Margaret V. (Waltz) Mihalakis 1922-2014

MIHALAKIS, WALTZ, WATERMAN, WEBER, CAULEY, SCHMITZ, FREYHAGE

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 1/2/2016 at 22:15:05

Margaret V. Mihalakis, 92, of Dubuque, passed away at 7 a.m. Sunday, June 15, 2014, peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family.

Private family funeral services will be held at Behr Funeral Home, 1491 Main St., where friends may celebrate Margaret's life from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 18. Burial will be in Linwood Cemetery.

Margaret was born on June 13, 1922, in Farley, Iowa, daughter of Henry and Apollonia (Franck) Waltz. Margaret's family moved to Dubuque when she was still a young child and took up residence at 1450 Pine St.

On March 7, 1942, she was married to Louis Mihalakis in New Orleans, La. Louis and Margaret met when they were 12 years old. The first time Louie met her, he told his friends that she was the girl he was going to marry. Margaret was lithe, lean, dark and beautiful and was known as "Bacon" to close friends and family.

There was a direct line between her heart and her hands. She had a simple generosity of spirit and understood on a deep level the nature of need in people and did everything in her power to help others. Animals naturally gravitated to her because of her gentleness and compassion for them. To say she loved nature is an understatement - she belonged to it; respected it; reveled in it. Margaret was intensely private; a thinker, a doer, a provider and the catalyst for all that was good in our lives. The world just won't be the same without her. The realization of our loss will be compounded by the gulf of years between her death and the day we will all meet her again. Babe and Peanuts Atchison and their children were like family to her, and she always appreciated their sense of humor and their simple enjoyment of life. Her lifelong best friends were Jennie Atchison and Ruthie Elliot.

Margaret is survived by her beloved husband of 73 years, Louis Mihalakis, of Dubuque; her seven children, Phillip (Marlene) Mihalakis, Michael (Elizabeth) Mihalakis and Bryan (Sally) Mihalakis, all of Dubuque, Virginia Mihalakis, of Davenport, Georgia Mihalakis and Michelle Mihalakis, both of Dubuque, and Maria (Thomas) Mihalakis Waterman, of Pleasant Valley, Iowa; 19 grandchildren; 32 great-grandchildren; 10 great-great-grandchildren; and a sister, Violet Weber.

Margaret was preceded in death by her parents; two children, George "Henry" and Ellas "Bum" Mihalakis; her three sisters, Mary "Mae" Cauley, Louise Schmitz and Lillian Freyhage; and two brothers, Fred and Henry "Hank" Waltz.

In lieu of flowers a Margaret V. Mihalakis Memorial Fund has been established.

Online condolences may be left for the family at behrfuneralhome.com.

The family wishes to especially thank her personal care-givers, Anna Schlunaker, Jessie McCallister, Kathy Walker and Theresa Holland; and many thanks also to Home Instead and Hospice of Dubuque.

Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) - Tuesday, June 17, 2014