Miss-Delectable
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Foytek helped deaf children, worked on River Walk
In the years after HemisFair helped usher in a renaissance of the San Antonio River, one of the business people who pushed to dye it green for St. Patrick's Day was an immigrant from Germany.
Monica Foytek, who was active in deaf causes and worked at the Methodist Mission Home for a few years in the 1970s, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure. She was 81.
By the time she came to San Antonio in 1964, she had survived Allied bombings in World War II and prejudice against Germans as a war bride in England.
A native of Landshut, a small city in the state of Bavaria, she spent her teenage years living through World War II. She would hide in bomb shelters, find herself separated from her family and then manage to rejoin them.
“It's a credit to her stamina and determination that she got through that,” her son Alec Drake said.
After the war, she met an Englishman who was a member of the Royal Navy. They married and moved to England. In those days, Germans were not taken kindly in England. It was a formative experience that shaped her own outlook toward others.
That marriage ended and she later remarried, this time to an American who was stationed at what was then Brooks AFB, at the School of Aerospace Medicine.
In their family, a son was born deaf. He attended Sunshine Cottage for the Deaf for a while, and then went to school in Austin. Because of her son, Foytek became active in deaf causes.
In the late 1960s, she began working on the River Walk at a restaurant called Kelly's Pub. Shortly after HemisFair, Foytek leased the place from the owner and ran it herself until the mid-1970s. During those years, she and other business people along the river worked to dye it green and start a parade for St. Patrick's Day, Drake said. Meanwhile, she became a naturalized citizen in 1972.
After she sold the business, she took a job at the Methodist Mission Home, a facility that focused on unwed mothers in those days. Foytek became a house parent, and just as the school was adding services to focus on deaf mothers, she took on the task of directing a deaf choir, and taking them on tour.
After a few years with the Methodist home, she worked in retail at stores including Foley's and the old Joske's. She retired when she was around 70, and did volunteer work in her church.
“She really appreciated what this country offered in terms of opportunity,” Drake said. “She felt very proud to be an American.”
In the years after HemisFair helped usher in a renaissance of the San Antonio River, one of the business people who pushed to dye it green for St. Patrick's Day was an immigrant from Germany.
Monica Foytek, who was active in deaf causes and worked at the Methodist Mission Home for a few years in the 1970s, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure. She was 81.
By the time she came to San Antonio in 1964, she had survived Allied bombings in World War II and prejudice against Germans as a war bride in England.
A native of Landshut, a small city in the state of Bavaria, she spent her teenage years living through World War II. She would hide in bomb shelters, find herself separated from her family and then manage to rejoin them.
“It's a credit to her stamina and determination that she got through that,” her son Alec Drake said.
After the war, she met an Englishman who was a member of the Royal Navy. They married and moved to England. In those days, Germans were not taken kindly in England. It was a formative experience that shaped her own outlook toward others.
That marriage ended and she later remarried, this time to an American who was stationed at what was then Brooks AFB, at the School of Aerospace Medicine.
In their family, a son was born deaf. He attended Sunshine Cottage for the Deaf for a while, and then went to school in Austin. Because of her son, Foytek became active in deaf causes.
In the late 1960s, she began working on the River Walk at a restaurant called Kelly's Pub. Shortly after HemisFair, Foytek leased the place from the owner and ran it herself until the mid-1970s. During those years, she and other business people along the river worked to dye it green and start a parade for St. Patrick's Day, Drake said. Meanwhile, she became a naturalized citizen in 1972.
After she sold the business, she took a job at the Methodist Mission Home, a facility that focused on unwed mothers in those days. Foytek became a house parent, and just as the school was adding services to focus on deaf mothers, she took on the task of directing a deaf choir, and taking them on tour.
After a few years with the Methodist home, she worked in retail at stores including Foley's and the old Joske's. She retired when she was around 70, and did volunteer work in her church.
“She really appreciated what this country offered in terms of opportunity,” Drake said. “She felt very proud to be an American.”