Erika Collier

1927 - 2017

Erika "Ricky" Collier, 89, died in her sleep Sunday, May 21, 2017, in Arlington, Texas. Funeral Mass: will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 14, 2017, St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church. Rosary will begin at 10:30 a.m.. Erika was born June 30, 1927, in Killmannstal, Ukraine, a German colony in the Volga Deutsch region of Russia. The second child of three, she was christened Sarah Janzen. With the German invasion of Russia during World War II, she was obliged to change her name. Sarah was "biblical," code for Jewish. She picked Erika, the name of a small purple-blue flower the German soldiers sang about. The end of the war found Erika, her mother, brother, and sister living in Vienna, Austria. Erika worked as a Russian-German police interpreter for the military police. It was there she met her future husband, L.T. Collier, an American soldier. By 1956 she gave birth to her only child, Richard. Erika, her mother and Richard moved to Arlington in 1960. In 1965 she realized a dream come true -- for the first time in her life she became a citizen of a country. Erika became an American on Jan. 4, 1965. She would eventually work for Sears, first at the Seminary South store in cosmetics. She was transferred to the Six Flags Mall store when it opened as manager of cosmetics, jewelry and wigs. Later she moved to the television and stereos department until she retired to care of her ailing mother. In 1973 Erika was diagnosed with breast cancer. She battled the disease through two mastectomies and five recurrences over 44 years. During those daunting years, she raised her son, took care of her mother, paid off her house and worked a full-time job. From a childhood rent by war to the better part of adulthood spent fighting breast cancer, she never complained much. Like her namesake, she simply bloomed gloriously. Erika was preceded in death by her father, Heinrich Janzen; mother, Magdelena Janzen; and brother, Henry Janzen. Survivors: Erika is survived by her son, Richard "Dick" Collier and wife, Diane Bowen Collier; sister, Maria Boley Grant; Diane's brother, Jerry R. Bowen, who took Erika to countless trips to doctors and the Arlington Cancer Center; close friends, including Laura Brovet, Bebe Pedergast and Susan Clare, who provided transportation to her bingo and poker games; Erika Brown who visited her frequently in hospice; her bingo and poker buddies plus numerous friends.