Angeline F. Sienkowski

Angeline Frances (Jaje) Sienkowski - Loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

Angeline was fiercely independent and tough, bravely facing many challenges right up to her death on March 12, 2026 with her daughters at her side. She built a career in addition to running the family home, and she preserved family history, including for many years the house her father built on Lonyo in Detroit. She was a stickler for accuracy and details, carefully deliberating each of the many decisions she made over a lifetime that started before people had refrigerators at home. At the birth of her first grandchild at 70, she declared herself too young to be a grandmother, adopted the nickname Nana, and threw herself wholeheartedly into babysitting and pushing food on her grandchildren. Among many other things, she will long be remembered for laughing and giggling, her love of daisies and gift shops, and enjoyment of chicken soup, stuffed pepper soup, and coconut cream pie.

In her early years, Angeline created beautiful embroidery, and when she lived on the Jaje farm she had a pet lamb. All her life she loved small dogs, including the Pomeranians she raised in the 1960s and special dogs Finnegan the poodle and Mitzi the shih tzu lhasa apso mix in her later years. She enjoyed trips to Frankenmuth and family vacations in Petoskey.

Angeline Jaje was born on April 14, 1928 in Detroit to Joseph and Stephanie (Kuc) Jaje. She graduated magna cum laude from Chadsey High School in 1946, and with high honors from Dearborn Junior College in 1948. Angeline was awarded a scholarship to the University of Michigan School of Business Administration, earning a BBA and teaching certificate in 1950, followed by a Master of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1959, at a time when few women pursued advanced degrees. A member of the Delta Pi Epsilon honor society for business educators, she taught commercial subjects at Roseville High School until 1955, when she became a professor at Henry Ford Community College, retiring thirty years later in 1985.

On June 23, 1962, Angeline married Edward Sienkowski, who she had first met when they both attended St. Cunegunda grade school, and they shared nearly fifty-seven years of marriage until Edward's death in 2019. She was the cherished mother of Marie Sienkowski (Laura Smith) and Diane Wallis (Tim), devoted grandmother of Kelsey Abbas (Arib) and Ellie Wallis and loving great-grandmother of Zain Abbas. As the youngest of six siblings, she was predeceased by Eleanore Oleszkowicz (Joseph), Sister M. Joanne, Joseph Jaje, Jr. (Stella and June), Adele Pozdol (Alphonse), and Adolph Jaje (Frances). She remembered birthdays as a loving aunt to many nieces and nephews and was especially fond of all her godchildren.

Family will receive friends on Monday, March 16th, from 2:00pm to 8:00pm at A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home, 32515 Woodward Ave. Royal Oak, MI (between 14 Mile and Normandy).

On Tuesday, March 17th, visitation will begin at 9:30am, with funeral service at 10:30am at A.J. Desmond & Sons Funeral Home, and luncheon to follow.

Following the luncheon, everyone is invited to meet inside the main entrance of Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery, 25800 West 10 Mile Road, Southfield, MI, at 2:00PM. The line will process from the gate to the chapel for the Rite of Committal.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to the American Diabetes Association PO Box 7023, Merrifield VA 22116, www.diabetes.org.