Bernice Evelyn Kovaciny
KOVACINY, PEEK, SCHARLAU, GARSON
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 6/10/2020 at 11:31:38
Bernice Evelyn Kovaciny, 97, of Iowa City, passed away May 18, 2020 at Briarwood Health Care Center. She had been a resident at Legacy Independent Living for the previous 7 years. She moved to Iowa City in 1998.
Bernice was born on November 27, 1922 in Chicago, to Irene Bernice Peek (Scharlau) and George Washington Peek. She had one younger sister, Doris.
She attended Funstun Elementary and later, Kelvyn Park High School, both in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. After high school she attended Secretarial School, also in Chicago, where she mastered Gregg Shorthand. Through various periods of her life, she served as Secretary and Executive Secretary to a number of firms in Chicago, Skokie, and Evanston.
She married her neighborhood sweetheart Edward Kovaciny at age 29. Edward lived with his Mother, Helga, 8 blocks away, in a large & long apartment above a penny candy store, so it was truly a sweet romance. The neon sign would light up the living room in the evenings in a carnival of colors.
After their marriage, they moved to the self-proclaimed "World's Largest Village" of Skokie. Bernice bought their Cooperative Apartment with $5.00 down.
Both Bernice and Edward enjoyed gardening, especially their modest though lush gardens of multi-colored Four-o'clocks, and pink Peonies, some of which she brought with when she moved to Iowa City, for her son and wife to add to their own garden.
As the couple raised their children, she participated in various capacities in Greg's Cub and Boy Scout, and Lynn's Brownie and Girl Scout adventures.
Among her many life-talents, Bernice did needlepoint, was a singer, classical and acoustic guitarist, seamstress, swimmer, billiards player, sculptor, painter, and Senior Center cable access TV announcer (Anchor Mom).
Bernice's conservatory-trained pianist mother instilled in her a love of music that continued throughout her life. She loved listening to classical music LP's on her family's 1950's Hi-Fi Phonograph, and the almost-always-on FM tube radio that sat atop the refrigerator.
During her children's formative years, Bernice regularly sang soprano and mezzo-soprano in the Trinity Lutheran Church Choir, Evanston, Illinois. The choir was known in the area as "the real deal," in no small measure because of Bernice's clear and substantial voice.
Sudden widowhood in 1971 slowed her down for a while, though she soon became active again.
She was a dedicated volunteer at the Chicago Botanical Gardens in Glencoe for a number of years. She also volunteered at the Cardiac Rehab Department at Rush Hospital in Skokie.
She periodically went camping with a friend, often to the Door County area in Wisconsin, to enjoy roughing it in the great outdoors! She also traveled to Hawaii, Oslo, Norway, and cities in the Southern United States to visit relocated and retired friends from the Chicago area.
She learned to swim starting in her 60's at the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles, Illinois.You can tell you've found a serious avocation when your clothing purchases shift to swimsuits, stylish swim hats, and prescription swim goggles! She could be found at least 4 days a week at lessons, or swimming laps. She continued this activity in Iowa City for many years. Learning to swim was an accomplishment for which she was extremely proud.
When the personal computer revolution came in the early 1980's, Bernice was riding that wave fairly soon thereafter. Her son set her up with a DOS-based computer, word processing software, and a fancy dot-matrix printer. Her letter writing to friends increased significantly. She also used it later on for creating important documents, writing her text for her Cable TV announcing programs, and for cataloging the Iowa City Senior Center channel's video program tape archive. Oh, and once she was given a modem, buying stuff on the newly commercialized Internet.
When in late 1997 she visited Iowa City by train to "check it out," she was given a complete tour of the Senior Center. She was amazed--"this isn't like our center in Skokie--they do so many cool things here!" It was one of the strong incentives, along with the fact her son lived here, and the City had some great public swimming pools, for her to make the move to Iowa City. Her first phone call to her son when arriving back in Skokie was "I'm moving to Iowa City." "No ifs, ands, or buts!"
She bought a condo, and jumped right into Iowa City living! When she moved to Iowa City in 1998, she "never looked back," except to make sure the movers had packed her PC and her sewing machine.
In the early 2000's she became a Senior Center cable access TV announcer, and put together a script each month of Center activities, and presented it in front of the cameras, in a very polished presentation. I very lovingly called her Anchor Mom when I told my friends and co-workers about this activity of hers. They all thought that was "cool," and I had to agree with them.
She joined the Friday Ladies Pool Group at The Center. These wonderfully boisterous, energetic, and friendly women met each week to shoot pool, tell stories that may or may not have been true, and to solve the world's problems in the corner pocket, off a double bank shot. The group had a 20th Year Billiards Reunion Party in late 2019. Bernice was there, complete with her custom pool cue and her giant smile at once again seeing her pool buddies.
While still in Skokie, she had taken numerous sculpting classes, concentrating on the human form, and produced nearly 20 pieces. Because the Iowa City Senior Center did not have a sculpting class, and, wanting to stay involved with the visual arts, she decided to shift to painting. She joined Artist Jim Ochs' weekly painting class, and transitioned quickly to this new medium. Over the years, she created dozens of paintings, mainly of lighthouses, including some modeled after photos taken by her son, Greg. She was known affectionately as "The Lighthouse Lady."
Various paintings of hers were displayed at the Senior Center Gallery, one of Iowa City's official Gallery Spaces. She had two long-running solo shows of her many lighthouse works at Legacy Ridge II art space. She often said how she couldn't have stayed with it, or have as much dedication if it hadn't been for her mentor Jim Ochs, and his tireless efforts to bring out the natural artist in all his students.
She was also a dedicated animal lover and pet parent. During her years as a widow, she raised many rescued four-legged friends, both dogs and cats. Her dear Chloe, her last feline friend of nearly 15 years, was able to meet up with a new loving home when Bernice's health began to falter in recent months, which gave her great comfort in knowing her Chloe would be safe.
Having stayed physically active throughout her life, even in her mid-90's she knew that exercise was important, and did what she could, including Chair Zumba, and Tai Chi and Meditation at Legacy Independent.
She lived through a phenomenal array of historical times: As I now ponder it, I cannot fathom that much living, through so many epochs, through so many good and bad times in our national and world history, through so many changes.
She was most proud of having raised two kind, independent thinking children. She would remind them both, when phone calls turned that way, "Remember, no matter how old I am, and how old you are, I'm still your mother, and I love you dearly."
There is perhaps no calling, no legacy, no message better than that.
Honoring her wishes, she did not want a funeral, and cremation rites have been accorded. Burial will take place at a later date at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois. A Memorial Gathering to celebrate Bernice's life will be held in Iowa City at a future date.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be directed to the Friends of The Iowa City Senior Center.
Survivors include her children, Gregory Kovaciny of Iowa City and Lynn Kovaciny of Athens, Georgia, and nephew Phil Garson of Harvest, Alabama.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Edward Kovaciny, and her sister, Doris (Garson) Herz.
Obituary written by Son Gregory Kovaciny, with help from Daughter Lynn Kovaciny
(Still young kids on certain days)
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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