Penka Georgiev

EAST DENNIS — Penka Georgiev, born of the Dustabonnov family in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Oct. 21, 1907, joined her predeceased husband, Konstantin Georgiev, on July 4, 2008, after 100 fabled years.

The Dustabonnovs were a leading family and active in the Bulgarian War for Independence, instigated by Penka's uncle, Tsanko Dustabannov. In the 1930s, Penka worked with Queen Giovanna to found and support the first women's and children's hospital in the capital, Sofia. At the conclusion of World War II, Penka fled the communists with her two young children, Ludmila and Stephen, an epic escape through Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany.

Displaced persons with no resources but their wits and language skills, the three obtained work as translators, participated in the reopening of Heidelburg University, and emigrated to the United States in 1948.

Penka lived in Arlington, where her son-in-law, William Jollie, graduated from Harvard University Medical School, and her son, Stephen, graduated from MIT and founded Dynatrend. In 1964, the family located her husband in the Bulgarian Gulag and ransomed his freedom. Reunited after a 20-year separation, Penka and Konstantin moved to Cape Cod in 1974, where Konstantin died in 1978.

Penka was the first woman skier in Bulgaria, a hiker and lover of the outdoors. She swam off Cape Cod until she was 80, and walked its beaches until she was 90. She was active in the Theater Guild and the Garden Club, and was a key fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club, a sponsor of the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, and a ferocious bridge player. Her warmth and genuine interest in others carried an old-world charm and grace that affected everyone who met her. "Leccanosh y divishdonne Babie."