Zina Butschek's Obituary
Zina Odelia Butschek, age 93, died peacefully in a predawn hour on Sunday, March 22, 2015 in Fort Worth, TX. She had been a wife to Edgar Butschek for 66 years, his widow for three years. She bore the vicissitudes of old age with courage and grace, buoyed by her Catholic faith and her devotion to the Rosary. Born in Kaplan, LA on August 24, 1921, Zina was the eldest of five children of Andrew and Adela Lachausse. Zina’s sister, Alex Dekerlegand, died in 2013; the LaChausse brothers, Linton, Dale and Michael, and Michael’s wife Janis, live in McKinney, TX. All the siblings were reared in Port Arthur, TX in a white clapboard house attached to their parents’ grocery store. Zina received much of her education at St. James Catholic School from Sisters of the Incarnate Word, whom she remembered as being “younger and less strict” than the Dominican nuns at St. Mary’s Catholic School. When she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1939, Zina attended Port Arthur Business School on a scholarship from the Teachers’ Union. Her first job—brief and low wage—was bookkeeper for Harvey Hardware in Goose Creek, TX. Raven-haired Zina married her persistent suitor, Edgar Butschek, on July 8, 1945. Growing up during the Great Depression had taught her to “make do,” but nothing could have prepared her for the peripatetic life of a Navy wife. Bright and brave, she too had “joined the Navy to see the world.” In 22 years, she raised three children—Toni, Mark and Larry—in eight “duty stations” from Guam to Virginia. Her house was sometimes a Quonset in the jungle, sometimes a split-level in suburbia. Home was where Mother set up camp; she and Ed always immersed the family in the local culture. The Butscheks’ bought their “dream” home in Dallas, TX in 1964 when Ed retired from the Navy to work for Texas Instruments. Zina went to work as bookkeeper at Sears in the new Valley View Mall. Her keen mind and warm heart were amazing to all who knew her. Among her family and friends, Zina remembered everyone’s name, birthday, anniversary, who married whom and where they lived; lesser mortals might forget an event, but she would mark it with a greeting card and a letter. Zina was our ultimate animated fact checker. When her memory began to fade, all that we thought we remembered became speculation. Once married, Zina was rarely photographed alone. She is always seen supporting her husband and extended family. Never at a loss for conversation—or a sharp quip—she did not seek the limelight. She was delighted to live in “interesting times”; her life spanned the Great Depression, a World War, the nuclear age, a polio epidemic, the computer age, and the space age. She avidly read—each in its time—the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News, and the Fort Worth Star Telegram; no crossword puzzle escaped her sharp pencil. Zina is survived by her children: Toni Williamson and husband Sam; Mark Butschek and wife Barbe; Larry Butschek and wife Jill. Zina had eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren in whom she took great delight. We sorely miss her; we know she is smiling on us still. The visitation for Zina Butschek will be from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Thursday, March 26, 2015 at Restland Funeral Home with a Rosary at 7:00 PM. The service for Zina Butschek will be held on Friday, March 27, 2015 at 1:00 PM at St. Paul the Apostle. She will be interred at Restland Cemetery, Dallas, TX on March 27. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Restland Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 13005 Greenville Avenue, at Restland Road, Dallas, TX 75243.
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