Hattie B. Dzeda

The east side of Cleveland was home to Hattie B. Dzeda for over 82 years before she moved to the Kent area in 2003. She died at age 95 on April 4 at Maison Aine/The Arbors at Stow where she had been a resident for five years.

Born on December 4, 1920, Jadwiga Barbara Bielicki, sixth of the seven daughters of Jan and Stanislawa Bielicki, grew up on E. 52nd Street in the Fleet Avenue neighborhood of Cleveland's south side, attending school (where her very Polish name was changed to Hattie without anyone asking her opinion) and singing in the choir of St. John Nepomucene Church. Just before World War II she worked as a domestic, then in a Cleveland defense plant and later at Nela Park.

Soon after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, where her fiancé, Joe, survived aboard the battleship "Pennsylvania", she moved to San Francisco to marry him and make their first home there while the ship was undergoing repairs. After the war, Joe and Hattie Dzeda returned home to Cleveland where they reared two sons, Joseph F., now of New Haven, CT, and Bruce (wife, Christine) of Kent.

As a resident first of East Cleveland, then Cleveland Heights, and later South Euclid, Mrs. Dzeda kept an immaculate, happy home and a manicured yard. She enjoyed reading, doing crossword puzzles, gardening, making many of her own clothes as well as clothes for others, needlepoint, ceramics, and even rug weaving. She was a member of St. Margaret Mary Church for forty-three years.

She worked at times for all three major Cleveland department stores. For twenty years Mrs. Dzeda was a waitress at Severance Center, first at Halle's Geranium Room, and later at Higbee's Hobnail Room where she enjoyed a devoted following of many loyal customers.

Mrs. Dzeda was knowledgeable and proud of her Polish heritage, a legacy she readily imparted to her family and easily shared with her friends. She was fluent in that language all her life and took classes to increase her proficiency. In the 1970's she made two trips to Poland to visit her relatives there.

In their retirement years, the Dzedas traveled all over the United States and Canada in their motor home. All their lives they were good citizens in every way possible, always informed on current events and never missing a chance to vote Democratic in an election. Both were active members for years in the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

During her widowhood Mrs. Dzeda faced the daily challenges and humiliations of increasing dementia with both good grace and a strong prayer life. Yet even in these struggles her natural good humor never left her nor did her interest in her family diminish. To the end, she remained a devotee of the music of the big band era, especially that of Glenn Miller. For those who loved her, listening to his recording of "Moonlight Serenade" will instantly evoke her memory.

Mrs. Dzeda was preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Joseph J. Dzeda, and by all of her sisters: Joanne Bricker (Robert), Sophie Walsh, Clara Lipinski (William), Alice Okonek (Victor), and Stasia Cassese (Emil). She is survived by her sons and daughter-in-law, as well as twenty-two nephews and nieces.

The family will receive friends at the Bissler & Sons Funeral Home at 628 West Main Street in Kent on Wednesday, April 13th from 2-5 PM.

On Thursday, April 14th a Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in Cleveland at the church of her long-ago childhood and youth, St. John Nepomucene, on Fleet Avenue at E. 50th Street. The family will receive friends there at 10:30 AM with the Mass at 11 AM, to be followed by internment in Calvary Cemetery on Miles Avenue.

"I have fought a good fight,
and have fulfilled my course,
and have kept the faith."
2 Tim. 4:7