Elda Mincsik Karkut

Born in Baltimore on December 8th 1929, Elda Mincsik was the youngest of a very large family. Elda's parents Marta Hobar and Joseph Mincsik were born in Czechoslovakia in the mid 1880's and crossed into America through Ellis Island early in the 20th century.

Four of Elda's brothers served in World War Two, forcing her to drop out of high school at 16 to work at the family grocery store in their absence. When the war ended and her brothers returned, Elda courageously went back to high school at 18 and graduated at 20, despite being older than all her classmates.

Elda worked hard all her life, including for a family doctor, in her brother's hardware store and the personnel department of the Army at Ft. Holabird in Baltimore. There she met a soldier who had just completed a tour of duty in the inaugural class of the Army Intelligence Corps seeking help finding a civilian job. This soldier was the witty and sharply dressed Edmund (Ed) Karkut. They married in September 1961 and had two daughters, Amy in May 1963, and Megan in May 1970.

The family moved to Denver Colorado in September 1973 for Ed to take a job at Martin Marietta where he worked until 2011. Amy Karkut and Thomas Lund were married in 1989 and welcomed two children of their own, sons Conner and Tyler in 1996 and 1998 respectively. Elda and Ed were very involved with Amy and Tom's family, including several Spring Break trips to Mexico where everyone enjoyed the sun, sand and ocean waves.

Elda was an avid reader and admired The Arts in all its forms, passing her appreciation of the symphony, theatre, ballet and museums to Amy and Megan. For several years, they traveled to Toronto to meet Ed’s cousins Joan and Jean Waricha for a week-long theatre festival where they enjoyed many hours of live theatre performances and excellent food and wine.

Elda loved to travel and went all over the world with Ed, including - among many other destinations - Machu Pichu in Peru, a River Cruise on the Danube in Eastern Europe, Italy, Thailand and Viet Nam.

Fun Facts about Elda!

• Her father survived The Great Influenza of 1918.

• She learned to drive with her brothers' Studebaker and never had a ticket.

• One of Elda's nephews was a pilot in the military. In 1958 he took a photo of her standing on the wing of his airplane.

• She was a good seamstress and both sewed clothing for Amy and Megan and all of their Halloween costumes.

• Her family contributed funds for their parents' names to be included in an exhibit at The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. On a trip to New York City she saw her parents' names inscribed on the memorial wall for herself.

• On one of their theatre trips to Toronto she saw Arthur Miller's The Crucible performed by Laura Linney and Liam Neeson.

• Elda had two sisters who had children within two weeks of her birth, so she grew up with a niece and nephew her same age.

• Elda ran a Food Photography business with a friend for several years in the 1980's and 1990's. When Quinoa was first becoming popular in the United states, they were commissioned for a packaging photo. That photo was on the Ancient Harvest Quinoa box on grocery store shelves throughout the United States for many years.

Being the youngest, Elda is preceded in death by all of her siblings and Edmund Karkut - her husband of 63 years - who died on October 24th 2024. She is survived by daughter Amy (husband Tom and grandsons Conner and Tyler) and daughter Megan.