HOUSER, Antoinette Salone "Toni" 1916-2008

HOUSER, GRACON, KOVACHEVICH

Posted By: K. Kittleson
Date: 12/15/2008 at 12:21:36

CHARLES CITY, IOWA - Antoinette "Toni" Houser, 91, of the 11th St. Chautauqua Home in Charles City died Friday night, December 12, 2008, at the home. She was a resident for very close to eight years.

A funeral Mass will be held for Toni on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at Holy Name Catholic Church, 507 First Ave. N.W. in Rockford. Officiating will be the Rev. Jim Dubert. Interment will be next to her husband in Evergreen Cemetery, Rudd.

Those planning a memory donation may do so to the Toni Houser Memorial Fund. Condolences may be shared with the family on the funeral home Web site at www.Fullertonfh.com

Antoinette Salone was born one of ten children to Thomas and Mary (Gracon) Kovachevich on the family farm in Bayfield County, Wisconsin on December 16, 1916. She achieved a high honor in her day by graduating from De Padua High School in Ashland, Wisconsin.

She was employed at the Ashland Paper Mills and worked as a waitress on several of the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. During her work, she met a commercial fisherman as a customer named John but known as Art. After a period of time they cemented their friendship and love by becoming husband and wife in 1941 in Michigan. To this union was born two daughters. She remembers the time her soon to be husband took her in a small boat during a storm to visit her relatives. That's probably what made her a feisty woman.

In the mid-1940s they moved to Iowa and farmed in Rockford, Osage, Rudd and Floyd. They lived in Nora Springs for three years and then moved to Rudd where they owned and operated Houser Hardware for three years. She then was employed at Hansen Grocery and Rudd Lumber and Hardware.

Toni was a member of Holy Name Catholic Church in Rockford. During the course of her life she made many visits to her family on the southern shores of Lake Superior and loved to be with her family and friends at the lake. Her husband was an avid hunter and fisherman and they spent many enjoyable times fishing and entertaining the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the North Woods of Wisconsin and Minnesota, especially at Gun and Pepin Lakes.

She served as a Brownie and Girl Scout leader for several years. She enjoyed the outdoors in her flower gardens, sewing, playing cards and taking short trips with her family and senior citizen friends. In her later years she made eleven double wedding ring quilts for her family. She was very inquisitive and enjoyed finding out facts and how things worked. She was a Hawkeye fan.

Those thankful in sharing Toni's life include her two daughters, Joy Messier, Edwardsville, Ill., and Kay Parcher, Marble Rock; two sisters, Fran Halvorson and Emelda Kovachevich and one brother, Anthony Kovachevich, all of Bayfield, Wis.; six grandchildren, Justine (Peter) Preston, Christian Messier, Timothy (Amy) Parcher, Elizabeth (Marvin) Enabnit, Amanda (Joe) Hornyak, Jason (Karen) Parcher; ten great-grandchildren, Erica, Sam, Dane, Payton, Dustin, Paige, Thomas, Leah, Benjamin, and Sarah and a host of nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Art in 1988; three sisters, Mary Ogle, Anna Gautsch and Emma Meierotto; three brothers, Frank, Joe and Jake Kovachevich and two sons-in-law, Dennis Messier and Jerry Parcher.

Arrangements by Fullerton Schumburg Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 302 W. Main, Rockford, 641-756-3311, www.Fullertonfh.com.

[Original obituary web-published in the Mason City Globe Gazette online 12/15/2008 - www.globegazette.com]