Mary Helen VaVerka

Mary Helen VaVerka, nee Vernon, 90, died March 11, 2016, in Jacksonville, Florida, after a long decline, which took a great toll on her physically but could not and did not break her spirit. Born May 26, 1925, in Merrill, Iowa, Helen (as she liked to be called) graduated Creighton University in 1946, where she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry. She was mother of 9 children, grandmother of 22, step-grandmother of 2, and great-grandmother of 18, at last count. She took great joy in all the children, welcoming each with happy anticipation for what he or she would become. There was always room for another in her heart and at her table. She was intelligent, hard-working, resourceful, and persevering. She had grit and resilience, overcoming adversity time and again with grace, determination, ingenuity, humor, humility and faith. She was also fun-loving and athletic: star basketball player in high school and college, hunter and outdoorswoman in her 20s-40s, water-skier in her 40s-50s, rollerskater in her 50s, hot air balloon adventurer in her 60s, Alaska salmon fisherwoman in her 70s, and traveler well into her 80s. She was passionate about professional basketball, patriotic duty, and her Catholic faith. She had a beautiful singing voice, having studied with a renowned opera singer in the 1940s, and loved playing the organ for many years. While deafness in one ear ended her own musical aspirations, she nevertheless encouraged musicality in the family and delighted in the beautiful voice of beloved granddaughter, Jessica, the inborn talent on the saxophone of another, Hannah, and the success of others in the family with wind instruments, guitar and piano. She loved being with and enriching her children’s and grandchildren’s lives with adventure, education, music, crafts, games, and relished doing anything fun with them, such as: road trips; mountain, beach, and desert camping; baking bread, cookies, and pies; and playing (and winning) at cards. Her joi-de-vivre was infectious; she made friends wherever she was. She was truly devoted to anyone she called friend. She loved animals, and they loved her! All these things and more, but she will most likely be best remembered for her absolute self-less-ness in love for her family and friends. From selling cupcakes for a nickel apiece as a young child to help her parents (an M.D. and R.N.) get by during the Great Depression, all the way into her ninth decade helping loved ones succeed in life, she was always giving, giving, giving of herself to others. Helen was preceded in death by her son, “Infant” VaVerka; parents, Dr. Fredrick Vernon and Mary Alice Murphy Vernon; former husband, Dr. John R. VaVerka; and her siblings, Dr. Dorothy Mullin, Fredrick Vernon, Jr., Frances Meziere, and Viola Jean Wehrheim; and cherished friends, Grant Lawrence, Betty Granger, and Alice Garcia. She is survived by her children: Patricia (John) Burrell, of Oregon; Janie (Bryce) Elliott, of California; John (Di Di) VaVerka, Jr., and Bob (Patty) VaVerka, of Florida; Becky (Dennis) Jennings and Peggy (James) Alexander, of Colorado; and, Thomas (Ewa) VaVerka and Mike (Christina) VaVerka, of California; 40 grandchildren, step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren; sister-in-law, Mary Claire (Ernest) Ringel, of Nebraska; numerous nieces and nephews; and her beloved dog, Bullseye, and neighborhood cat, Missy. Recitation of the Rosary will be Monday, March 21st , at 11160 Stranwood Avenue, Mission Hills, CA. Funeral Mass will follow at 12:00 pm, at 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd, Mission Hills, CA. Private reception to follow. Interment San Fernando Mission Cemetery. Donations may be made in the name of Mary Helen VaVerka, to: San Fernando Mission, 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd, Mission Hills, CA 91345.