Mary Ann Toboyek

Mary Ann Toboyek, age 84, passed away on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, at Willowbrook Assisted Living.

She was born on January 10, 1940, in the town of Cassel, Wisconsin to Joseph and Marie (Szymanski) Wieloch. Mary Ann was one of ten children; she had five sisters and four brothers. Born and raised in Marathon, Wisconsin, she attended a local grade school attached to Sacred Heart Catholic Church until the 8^th grade, then attended Marathon High School. After graduating high school, she went to St. Mary’s School of Nursing in Wausau, Wisconsin, graduated and became a Registered Nurse.

She met her husband, Wally, at her friend’s wedding. “It was love at first sight, it had to be,” she would say. They dated for two years before marrying on August 19, 1961. When they moved to Kenosha in 1962, she worked at Kenosha Memorial Hospital and St. Catherine’s Hospital before accepting a position at ManorCare as Director of Nursing. She stayed in geriatrics, working at Brookside Care Center, Shady Lawn, and Woodstock. She volunteered as an EMT with the Pleasant Prairie Fire & Rescue in the 1980’s. A diagnosis of fibromyalgia made her career difficult, and she was forced to retire from Woodstock in 2000. Mary Ann was also a 43-year breast cancer survivor, which is quite amazing.

Shortly after her retirement from Woodstock, she was approached by the nurse who was initiating a senior falls prevention program called, “Stepping On” with the Aging and Disability Resource Center (ARDC). Mary Ann volunteered for the program and would travel, assist the founder, and also give presentations as well as help to implement the program in senior homes in Kenosha and around the country.

Mary Ann loved polka dancing with her husband, they would camp and fish in northern Wisconsin every summer. She would plant hundreds of flowers every spring and they had a huge garden that continued her childhood of farming, canning hundreds of quarts of vegetables over the years. Her favorite holiday was Christmas, decorating the tree with hundreds of lights and setting up the Christmas village around the tree. Mary Ann and her husband traveled in their retirement years to Poland, Italy and Austria and took several cruises to Germany, Belgium, France, the Caribbean, and Alaska.

Mary Ann is survived by her children, Michael (Paul) Toboyek of Somers, WI, Mark (Lori) Toboyek of West Bend, WI, and Sharon (Dan) Petersen of Incline Village, NV; her grandchildren, Ashley (Zach) Conrad of Glendale, AZ, Amber (Dallas) St. Arnaud of Neenah, WI, and Glen (Sarah) Toboyek of Rhinelander, WI, her great-grandchildren, Dominic Griffith, Greyson Worth and Donald Toboyek; brothers, Marcell (Janice) Wieloch, Martin (LaVonne) Wieloch and Dennis (Karen) Wieloch; brother-in-law, Earl Hoffman; and sister-in-law, Mary Wieloch.

She was preceded in death by her husband; her parents; sisters, Sylvia (Joe) Krautkramer, Adeline (Henry) Lang, Eleanor (Joel) Tucek, Ethel Hoffman, Alexia (Ronald) Osterbrink and her brother, Dallis Wieloch.