Alfrieda Alice Marx

SAVOY— Alfrieda Alice Marx, 96, passed away of natural causes on Monday (May 4, 2020).

Alfrieda was much loved by her immediate and extended families and by countless friends she cultivated throughout her life. She spent her final two years in a nursing home in Savoy, where she found opportunities to make new friends with fellow residents and staff members, some of whom she also tenderly harassed.

She was a survivor of cancer and bypass heart surgery. She coped with diabetes for decades. Dementia progressively robbed her of her memories in her later years, but she seemed to cherish the present moment all the more, and she always loved a party.

Alfrieda was born on April 28, 1924, to Thomas and Sophie (Plata) Petmezas in River Forest. She was the sixth of eight children, and they grew up in Chicago.

Her parents were immigrants — her father from Greece, her mother from Poland — and she lived through the Great Depression and World War II, turning 21 a week before VE Day. Her young life was defined by those events. Her parents made her proud of her heritage, and even prouder to be an American; the Depression and the war made her frugal and scrappy.

She married Leonard Marx on April 30, 1949, and they raised two sons, Allen and Gary, in Schiller Park. She was a proud homemaker, and she worked as a secretary in the dean’s office at East Leyden High School and in the principal’s office at Kennedy Elementary School. Shorthand was her second language.

Alfrieda and Leonard moved to a 14-acre farm east of Homer in 1983. After Leonard died in 1998, Alfrieda moved to St. Joseph, and later to Savoy.

Alfrieda was a creative force, and she was always cooking up something, not necessarily in the kitchen. She had a gift for visual art, drew caricatures and painted with oils, and the plays and skits she wrote for family gatherings were legend, if not notorious. She loved a good time, and it didn’t take much to get her to break into a rendition of “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”

She loved to read, and once set her sights on finishing the entire Book of Knowledge encyclopedia collection. She was a fierce and feared competitor in Scrabble. She loved history and Hallmark movies, love songs and sweet stories. Mostly, though, she loved her family.

Her husband, Leonard, preceded her in death on April 29, 1998. Also preceding her in death were all of her siblings, and her daughter-in-law, Roberta (Bertie) Marx.

She is survived by her sons, Allen (Betty Lankford) of Urbana and Gary (Pam Kelley) of Carbondale; four grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, two stepgrandchildren and two stepgreat-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews and their families.

She was a member of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Homer. A private graveside service will be held Saturday, May 9, 2020, at the GAR Cemetery in Homer. A celebration of her life will be scheduled for a later date.

NG 5/6/2020