Winona Yasko

Winona Orvis Yasko died March 23, 2017 at the Bel-Aire Center in Newport, Vermont at the age of 93.

She was predeceased by her parents, older sister Lovina Orvis Baslow, and husband, Michael A. Yasko, in 2001, whom she married on October 10, 1942 in Bristol, VT.  Survivors are daughters Michele Young and her life partner Karl L. Mol of Huntington, WV, Carolyn Marie Schwebel and her spouse John of Leonardo, NJ and younger sister Patricia Orvis of Brooklyn, NY.

She was born in Cornwall, VT on August 7, 1923 to Ralph F. Orvis and Agnes Wright Orvis. She spent her teenage years in the Jerusalem and Bristol areas.

During their nearly 60-year marriage, Winona and Michael lived in a number of locations  in Vermont, including St. Johnsbury, Barton, Bristol, and Bellows Falls. In their later years they and their Dalmatian, ,Daisy,  became "snowbirds" at their winter home in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Winona was very active in community, school, including PTA president and class mother, and political affairs all of her life. Winona was an advocate for children and the elderly in Vermont and the Greater New England areas. She advocated for her disabled daughter. When a librarian would only allow her daughters to use books from the Children's Room, Winona, who loved reading  as did her daughters, made it very clear that her children could read ANY book they wanted to..(And they did, taking out the maximum five books at a time.)

A dark-haired beauty with brilliant blue eyes, Winona was an impassioned, independent woman from her early years. When she let it be known that her first votes would be given to Democratic, not Republican, candidates, her parents refused to give her a ride to town. She persisted and had to walk a long way down through the woods to cast her ballots.

Winona was above all a mother, who taught her daughters how to make her wonderful baked goods, including chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins, banana bread, and apple pies. She helped the daughters learn to sew,  and made matching mother-daughter blue taffeta dresses, small pieces of which her now senior citizen daughters still treasure.

Winona loved the many family cats and dogs and always allowed and encouraged their presence.

She had many jobs, including seamstress at a Van Raalte factory where she was not always appreciated because of her speed that forced others on the line to keep up. She was a secretary for Gov. Lee Emerson, cashier at the Barton A&P, and sold Avon products, often coming home from walking to make deliveries with freezing legs. She later served as a school nurse at a correctional school for teens and at the high school in Bristol.

Winona often challenged what she saw as injustices in her workplace and other situations, a dominant trait that she instilled in her children.

After her "girls" were in high school, she returned to nurses' training, which she had had to leave after her marriage to Michael Yasko, a tall, dark and handsome soldier from Pennsylvania whom she had met in a soda fountain in Burlington VT.

Her professional education included an R.N. from the Medical Center Hospital School of Nursing and a B.S.N. from University of Vermont, with a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. (P.N.P.) from Northeastern University in Boston MA. She also trained at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia PA, where younger fellow students saw her as a big sister.

Winona's main pride involved her nursing identity. On family drives it was not unusual when an accident was seen for her to attempt to help, crying "I'm a nurse, I'm a nurse!"

An avid swimmer, for  several years she ran the food concession at Crystal Lake State Beach, providing a lovely summer of swimming and selling experience for her daughters at young ages.

Winona Orvis Yasko was a force of nature. You may have seen her driving quickly around a corner on the wrong side of  a curvy road. She could be loving or resentful, as a "middle child," saying, "I get the neck of the chicken!"

To quote from another obituary, "She could simultaneously be ornery and have a mischievous twinkle in her eye. Her family is so sad to lose her. She made them smile and laugh. She infuriated them. She inspired them. She made them crazy. She loved them, and they loved her."

She chose to donate her body to  a medical school for instruction of medical students.  

Her  remains will then be cremated and spread over Crystal Lake in Barton VT, the site of her summer home for many years.

She requested no flowers, but donations in her name to organizations of your choice, especially those that support pets, would be appreciated. To share remembrances, feel free to send them to [email protected]

Online condolences at curtis-britch.com.

 

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