his wife was stricken with ovarian cancer and she died on 31 March 1955, leaving Mulvey a widower with three children to raise on his own. He never remarried. Aside from his wife's death, Mulvey also had to endure the deaths of two of his three children. James Jr. by suicide on 31 July 1979 at age 34 and Shelby by heart failure on 20 November 1994 at age 46.

In 2001, Mulvey suffered a stroke, which he was sent to live with his younger son in Zagreb, Croatia. On 9 July 2022, Mulvey celebrated his 100th birthday and less than three months later, he died from natural causes at Volodymyr’s home. He was buried alongside with his wife and two of their children over in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

## Biography

### Early life

Mulvey was born on 9 July 1922 in Kyiv (also spelled Kiev), Ukrainian SSR (present day Ukraine). He was named after his maternal uncle James Clover, Julia’s brother and Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. He was the younger child of Edward Mulvey (born Myshkowsky, 31 July 1879 – 6 November 1926), a painter and his wife Julia Mulvey (née Clover, 1886 – c. 1948), a biologist. He had one older sister, Anna (22 July 1910 – 18 April 1993), who was almost 12 years his senior. When Mulvey was born, his father was in Warsaw for a meeting on uniting the Soviet Union into one whole. In 1923, Edward lost his job for misbehaviour. He ended up going into a very deep finance where on 6 November 1926, Edward shot himself in the mouth with a shotgun that he bought the year before. In 1927, Mulvey’s mother remarried to a man, who was abusive, but did appreciate his stepchildren. On 30 July 1929, Anna married Nikolai Obic, the youngest child of a Serbo-Croatian family. Mulvey decided to live with his sister over in Velika Kladuša. In 1934, Mulvey dropped out of school due to it pressuring his brain. He studied about joining the army throughout the 1930’s. Despite being a dropout, Mulvey refused to give up. He was reluctant on trying to get into the Royal Yugoslav Navy, but they wouldn’t accept him because he was too young.

### World War II, marriage and widowhood

In 1941, a couple years after World War II started, Mulvey finally became a member of the Royal Yugoslav Navy alongside with his brother-in-law. In 1942, his stepfather died in the Holocaust despite not being Jewish. Mulvey had beliefs that his stepfather was partitioned with Adolf Hitler for trying to be part of the Nazi Party. Mulvey enlisted himself in the NSDAP in 1943, but they discharged him after one year. In 1944, while on a trip in London, he met Jessica Myers. The two became in love with each other very fast. Mulvey and Myers married that year and they had three children, James Jr., Shelby and Volodymyr. After the War ended, the Mulveys resided in Velika Kladuša for almost Mulvey’s entire life time. On 22 March 1947, Mulvey went into a relapse after he almost died from falling down a mountain in Banja Luka. 1948 the best year for Mulvey because it is not only the year his only daughter was born, but it did happen to show Mulvey that he had intelligence for who he was. In 1950, Mulvey served in the Korean War, where he met his nephew Nikolai Obic Jr. over in Seoul. He returned to Velika Kladuša after living in Seoul for one year. After the Korean War, Mulvey was able to raise his family until April 1954, when his wife Jessica was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. James tried everything he can to make Jessica live for a long time. Sadly, on 31 March 1955, Jessica died after an almost one year battle with ovarian cancer. Mulvey stated in a 1992 interview that his wife got ovarian cancer almost a year after Volodymyr was born. He never remarried.

