Judy Kabara

Judith Ann Kabara was remembered by her husband, Don Kabara, as someone who made friends easily and to whom every person had value.
Mrs. Kabara died of heart failure on Thursday, Aug. 9, at Lawlis Family Hospice at Columbia St. Mary’s Ozaukee Hospital in Mequon.  She was 77.
Mrs. Kabara was born in Milwaukee on Nov. 11, 1940, the daughter of Benedict and Angeline Mickolajczak Gruszynski.
She attended St. Mary’s Academy in St. Francis, graduating in 1958.
She attended Cardinal Stritch and Marquette University and worked at Allen Bradley in Milwaukee for three years.
She continued to be a lifelong learner, her husband said, taking English classes in the 1990s at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to improve herself.
She met her future husband in 1963 when they were both religious education teachers at St. Roman Catholic Church in Milwaukee.
In 1964, he was drafted into the Army and stationed at Fort Belvoir in West Virginia. They were married on April 19, 1965, in Milwaukee and returned to West Virginia.
In 1966, they moved back to Milwaukee when Mr. Kabara was discharged from the military. In 1972, they moved to Grafton.
Mr. Kabara worked for 39 years at Frank Mayer and Associates, a manufacturer of in-store merchandising and advertising displays and often was called upon to travel, leaving Mrs. Kabara to hold down the fort at home and caring for their seven children.
“She always said, ‘Don’t worry about home, just take care of business and bring home the bacon,’” Mr. Kabara said. “She went to all the school activities and taught all the kids to drive.”
She also was involved in many activities at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Grafton, where Mr. Kabara served as an ordained deacon for 41 years.
Her involvement included running a parish fish fry, Bible study, Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program and serving the community meal once a month for the homeless at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in Milwaukee.
“When Judy would go down there and help serve, she would sit down with people and immdiately make friends with them,” Mr. Kabara said. “She just connected with people very quickly and quickly made friends. She had that knack.”
She and her husband also were strong supporters of the Los Toros Mission  in the Dominican Republic, a small rural village adopted by the St. Joseph congregation. Mr. Kabara was one of the leaders in the effort to assist the people of the village, improving health care, infrastructure and education there.
“She was a good partner. Her role was to help me in the work,” he said.
She also was a supporter of the Milwaukee AIDS Project, owned stock in the Green Bay Packers, was known for her cooking skills and crocheted and sewed clothing for her children and grandchildren, Mr. Kabara said.
“She was only intolerant of intolerance and she never thought of people she helped as less fortunate, but simply as friends,” he said.
Mrs. Kabara is survived by her husband; children Joseph (Elizabeth) of Pittsburgh, Andrew (Jane) of Norman, Okla., Kiya (Michael) Pressman of Minneapolis, Matthew (Serena) of Wauwatosa, Timothy (Alicia) of Oconomowoc, Jean (Aaron) Cacali of Austin, Texas, and Thomas (Isabelle Bilodeau) of Nagoya, Japan; grandchildren Emily, Alexandria, Sarin, Eli, Ella, Isabelle, Sylvia, Helena, Harrison, Margot and Sophie; stepgrandchildren Duane (Heather) and Bryan (Lisa); nine great-stepgrandchildren; four great-great-stepgrandchuildren.; and brother Howard (Phyllis) Gruszynski.
She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother and sister-in-law Russell and Josephine Gruszynski.
A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 1, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Grafton. A visitation will be held from 9 to 10:45 a.m. at the church. Lunch will be served from noon to 1:45 p.m. at the church, followed by burial at 2 p.m. at St. Joseph Cemetery.
Memorials to the Los Toros Foundation are requested.
Mueller Funeral Home is handling arrangements for the family.