By Sandy Baksys

In all our attention to vanished history, we can sometimes forget about the wonderful centenarians and near-centenarians among us who embody so much living history. I am thinking today of Lithuanian immigrant coal miner’s daughters Ruth (Petrokas) Lustig, 101, and Helen (Sitki) Rackauskas, 99.

The first local Lithuanian centenarian I heard about in passing while writing my book, “A Century of Lithuanians in Springfield,” was first-wave immigrant Petronella Marciulionis. Lacking contact with any living relatives, I unfortunately never got to write about Petronella and her daughters Anna, Mary, and Helen, who all sang in the St. Vincent de Paul church choir and lived in “Little Lithuania” area of Peoria Rd. and Sangamon Avenue. But I’ll bet Ruth and Helen probably knew Petronella and her daughters in Springfield’s thriving Lithuanian-American community of the 1930s and ’40s

Helen’s personal history has been covered in detail on my blog and in my book: specifically, in the 2016 edition of my book’s “Lady of Birds and Lost Little Ones” chapter, in which Helen details the immigrant story of her mother, Mary Ann (Yezdauski) Sitki. However, I never had the chance to write about Ruth. Then just last month, Ruth’s niece Trish (Chepulis) Wade wrote to me on the occasion of Ruth’s 101st birthday celebration to correct that omission.

Thanks for the heads-up and the photos, Trish, and a big hug and many congratulations from Springfield, dear Ruth!!

Ruth (Petrokas) Lustig and Trish’s mother Sylvia (Petrokas) Chepulis were sisters: the only children of Lithuanian immigrants Stanley W. and Katherine (Rieskevicius) Petrokas of Springfield. That makes Ruth the aunt not just of Trish, but of Sylvia and Joe Chepulis’s other children: Mary, John, and Joe Chepulis (recently deceased) and Bernadine (Chepulis) Dombrowski (also deceased).

Ruth currently lives with two of her daughters in Lakeville, Minn. But she was born in Springfield and graduated Lanphier High School, followed by the St. John’s School of Nursing. Because World War II was still on at the time, Ruth was recruited right out of St. John’s to serve for one year in the U.S. Army Nurses Corps.

Shortly after returning from her WWII service, Ruth moved to Elgin and spent 40 years in mental health nursing in Chicago’s western suburbs until she retired and moved to live with her daughters in Lakeville.

Ruth is also the mother of six children.

(These last two photos are of Ruth in the U.S. Army Nurses Corps and graduating from St. John’s Nursing School.)