ˇ ´ VESTNIK S P J S T
Volume 104 Number 16
Benevolence
Lydia Alholm Achieves Grand Age of 96
SPJST congratulates Sister Lydia Alholm, who will celebrate her 96th birthday on April 30, 2016. Sister Alholm receives all SPJST member benefits with no further dues or assessments. Lydia Mary Alholm is a member of SPJST Lodge 92, Fort Worth. She was born in Fort Worth to AnthonyFrances (Gajda) Tirk on April 30, 1920. She has three siblings, two of which are deceased, Joseph V. Tirk and Lt. Col. Anthony Tirk, Jr. Her sister Frances C. Matthews currently resides with Lydia in a North Richland Hills retirement home. Lydia’s late husband Roy Leonard Alholm was a production engineer and passed away on February 15, 2009. They had two sons, Roy Leonard Alholm, Jr. and Anthony J. Alholm, who are both deceased.
Life Story of Lydia Alholm Lydia was five years old when her parents, Anthony and Frances (Gajda) Tirk, traded a shoe shop and two houses for 165 acres of land, which is now incorporated into Colleyville, Texas. Her parents were immigrants from the Czech Republic and were living on
★ Humanity ISSN —07458800
Columbus Avenue in Fort Worth at the time. Lydia’s father changed the family surname from Tyrek to Tirk, therefore she is known as Lydia M. Tirk. In 1945, Lydia’s mother and four children worked the farm while her father commuted to his job as a garage Forman for the County Commissioners of Precinct Three in Tarrant County, Texas, where he was employed for 22 years. They did not feel the depression because they raised their own produce, and they also had dairy. Four siblings attended elementary school at Pleasant Run from grades one through eight. The eighth and ninth grades were spent at Grapevine High School in Grapevine, Texas. While in elementary school, the building was heated by a coal (bellied) stove. Toilets were outside, and drinking water came from a fountain outside with water coming from a well. They ate brown sack lunches, most of the time outside. At one lunch period, a friend told Lydia that she had fleas on her sandwich. It was a rye bread sandwich with poppy seed on it. The friend soon learned that Lydia’s mother raised
N N N N N N N N
Important Dates ...................................3 Interest Rates ......................................3 Readers Write ......................................3 From the Districts................................5 ENC Updates .......................................7 Lodge Section....................................10
H E R A L D ★ Brotherhood
Leonard Mikeska Honored with Prestigious TOCA Award
Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center President Retta Chandler, right, presents the prestigious Texans of Czech Ancestry (TOCA) Honorary Director award to SPJST Supreme Lodge Secretary-Treasurer Leonard Mikeska at TOCA’s appreciation reception and dinner on Saturday, April 9 in La Grange. Leonard’s wife Dorothy is also pictured sharing in the proud moment. More on page 27.
and Czech Heritage Celebration Saturday, May 7 SPJST Lodge 47 Seaton Star Hall
Continued on Page 18.
Temple, Texas
Inside Th is Week’s Vestnik
SPJST Car Show Info........................22 In Memoriam ......................................23 Youth Section ....................................25 Czech Culture ....................................27 Advertisements .................................29 Lodge Calendar .................................30
April 20, 2016
Page 16
Lodge 107 Floresville hosts annual banquet
N N N N N N N N Page 25
Lodge 202 Jourdanton youth named Strawberry Festival Queen
Page 28
State Fraternalist Kathleen Polasek receives TOCA award