### Mid-1950’s to 1970’s

On 20 January 1956, Mulvey wrote a letter to his nephew Nikolai Obic Jr. that he couldn’t raise three children on his own. Nikolai Jr. arrived in Velika Kladuša on 3 February with his daughter Katharine. In early March 1962, Mulvey booked a trip to North America, where his first stop was in Winnipeg, where he saw his sister Anna and brother-in-law Nikolai Obic. That same year, his nephew Nikolai Obic Jr. was arrested in Ukraine for trying to assassinate Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev. Mulvey returned back to Velika Kladuša in late April 1962, where he noticed that Nikolai Jr. wasn’t living in Mulvey’s house. On 23 March 1965, Nikolai Jr. died of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head, leaving Katharine under Mulvey’s roof. Mulvey attended his nephew’s funeral over in Kazakh SSR (present day Kazakhstan) on 31 March to see his ashes get dumped into the Caspian Sea. In June 1966, Mulvey lost hope for himself where he actually wanted to take his own life just like his father, but he couldn’t because he had to raise his great-niece since he couldn’t get her out of Yugoslavia until she was at least 18. Katharine’s mother didn’t want to raise her daughter because Nikolai Jr. raped Adrianna Aquino in 1950, in addition to her being Filipino. In 1970, Mulvey published his first book “Grubo je biti Ukrajinac i Hrvat” where he talked about what it was like to be both Ukrainian and Croatian at the same time. On 31 July 1979, Mulvey’s son James Jr. took his own life by placing a plastic bag over his head because of his depression and even left behind a suicide note for his father to read. James Sr. explained in a 1996 interview that his eldest son had dealt with drug addiction, in addition to depression. He was left by his girlfriend, who also took her own life in 1981. James Mulvey III was raised his paternal grandfather.

### 1980’s to 2000

The 1980’s were a different time for Mulvey, as he now had a grandson that lost both of his parents to suicide. He wanted the best for his grandson that could make him quite a figure into the 21st century. On 28 April 1986, Mulvey went to Kazakhstan for a vacation. He suffered a heart attack on 2 May while on vacation. Doctors were able to revive Mulvey, but it was clear that he felt like he didn’t have a long time to live. After his vacation, Mulvey remained in Velika Kladuša throughout majority of his life. The downfall of Yugoslavia in 1991 made Mulvey had fears that he was going to lose his house. According to his son Volodymyr, he stated that his father enjoyed living a quiet life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 20 November 1994, Mulvey’s daughter died of heart failure, at the age of 46.

### 21st century

On 5 April 2001, Mulvey suffered a stroke, where he lost movement in his left eye. His son explained in a 2002 interview that his father had been trying to recover after being a widower for almost 50 years.

> “On (Mulvey) je imao srčani udar dok je bio u Kazahstanu na odmoru jer je želio pobjeći od mene i Shelby.” – Volodymyr Mulvey, 2002
>
>

In 2004, Mulvey lost his ability to walk, so he was put into a wheelchair by his son. Volodymyr had no problem taking care of his father, but he sure knew that there was something wrong with him. Mulvey had violent movements whenever he woke up because he couldn’t move his legs without requiring assistance from Volodymyr. In 2013, he underwent knee replacement surgery onto both knees so Mulvey could walk again. The surgery was successful and Mulvey was able to walk around a certain amount of kilometres everyday. In 2016, Volodymyr wrote a book about his father, addressing about what it was like to lose a spouse and two kids in less than 40 years. It was titled, “Kako izgubiti obitelj za manje od 40 godina” (How to lose family in less than 40 years).

### Death

Mulvey had no serious health issues throughout the last few years of his 90’s. He died in his sleep of natural causes on 6 October 2022, aged 100, at his son Volodymyr’s home in Zagreb, Croatia. Mulvey was buried next to his wife in Velika Kladuša, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

## Trivia

* James Mulvey's son died by suicide just like his paternal grandfather.
* He spoke English, Ukrainian, Polish and Croatian but Ukrainian was his main language because he was born there.
* He is the only member of Luke's family to live 100.
* James had six grandchildren, one from James Jr., two from Shelby and three from Volodymyr.
	+ He also has nine great-grandchildren.
* James was named after both his maternal uncle James Clover and Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, whom Edward Mulvey met when he was 9 in France.
* His trademark was his toothbrush moustache.
* He was a member of the Nazi Party from 1943 until they discharged him in 1944.
* Mulvey travelled to fifteen different countries in his life. Canada, United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Japan, Kenya, Russia and the Philippines.
	+ Funny enough, he went to Kazakhstan twice. Once for his nephew's funeral, the other for a week just by himself.
		- On his second trip to Kazakhstan, Mulvey suffered a heart attack due to the intense heat of the nation.

## References

1. ↑ He had both Balkan nationalities, but he mainly identified as Croatian since 1947.
2. ↑ ”He loved mother with his heart. He was sad when she got cancer when I was ten months old.” – Volodymyr Mulvey
3. ↑ Mulvey, Volodymyr "My Father, the Century" p.178