Aug. 11, 1928 – July 22, 2026
Violet DeWind died on July 22, 2026, in Whitewater, 20 days before what would have been her 98th birthday. Vi was born and raised in and around Chicago. She spoke Czech at home with her immigrant parents, James Kral and Annette Stastny Kral, and was active in Czech youth organizations.
While a high school sophomore, Vi took a citywide test that earned her a scholarship to the University of Chicago, where she enrolled at age 14. Two other scholarship winners, Mildred Vrla Srnensky and Nina Kreloff Kans, became her lifelong friends. Vi met her future husband, Henry DeWind, at the University of Chicago. She sat behind him in a class and thought, “He has a nicely shaped head.”
After graduating with a master’s degree when she was 20, Vi spent a year in New York City, living with her uncle and aunt, John and Agnes Mlynek, and working for Time Inc., answering reference phone calls from readers. Henry wrote her almost every day – sometimes twice a day – and when she said yes to his marriage-proposal-by-mail, his next letter started with “Hooray!”
Vi and Henry were married in 1952 at the Thorndyke Hilton Chapel at the University of Chicago. Before long, Henry landed a teaching job at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. They built a house, raised four children, and enjoyed 52 years together until Henry’s death in 2004.
At age 54, Vi started a job at the Whitewater Public Library, where she could chat with the patrons and keep tabs on the community. She retired from the library 35 years later, just shy of her 90th birthday. Over the years, she enjoyed reading, playing tennis, and watching “Jeopardy.” In retirement, she read and reread her beloved Dickens and Trollope and many detective novels. She especially looked forward to Tuesday “lunch with the ladies” at Rick’s Eastside Pub.
Vi is loved and already missed by her children and their families: Anna (Leon) Walls and Ian Walls; Pete (Shari) DeWind and Claire and Alyssa DeWind; Margie DeWind and Becca and Rachel Schuh (Luke Solomon); and Nick DeWind (Elizabeth Weaver); two cousins, Alena Hanisova and Jean Shersmith; and many other relatives and friends. In addition to her parents and her husband, she was preceded in death by her brother and sister-in-law, William and Nancy Kral; cousins in the Czech Republic and the United States; and Henry’s siblings and their spouses.
Vi’s family thanks the caring staff at Our House Senior Living, Whitewater, where she spent her final 2 ½ years; and the Agrace palliative and hospice care providers who made these years as comfortable as possible. Pete, Margie, and Nick also thank their sister Anna for her devotion to Mom, especially the companionship and care she provided beginning in March 2020.
No services are planned. Contributions in Vi’s memory to a public library, a human rights organization, or an organization of the donor’s choice will be welcomed.
