Lorraine A Madziarczyk

Lorraine Ann Henrickson Madziarczyk, age 96, passed away peacefully at home in Knoxville, Tennessee on Tuesday, January 18, 2022. She was born May 3, 1925, at Chicago Lying-In Hospital to Floyd and Margaret Rost Henrickson. She lived in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. Lorraine attended Van Vlissingen Grammar School, was confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church, and graduated Pullman Tech High School. She worked as a secretary at Sherwin Williams in Chicago. On May 24, 1947, Lorraine and Walter Stanley Madziarczyk, were married. Lorraine and Wally moved to Matteson, IL in 1974, where they attended Immanuel Lutheran Church in Richton Park, IL. She was active in her church serving in the choir, Altar Guild, Ladies Society, and Evangelism Committee. Lorraine moved to Tennessee in the summer of 2021.

Lorraine was preceded in death by her husband Wally, her parents Floyd and Margaret Henrickson and her sister Dolores Alma Hamby. She is survived by her children Jerry (Ruth) Madziarczyk of Knoxville, TN, Ruth (Greg) Bloomberg of Boulder, CO, Beth (Ed) Sterling of Channahon, IL; her grandchildren Jonathan (Jen), Susan, and Jeremiah Madziarczyk, Thomas and Sara Bloomberg, and David, Laura, and Kevin Sterling; her great granddaughter, Coraline Tomala; brother-in-law Bill Hamby; sisters-in-law Irene Madziarczyk and Eleanore Bolalek.

Lorraine loved to read devotions daily and enjoyed books from the library or ones she received as gifts. She was always interested in playing games– canasta with the club girls, Racko, charades, and cards with the family. She watched Jeopardy for years. Shirley Temple was one of her favorite actors–she had even saved her original Shirley Temple paper doll.

Lorraine was a loving, kind and supportive wife and mother. She and Wally loved spending time with their friends and family playing cards and getting together for coffee and Sara Lee coffee cake. As a mother she made things special by making traditions and memories. Christmas cookie baking was always fun, and Lorraine— always a rule-follower who wanted things to look nice-allowed Jerry to mix the food coloring to make black frosting for the thumb print cookies. (We do think she preferred Ruth’s and Beth’s pink, green, and blue ones).
Her grandchildren adored her and always wanted to spend time with grandma. Lorraine had started collecting decorative frogs and soon so many people were gifting her with frog pins, figurines, pictures, and knick-knacks she needed to devote two shelves to her collection. The grandchildren loved to play with her frogs and great-granddaughter, Cora, was the last to enjoy her frogs.

People loved being with Lorraine. She was very funny and she usually had any group she was with laughing along with her. Her humor was lighthearted and never sarcastic; she didn’t have a harsh word for anyone. Lorraine said one of her favorite decades was when she was in her 70’s. During that decade she volunteered as a lunch lady at the Head Start Program at the church. She had been a Sunday School teacher when in Roseland and loved spending time with children. Her gentle ways seemed to make little ones comfortable with her.

If you knew Lorraine, you knew a kind, loving, funny, caring person who wanted to know more about you and your life than tell you about hers. If you knew Lorraine, you knew someone who was nice–very, very nice. She will be missed.

Donations can be made to Lutheran Hour Ministries, 660 Mason Ridge Center, St. Louis, MO 63141 at https://www.lhm.org.

Visitation and service on Saturday, January 29^th from 10AM until time of service at 11:30AM at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 4800 Sauk Trail, Richton Park, Illinois.   Burial:  Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, Richton Park, IL.  Arrangements entrusted to Monee Funeral Home 5450 Wilson St. (at Governors Hwy.), Monee, IL 60449.   Info: (708) 534-0016.