"Jean and Russ"

Inseparable

"Jean and Russ"

Jean always put it in quotes as if it were one name for one person, and they were for 63 years of marriage.

Genevieve Dillberg (1915-2010)

Doug Warren

Memorial Funeral Mass, 10:30 a.m., Saturday, August 7, 2010

Light of Christ Catholic Parish

2176 Marilyn

Clearwater, Florida 33765

Internment of Cremated Remains to Follow, Sylvan Abbey Cemetary,

All are welcome.

Funeral Arrangements by Dobies of Tarpon Springs.

"And God's Finger Touched Her and She Slept."

--Tennyson

Shortly past midnight on July 29, Genevieve Dillberg died peacefully at the Sun Coast Hospice in Palm Harbor, Florida. At the time of her death, Genevieve, or “Jean” as we knew her, was in residence at Summerville at Clearwater.

Chicago

Born in Chicago, Jean lost her natural father early in life in a tragic car-train collision. Jean's mother, Mary Wood of Milwaukee, would remarry. Her second husband was William Neumann, a respected tool & die inventor for the Signode Company. Bill Neumann was of German ancestry (though born in Kankakee, Illinois in 1878), and Mary and Bill Neumann would have a second child, Beatrice Evelyn Neumann in 1923. Step-sister Jean was thus eight years Beatrice's senior. Beatrice would marry Walter Kmiec give birth to two boys, Warren W. Kmiec, patient registrar of the University of Wisconsin (Madison) medical center and Douglas W. Kmiec, United States Ambassador.

Married a Navy Man

Following WWII, Jean married Russell S. Dillberg, who had served in the Pacific Theater in the U.S. Navy. Jean and Russ lived for many years in Chicago on Natoma Avenue, but Russ especially yearned for escape from Chicago winters. The Dillbergs did not live extravagantly, but without children of their own, they often could afford a higher quality good and they were very prudent consumers.

Retirement in the Sun

The Dillbergs applied their purdence to finding this community and they built a dwelling on Whitman Street in Clearwater, Florida in the late 1970s following Russ’ retirement from the Chicago Board of Education.

Of Different Faith, but Abiding, Faith

Married for 63 years, Jean was a member of the Light of Christ parish, while Russell worshipped at Skycrest Baptist.

At the moment of her death, Jean was in the sweet care of Carol Kmiec and in the special thoughts of Kloe Dillberg Kmiec, for whom together with Russell who had predeceased, Kloe was named.

Johannson or Dillberg?

The Dillberg name that Kloe carries turned out to be a New World adoption. Russell's Swedish parents gave up the the family name "Johansson" to differentiate themselves from the other émigrés with whom they traveled to America in the 1840s. Moreover, the Dillbergs put initial roots down in the Andersonville area which was a rural, Swedish settlement that today is a neighborhood on the North side of Chicago.

Equality of Gender Pioneer

We remember Uncle Russ as a good natured, gentle, and self-educated man, who enjoyed reading and asking questions. He was especially proud of the fact that his mother had graduated from North Park College in Chicago in the early 19th century when it was quite rare, if not unheard of, for women to be admitted to university.

Jean was Russ’ complement, clapping her hands, and saying with clipped, but loving voice “Russell,” whenever she needed his attention.

The history of the Dillberg name is thus an abbreviated one, but it does thereby give Aunt Jean’s namesake, Kloe, all of life’s dreams and possibilities to achieve for herself, even as the name she carries will always prompt a happy memory of “Jean & Russ” who enriched our lives in a thousand small and large ways.

Let us all take a moment to say our personal farewell prayer to our dear Aunt or Great-Aunt Jean so that while we are temporarily apart with family from California to Europe, we shall nevertheless be together as a family in prayer and in loving respect of the Genevieve Dillberg.

Kloe,21
July 29; Kiley shares his day

Jean would not want death to obscure the happiness of Kiley's Birthday and no doubt is shining a heavenly light to find his way.

Of course, all of us know the 29th of July 2010 as Kiley’s 26th birthday,
and had Grandpa Walter lived but two additional months, tomorrow July 30,2010 would have been Grandpa Walter’s 88th birthday

Second Parents to Warren and Doug re is no question but that the life we know here on earth has changed profoundly this spring and summer for Warren and Doug. The last of those who “co-created” them and brought them to this exile, but who also formed them in the faith of Jesus, has returned home to Him. It is a moment of profound temporal loneliness, and yet, complete spiritual acceptance of the need for the journey.

The Journey to come
Our lives lie ahead, by a minute or a day or a year, we cannot, nor would we want to, know. We only know those like Jean who cared for us were examples of love and kindness that we must not let pass without notice from this time and place.

We love you Jean and always will

Donations to Hospice

In lieu of flowers, donations in the name and memory of Genevieve Dillberg may be sent to the Sun Coast Hospice, 2675 Tampa Road, Palm Harbor, FL 34684.