Benedicta Aleksa

Benedicta “Bess” Aleksa, age 106, of Charlottesville, Virginia, passed away on Saturday, September 28, 2019, at the Our Lady of Peace Retirement Community. The middle sister of three daughters of the late Jonas “John” and Selemona “Salome” Berzetes, she was preceded in death by her husband, William “Bill” Aleksa, her two sisters, Olga Witkus and Vitalia “Tali” Berzetes, her nephew, Mindaugas Vincent “Vince” Mikolainis, and her great-granddaughter, Evalynn Hallford.

A resident of Virginia for only four and a half years, Bess was born on October 11, 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. As a child, her family moved to Woodhaven in Queens, where she finished training as an R.N. at Mary Immaculate Hospital in 1933 and she served the people of New York and Long Island as a nurse until her retirement in 1984. Bess moved to Great Neck when she married her husband Bill in 1948, and remained there for over 65 years.

A devout member of St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, Bess was President of the Rosary Society as well as being active in the Women’s Auxiliary for many decades. She was proud of both her Lithuanian heritage and being an original Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Bess also greatly enjoyed both a good joke and a good meal, as well as playing the piano and being a “dog person.”

Survivors include her son, Peter Aleksa, and wife Karen; granddaughter Jacqueline Hallford, and great-grandchildren James, Alexandra, and Trinity; nephew’s wife Greta Michaels, and great-nephews Peter and wife Allyson, Eric and wife Jenny, Marc and wife Lisa, and Paul and wife Kristy, as well as many great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.

The family appreciates those caregivers who helped Bess remain in her New York home for so long, Evelyn Mair and Gloria Carnagie. The family extends very special thanks to the administrators and staff at Our Lady of Peace for their generous and attentive care of Bess in Virginia. Funeral home services for Bess are being provided by Cremation Society of Virginia – Charlottesville. A memorial service will be held at a later date in a chapel at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York, and interment will follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Our Lady of Peace in Charlottesville, Virginia (https://www.our-lady-of-peace.com).