Helen Glowacki, 1907-2013: Toledo native won golf cup at age 71
4/7/2013NAPLES, Fla. — Helen Glowacki, a former Ottawa Hills resident and a successful golfer in Toledo-area club competitions, died Thursday in the Aristocrat nursing home in Naples. She was 106.
The cause of death was not known, her son, Richard, said.
“There was no cancer. There was no heart attack, no stroke,” said Mr. Glowacki, a founder of the Danberry Co. “She just wore out.”
Her mother died at age 100 in 1976. Mrs. Glowacki followed the precepts of Adelle Davis, a popular nutritionist and author, and made whole grains, fruits, and vegetables central to her diet and red meat minimal.
“Mother was an Adelle Davis devotee, and that was our diet at home,” her son said.
Her husband, Chester, and his brother, Alphonse, ran Glowacki Furniture, founded by their father and a fixture on Lagrange Street for decades.
She did not work outside the home. She and and her husband traveled twice a year to the American Furniture Mart in Chicago.
Lamp selection was her specialty.
“She was in the era when the role of the woman was to provide a nurturing home and keep the home fires burning,” her son said.
She and her husband were 50-year members of the Inverness Club, where she won club and other competitions.
“She was a very athletic person. Golf ended up being what she wanted to do,” her son said.
“She was 90 before I could beat her at golf.”
At 71, she was part of the Inverness team that won the 1978 Toledo Cup in the Toledo Women’s Inter-Club Golf League. She and her husband also were longtime members of the Royal Palm Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla., and the Catawba Island Club.
Her son threw her a 100th birthday party — a women’s luncheon — and asked her to supply the guest list. She came up with more than 100 names, and 100 were seated for lunch.
“You could characterize her as an extrovert,” her son said.
She was born Feb. 10, 1907, in Toledo to Katherine and John Osmialowski, grew up in the Westmoreland neighborhood, and was a graduate of Libbey High School. She attended what is now Eastern Michigan University for three years and studied to become a physical education teacher. She was a member of the Tri Sigma sorority.
She and her husband married Aug. 2, 1929. Formerly of West Toledo and Sylvania Township, the Glowackis were members of Gesu Roman Catholic Church, Toledo. Her husband died Feb. 13, 2001.
Surviving are her son, Richard Glowacki; two grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Services will be private. Arrangements are by the Fuller Funeral Home, Naples, Fla.
The family suggests tributes to a charity of the donor’s choice.
Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182