Elaine (Manning) Kuhn

Elaine (Manning) Kuhn of Springfield received a $1,000 Fr. Yunker Scholarship in 1974. It helped fund her associate’s degree at Springfield College in Illinois. Elaine went on to earn a B.A. in Spanish with a minor in English, as well as a secondary education certificate at Illinois College in Jacksonville.

The mother of three adult sons (James, Michael and Jonathan) and a grandmother of four, Elaine has been a Spanish teacher at Springfield High School for almost 20 years. Earlier in her career, she taught at Whitehall’s North Greene High School and at Williamsville High School. Along the way, she has been a world traveler, visiting 14 foreign countries, mainly in Europe and Central America. Another of Elaine’s special achievements was earning her master’s degree in Reading and Literacy from Benedictine University in 2007.

Years before Elaine ever heard Fr. Yunker’s name, her family had a tragic connection to the long-time pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Lithuanian Catholic Church. In the 1930s, her great-grandmother, Anna Sleveski Mazika, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Ninth Street as she was walking home from confession with Fr. Yunker. The priest was one of the first to come to her aid.

Anna (Sleveski) Mazika and her grand-daughter Lillian Kavirt Trello, Elaine Kuhn’s great-grandmother and aunt

Elaine says she became a Spanish teacher because of the mysterious appeal of listening to her mother, Pearl Bernice (Kavirt) Manning, and aunt, Lillian (Kavirt) Trello, speak to their mother in Lithuanian. “Sometimes it was only words and phrases, and although I couldn’t understand a word they were saying, I always thought, ‘that’s really cool; they’re having such a good time.’ I think that’s why I had a special interest in foreign languages and travel abroad – why learning and teaching another language always appealed to me.” A Springfield native, Elaine attended St. Joseph Grade School and Ursuline Academy.

“Go West,” an oil painting by Amanda that Creighton University purchased for display in one of its dormitories

Amanda Rackauskas Ross received a Fr. Yunker scholarship in 2009, her last year at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where she graduated with a B.S. in biology and a secondary degree in studio art. Drawing is her favorite discipline in the fine arts, and Creighton University has purchased and displayed several of her pieces.

Amanda Rackauskas Ross, 2009 scholar

Amanda is currently in her fourth year of medical school, also at Creighton. However, she was recently in Springfield completing a month-long “externship” in the SIU Medical School Department of Plastic Surgery. Now, she is serving a month-long externship in trauma surgery in Phoenix, AZ.

Following her graduation from medical school next year, Amanda will enter a residency in general surgery or integrated plastic surgery, with the ultimate goal of becoming a plastic surgeon in 6-8 years.

“Speak,” a self-portrait in glass by Amanda Ross

Amanda is the daughter of Mary Ann Rackauskas (formerly Ross) and the grand-daughter of Helen (Sitki) and George Rackauskas. She was attracted to Creighton University because it’s where her grandfather, George, studied business, graduating in 1939, exactly 70 years prior to her own graduation from Creighton.

Amanda was born and raised in Springfield, attending Chatham Glenwood K-8, graduating from Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in 2005.

The Hill of Crosses, Siauliai, Lithuania

Please spread the word! Springfield Lithuanian-American Club member Mike Lelys will be presenting a 20-minute talk on the two distinct waves of 20th-century Lithuanian immigration to Sangamon County. (I’m assisting Mike with research and graphics for his speech.)
Mike’s presentation is part of a University of Illinois-Springfield luncheon program called “Chasing the American Dream to the Heartland” from 11:30-1:30 Wednesday, Oct. 3 at the UIS Public Affairs Center (parking in lots C and D). The cost is $20 and includes a hot buffet lunch. Registration is required at http://www.uiaa.org/uis . For more information, please phone 206-7395.
“Chasing the American Dream,” in turn, is part of the Fall 2012 Lunch and Learn Series entitled, “Landscapes of Living History: Past and Future, presented by the UIS Alumni SAGE Society (University of Illinois Alumni Association.)
Mike’s Oct. 3 “American Dream” presentation will be accompanied by a talk by Victor Juarez, a first-generation Peruvian-American, about Latino-Hispanic immigration to Central Illinois. (Both talks were suggested/arranged by William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society.)

