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August 5, 2021 | AppenMedia.com | An Appen Media Group Publication | Ser ving the community since 1976
Centenarian’s buoyant outlook left lasting impression on friends By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com DUNWOODY, Ga. — At 101 years old, people often asked Helen Nemesnyik about her secret to a long life. With a short laugh, she would smile and say, “My 5 o’clock cocktail.” While she lived alone after her husband of 52 years’ passing, her neighbor Kris Rearic said Helen was never alone. If her garage door was open, people knew she was home, most likely sipping on a premade margarita her daughter, Ellen Warden, made for her earlier in the week. “She always had people around her,” said Rearic, who lived next door to Helen for 18 years. “She probably had more visitors than we do. She proved that being positive, respectful and kind to others made a difference, because she developed all of these friendships and people around her that loved her so much.” Helen Nemesnyik passed away July 16. Rearic said she left a lasting impact that she hopes others can learn from. According to her obituary, Helen was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1920 and grew up in New York City during Prohibition and the Depression. She recited Hungarian poems, practiced gymnastics and participated with her brother in Hungarian folk dance exhibitions. Rearic loved hearing her stories. Helen recalled being at the annual Army-Navy football game when Pearl
KRIS REARIC/PROVIDED
Helen Nemesnyik was all smiles at her 101st birthday in January.
Harbor was bombed. She was also working in the Empire State Building when it was hit by a bomb during WW II. And she was in Times Square next to a sailor who kissed a nurse – the famous celebratory moment of V-J Day. Helen and her husband John married a week before he deployed to the Pacific Theater. The couple didn’t have any plans the night of their honeymoon, so when a police officer pulled them over,
See NEMESNYIK, Page 4
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Dunwoody honors retired lawmaker Former State Rep. Fran Millar speaks at a ceremony Monday morning held at Dunwoody City Hall. The event included reading a resolution which dedicated a portion of Interstate 285 from exit 30 in DeKalb County to the Fulton County line as “Fran Millar Highway.” Millar served 12 years as a state representative for the 40th District and eight years as a state representative in the 79th District. The proclamation lauded Millar for using his “time, talents and energy towards the betterment of his community and state as evidenced dramatically by his superlative service as a member of the Georgia General Assembly for 20 years.”
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