Nellie R. Weber
WEBER, LACE, RYL
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 4/2/2021 at 07:08:18
Nellie R. Weber, 95, of Iowa City, died Sunday, March 14, 2021 at Oaknoll Retirement Center in Iowa City.
Born January 18, 1926 in Tianjin, China, to Wiktor and Lieba (Lace) Ryl, Nellie grew up in a Russian community within the British Concession of Tianjin. Her parents had moved from Russia to China in the early 1920s, looking for opportunities after WWI and the Russian Revolution. However, economic conditions were poor in Tianjin, and were made worse by the Japanese occupation, so in her late teens Nellie took a chance to move to Peking (now Beijing), to work for Mila Ahtam, who would become a lifelong friend.
In 1949, the Chinese Communists took over and most foreigners fled the country. Nellie and her family were sheltered by the Philippines as refugees until 1950, when she and her parents and younger sister were reunited with her older sister and brother-in-law in Chicago. There, she attended secretarial school followed by several years of evening classes with the dream of becoming a teacher in her adopted country.
Nellie married Harry B. Weber in 1961 in Chicago after a whirlwind summer romance while they both taught at Northwestern University. After getting her Bachelors in Russian Language and Literature, Nellie worked alongside Harry for almost 20 years at the Department of Russian at the University of Iowa, as department secretary and teaching conversation. Her sunny disposition, formidable organizational skill, and kind but no-nonsense attitude made her the heart of the Russian Department.
Food and love were the same for Nellie, as anyone sharing her famous borscht, pelmeni and piroshki knew. She and Harry took in many a stray student over holidays and loved hosting gatherings both large and small. Stray animals, too, were often fed, and many stayed.
Many of our favorite memories were forged around the kitchen table after a feast, sharing stories, playing games, working through a bag of ginger snaps and drinking tea when solitaire was played with actual decks of cards. As children we experienced her love, devotion and unshakeable support of our endeavors as constants of nature; it is only with age that we have understood how blessed we are to have had her in our lives for so many years.
Nellie will join her husband Harry and parents in the West Branch Cemetery. Survivors include her daughter Sabra, son Frederick, and their families.
Visitation will be Thursday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am at Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service in Iowa City. Funeral Services will begin at 11:00am at Lensing's. Burial will follow in the West Branch Cemetery.
Social distancing guidelines are in place and facemasks are required.
The visitation and funeral service will be available to view on Zoom. Please go to the Lensing Funeral website - www.lensingfuneral.com, then to Nellie’s obituary page and click on the Tribute Wall. Follow the link on this page for the webcast.
Instead of flowers and plants, memorials may be directed to Habitat for Humanity of Iowa City and Iowa City Hospice.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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