Mike is a first-generation Lithuanian-American who was part of the post-WW II “Displaced Persons” immigration to the United States. He is also executive director of historic Oak Ridge Cemetery, the burial place of Abraham Lincoln.

The Immaculate Conception

Bill Furry has been in touch with Brenda from the Autrenrieb family, whose grandfather painted the St. Vincent de Paul Church ceiling murals. Before Labor Day, Brenda mentioned that she is coming to Springfield in the next week or so, and will take time to inspect the murals that Mike Lelys has in temporary storage at the Catholic Diocesan Archive.Hopefully, we can discuss restoration and display options with Brenda at that time.
I will post again when we know exactly when Brenda is visiting Springfield from Edwardsville, so we can make an appointment to access the murals at the Archives, and so anyone who is interested can join in this new viewing.

Two scholarship winners from the late ’70s profiled

Every month, Lithuanians in Springfield is going to attempt to profile one or two past winners from almost 40 years of Fr. Yunker (St. Vincent de Paul Church) College Scholarship awards. We could identify only two winners from this photo of either the 1977 or 1978 winners.  (If you can identify any of the other students in this photo, please contact:  sandybaksys@gmail.com)

Scholarship Winners: Patricia Visnesky, third from left, and Cynthia R. Baksys, far right. Can you identify others in the photo?

Patricia Visnesky (third from left in photo). Dr. Visnesky grew up in Springfield and graduated from what was then Sacred Heart Academy in the class of 1977. Her Fr. Yunker Scholarship was applied to college costs at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in chemistry, biology and mathematics. Today Dr. Visnesky is a clinical assistant professor at the SIU School of Medicine.  She has been a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist in Springfield for 26 years, since her graduation from Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in 1986.  Dr. Visnesky completed her residency at SIU School of Medicine and St. John’s Hospital, Springfield, where she served as Chief Resident and focused her studies on high-risk obstetrics and gynecologic oncology and infertility, including laser laparoscopy, hysteroscopy and colposcopy. She has been board certified in obstetrics/gynecology since December 1992.

Cynthia R. Baksys (right edge of photo). Cindy’s $1,000 scholarship went towards her expenses at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a general engineering degree in 1981, one of the first in her family to complete college. Cindy has been an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento, CA, for 31 years, and is currently the most senior project engineer in her office.  She prefers working in the field, and has performed construction management and quality assurance on major barracks, warehouse, office, aircraft hangar and maintenance building construction projects, as well as waterway dredging and road and parking lot paving projects.  She has been awarded the Corps’ coveted Hardhat of the Year Award for the South Pacific Division.

Cindy grew up in Springfield with her five sisters, attending Blessed Sacrament grade school, Sacred Heart Academy and Southeast High School.  She is an avid gardener and has collected and planted more than 200 trees, shrubs and flowers, including 10 sage varieties, at her Sacramento Delta home. She lives in a log house she built and landscaped with her husband, Jay, which is also home to a steady stream of beloved rescue dogs and cats.

We’ve been working with Kathy Sass of the Diocese of Springfield to track down information about the Fr. Yunker Scholarship for Lithuanian-American college students with ties to St. Vincent de Paul Church. So far, we’ve learned that Fr. Halinda of St. Joseph’s Church, and before that, Frs. Ossola and Wright (forgive any misspellings) administered the scholarship. We’ve also learned the names of the 2009 winners (2009 was apparently the last year there was enough interest on the principal to award scholarships). 

Our information from Jean Johnson, Superintendent of Springfield’s Catholic Schools, is that Hannah, Isabel, and Ruth Ziogas, Brandon Barringer, Noah Beveridge, Alex Gee, Megan Randall (or Randell), and Amanda Ross all shared a $3,200 award from the Fr. Yunker Scholarship Fund in 2009.

Here’s where our readers come in:  Do any of you know, or have the ability to contact any of these young people so they can be interviewed and profiled on our blog site?

Have any of you ever worked with Frs. Halinda, Ossola or Wright on administering the Fr. Yunker Scholarship?  Please contact sandybaksys@gmail.com   Thanks!