Geraldine June (“Gerry”) Salvay, 96, of Overland Park, passed away Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, at Village Shalom, where she had resided since August 2013. Funeral services were held at Louis Memorial Chapel on Monday, Dec. 24, 2018, followed by burial at Rose Hill Cemetery. The family suggests contributions to the charity of one’s choice.
Gerry was born June 2, 1922, at Bethany Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, to Solomon “Sol” Krigel and Ruth Milgram Krigel.
Gerry demonstrated independence and confidence early in life. Starting at age 8, she took the streetcar by herself most Saturdays from her home at 24th and State Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, to her father’s jewelry store at 548 Minnesota Ave. to help him in his business. While a student at Kansas City University — now UMKC — she made time to teach Sunday school at Congregation Beth Shalom at the request of Rabbi Gershon Hadas.
Gerry’s father encouraged her to get as much education as she could. With thinking that was well ahead of its time, Sol told her that women could accomplish anything they wished: This idea that education was important was regularly conveyed by Gerry to her sons and to her grandchildren.
Gerry was gifted in academics, especially mathematics, a subject studied by very few women of her era. She finished high school on her 16th birthday and earned her Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Kansas City University on her 20th birthday. She also earned certification to teach mathematics in all primary and secondary grades. After university, Gerry worked as head of a U.S. government financial-audit group in Kansas City. In the midst of that employ, Gerry’s father died in 1944 following a long battle with diabetes. She immediately took on the additional responsibility of daily opening and closing Krigel’s jewelry store, and of keeping its books and records. Gerry said the experience of keeping her family’s business going taught her perseverance.
During World War II, Gerry met Seymour Nathan Salvay, a civilian aerobatics instructor for the Army Air Corps (now U.S. Air Force). After Nathan returned from his duties as lieutenant and command pilot in the China-Burma-India theatre of World War II, Gerry and he were married on Jan. 20, 1946.
Gerry and Nathan raised their three sons, Steven, Craig and Brian, in the “Leave It To Beaver” days of the 1950s and ’60s, teaching each son the importance of wonder, kindness, generosity and unconditional love.
While Gerry was active in civic and religious organizations — Congregation Beth Shalom, Hadassah, Menorah Medical Center, the Jewish Home for the Aged (now Village Shalom), and PTAs at every school her sons attended — she chose to focus her life on her family and friends. She and Nathan were members of Congregation Beth Shalom’s first chavurah (“friendship group”), formed in 1956, a group that continued to meet until the early 2000s.
Gerry recently summed up her life in these words: “I have had a wonderful and full life. I was encouraged early in my life to seek education in order to have more choices, and I encouraged my children and grandchildren to go as far as they could in academics. When I had the chance, I shared with my family and friends the wisdom I had gained from my own experiences in life. I have lived long enough to clearly understand that death is a part of life; we must accept those things that we cannot change, and continue living.”
Gerry was preceded in death by her parents, Sol Krigel and Ruth Milgram Krigel Bock Eisberg; step-fathers, Arthur Bock and Sam Eisberg; loving husband, Seymour Nathan Salvay; and beloved sons, Steven Howard Salvay and Brian Allan “Boruch” Salvay; brother and sister-in-law, Edwin and Barbara “Babs” (Oppenheimer) Krigel; brother and sister-in-law, Richard “Dick” and Peggy (Paddor) Krigel; sister and brother-in-law, Phyllis and Lyle Rips; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Melvin Eugene “Gene” and Betty (Goodman) Salvay; step-brother, Joel Bock and his wife, Sandy (Silverman) Bock; step-sister Ann (Bock) Levine and her husband, Jess Levine.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Craig and Linda (Kessler) Salvay, of Prairie Village; daughter-in-law, Helen (Schwartz) Salvay (widow of son, Steven) of Castle Rock, Colorado; daughter-in-law, Loretta “Miriam” (Goodman) Salvay (widow of son, Brian) of Woodridge, New York; 12 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.
She is also survived by her step-sisters, Judy Hellman and Marcia Rittmaster, and loving nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Gerry’s family is grateful to her daily companions, Meron “Merry” Heramo and Yirgalem Yemer — Gerry’s “angels” — for their loving attention to Gerry in the last year of her life, and to the nurses and assisted-living staff at Village Shalom for their patient and attentive care.
Online guest book at is available at louismemorialchapel.com.
Arrangements by The Louis Memorial Chapel, 816-361-5211.