Date of Birth
Nov 16,1940
Date of Death
Jun 16,2015
On June 16, surrounded by her family, Ivanka passed peacefully into our Lords arms after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease and lung cancer.
She was born on November 16, 1940 in Slovenia Jugoslavia where her father, Radomir Stevanovich, an officer in the King’s Army, was stationed. Shortly after the Germans invaded Jugoslavia in April of 1941, her father was captured and sent to a P.O.W. camp in Germany and Ivanka and her mother, Ruzica (Popovic), moved back to Belgrade to live with her maternal grandparents until Marshall Tito imposed Communist control of Jugoslavia. Unable for her mother to find employment in Belgrade, her mother was able to secure a position as a music teacher in Kralejo, Serbia. Her father, unable to return to Jugoslavia after the war because he had been a Royalist Army officer, immigrated to America in 1953 and was able to bring Ivanka and her mother to the United States in 1955 after a 15 year absence.
In 1959 she met her future husband, Bill, when both were students at Lyons Township Junior College, though after almost three years of dating, then engagement, the vagaries of youth separated them, not to be reunited again until 1998 when they married.
Ivanka was a graduate of Northern Illinois University and subsequently earned two Master degrees from Loyola University. She taught Spanish at Glenbrook South for several years before being hired at Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. At Stevenson, she rose from Spanish teacher to the Director of Humanities overseeing Stevenson’s foreign language, music, and history departments. She was president of the Illinois Foreign Language Teachers Association and was instrumental in transforming Stevenson High School into one of the top performing secondary schools in Illinois. In 1991 her achievements were acknowledged when the U.S. Department of Education awarded Adlai Stevenson High School the coveted Excellence in Education Award.
She was active with the Kane County Homemakers, winning several statewide first place awards for her International Luncheons and served in various Board positions of the Friends of the Town and Country Public Library
She leaves behind her husband, Bill; her son, Grant (Molly) Vreuls and granddaughter, Corinne; Bill’s children, Scott, Heidi (Kevin) Kopp, Svea Patrick, and Paul (Agnes), along with Bill’s eight grandchildren and one great grandchild to whom she was their “Baka”, as well as a cousin, Darko (Svetlana) Popovic, of Greenbelt, Maryland; her ex-husband, Robert Vreuls; her husband’s cousin, Will, and a large family of cousins in Serbia, especially Predrag Stevanovic.
Her family sends their deepest gratitude and praise to all the angels from CNS Hospice and to Ruth whose collective care and comfort to Ivanka and her family can never be adequately expressed.
Visitation will be on Friday, June 26, 2015, from 4:00 to 8:00 PM at Conley Funeral Home, 116 W Pierce St, Elburn, IL 60119 with a Serbian Orthodox memorial service on Saturday June 27, 2015 at 10:30 AM at Conley Funeral Home and interment following at the Blackberry Township Cemetery in Elburn.
In lieu of flowers, memorials in her honor may be given to the Friends of the Town & Country Public Library; CNS Home Health & Hospice, c/o Cadence Health Foundation; or your favorite charity
Visitation will be on Friday, June 26, 2015, from 4:00 to 8:00 PM at Conley Funeral Home, 116 W Pierce St, Elburn, IL 60119 with a Serbian Orthodox memorial service on Saturday June 27, 2015 at 10:30 AM at Conley Funeral Home and interment following at the Blackberry Township Cemetery in Elburn.