QUOTE
Irma Ourecky, known as ‘Mrs. Wilber,' remembered as a tireless worker
By Harold Campbell/Daily Sun editor
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 9:16 AM CDT

WILBER - She was known as “Mrs. Wilber,” someone who gave tirelessly of herself to support any cause to benefit Wilber.
“She is a legend,” Sheryl Kastanek, customer service representative for Saline State Bank and secretary of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, said about Irma Ourecky, a longtime Wilber resident who died Saturday at age 95.

Ourecky was one of the founders of the Wilber Czech Museum, served as one of the leaders for the Wilber Czech Festuvak and worked tirelessly to promote Saline County tourism.

On top of that, you could usually find her engaged in activities ranging from gardening to embroidery to baking kolaches.

“I don't think she ever had an idle moment,” Kastanek said.

Born on April 29, 1912, on a farm southwest of Dorchester to Stephen J. and Albina (Zajicek) Freeouf, Ourecky lived in or near Wilber since 1933 when she married Lumir Ourecky.

The couple farmed and Ourecky taught school, but her most time-consuming career was as a champion for Czech heritage and Saline County and Wilber tourism.

Ourecky was involved in many Wilber organizations since their births. She saw the creation of the Wilber Czech Museum, the beginning of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber and the revival of Czech culture in Wilber.

Although the Czech culture is deeply ingrained in the Wilber community today, it was not always that way.

“A few (40 to 50) years ago people wanted to forget about the hardships they had in the old country,” she said in an interview in 2001.

But times changed, and the Wilber of today celebrates its Czech heritage in a variety of ways, including the annual Czech Festival during the first weekend in August.

Ourecky's interest in the Czech culture has been a lifelong endeavor, with her grandparents and her father-in-law all having come from the “Old Country,” she has always been surrounded by Czech tradition.

Although both of her parents spoke English, because her grandparents all spoke Czech, it was the language used at home. Ourecky didn't learn English until she began school at age 5.

After completing eighth grade at Rural District 12 in Saline County, Ourecky went on to attend Dorchester High School, where she studied to become a teacher. She lived on the second floor in a home in Dorchester with five other girls while attending school.

Upon graduation in 1930, Ourecky received her teaching certificate, which was good for three years. She taught at Rural District 104 from 1930-1932, and at Rural District 78 from 1932-1933.

She married in 1933 and she and her husband moved to a farm near Wilber. The Oureckys had twin sons, Lawrence and Lloyd.

Ourecky took up teaching again in 1953, this time at Rural District 20. Then, in 1959, she began teaching third and seventhgrade at Wilber Public School.

For her final five years of teaching, Ourecky brought Czech culture home to Wilber through teaching the Czech language and culture not only in school but to adult students as well.

Although she retired in 1978, for Ourecky retirement simply meant moving on to volunteer work. It has been through this work that Ourecky became known as “Mrs. Wilber.”

In addition to her community work, she also wrote a weekly column in the Beatrice Daily Sun containing information about upcoming community events.

Some of those who worked closely with Ourecky over the years remembered her as someone who was not afraid to get things done.

“She could ruffle a few feathers, but she was on a mission,” said former Wilber Mayor and current state Sen. Russ Karpisek.

“From big things to little things, she was always doing something to help Wilber. Losing her was definitely a blow to the community. We all knew her and loved her.”

Kastanek described Ourecky as “organized, prompt and disciplined.”

“She was always a teacher,” Kastanek said.

However, she said what Ourecky accomplished was amazing, particularly helping organize the Czech Festival from its birth.

“The fact that Wilber with a population of only 1,700 can put on a festival of that size with just volunteers from the community is a remarkable feat,” Kastanek said.
UNQUOTE
Elaine

Irma's was a love for all things Czech

By CARA PESEK / Lincoln Journal Star

Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007 - 12:00:09 am CDT

http://journalstar.com/articles/2007/07/25/news/local/doc46a6b354b510c659238311.txt

Story Photo

Irma Ourecky stands beneath a mural at the Wilber Czech Museum in Wilber in 2004. (LJS file)

There are several reasons why Wilber’s annual Czech Festival attracts thousands of tourists from across the United States each year.

There is the music, and the duck and dumplings and, of course, the beer. There is the parade and the Czech dancers and the displays inside the museum.

And there was Irma Ourecky.

Since the first Czech Festival in 1962, Ourecky was right there in the thick of things.

She was weaving rugs on the loom in the Wilber Czech Museum and embroidering aprons and tea towels with Czech sayings, which were sold there. She was baking kolaches and running the queen pageant (for years, the queen candidates stayed at Irma’s house, sleeping on bunk beds) and generally making sure everything got done.

“She was always looking for a better way to do things, and how we could change, and how we could get the young people involved,” said her daughter-in-law Doris Ourecky.

Irma Ourecky died Saturday in Wilber, after several weeks of declining health. She was 95 years old.

“We’ll think of her a lot, because every time you turn around, you see something she was in charge of,” said District 32 Sen. Russ Karpisek, owner of Karpisek Market in downtown Wilber and a former Wilber mayor.

Ourecky was always trying to get something done, Karpisek said, whether it was having murals painted on buildings around town or encouraging businesses to plant flowers in their window boxes.

And she was always trying to find ways to improve Czech Days, to get younger people involved to keep it from getting stagnant, he said.

“She didn’t take no for an answer.”

The annual Czech Festival was important to Irma for several reasons, Doris Ourecky said.

She was 100 percent Czech, and as a child she spoke the language at home until she started school. Years later, she taught Czech in the Wilber school system, Doris Ourecky said.

But Irma also cared about Wilber and its future, Doris said.

Irma realized early on that making the Czech Festival a tourist attraction would help keep the community vibrant, Doris Ourecky said.

And she thought ahead. She invited children and teenagers to the Hotel Wilber to help bake kolaches, and she told the older, experienced bakers not to criticize them. She encouraged kids to learn the traditional Czech dances.

She wanted Wilber to remain vibrant in other ways, too, Doris Ourecky said.

Irma believed it was important that Wilber keep its doctor, its dentist, its grocery store.

It still has all those things, Doris Ourecky said.

“She wanted to make something unique and special … so she’d have a town to retire in someday,” Doris Ourecky said.

Over the years, Irma was involved in just about every organization in town, Doris Ourecky said. She wrote two books about Wilber. Her collection of awards from local and state organizations fills an entire table at the Wilber Czech Museum (of which she was the longtime president), and the Nebraska Department of Tourism named an award after her that has been given to dedicated volunteers in communities across the state.

Funeral services for Irma Ourecky will be at 10:30 a.m. today at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilber.

As Irma’s family (she is survived by twin sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren and great-grandchildren) discussed her service, they decided to have the pallbearers wear Czech vests in honor of Irma’s love for all things Czech.

Then someone suggested that the family invite everyone to wear Czech costumes or something red — which was Irma’s favorite color.

Her love for the color stemmed from when she was a little girl and her sister got a red dress for Christmas. Irma got a brown one, Doris Ourecky said.

Irma was jealous of her sister’s present. But she’s worn red many, many days since then, including the traditional Czech outfit she always wore at Czech days.

“She just loved the heritage,” Doris Ourecky said.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.