Theresa E. Olivito

It’s with deep sadness and special consolation and remembrance, I announce the passing of my beloved beautiful mother, Theresa E. Olivito, on Thursday, April 4th, at home with myself, Richard at her side after a long battle with declining health.  Mom went peacefully looking up to heaven, after a long strong courageous struggle in her last four years.    

Mom was preceded in Death by Her loving well known trailblazing husband, Judge Dominick E Olivito Sr., her sisters, Rose Burchfield of Toronto, Ohio and Maria Endors of California and her parents.

She is survived by her four children, Joyce Skopek of Connecticut , Dominick E.

Olivito Sr, of Carrollton Anthony C Olivito of Wintersville and Richard A Olivito and 8 Grandchildren, including Joshua R Olivito her last youngest Grandson, with whom she shared the past 11 years of her life with his constant companionship love and critical support especially in these last final years of her life.

Mom, Theresa Kalinowski, was born on Christmas Day, 1927, in Steubenville to Tillie and Anthony Kalinowski of Steubenville.

She attended Catholic Central High School and graduated in 1946.  She worked for several years after graduation for the President of the forerunner of the Ohio Valley Savings and Loan bank as his administrative assistant until in 1949, she met her love of her life, our father, Dominick E Olivito Sr., at the Steubenville Players presentation when she was a prompter for him in a play.

Within a year, they were married and then welcomed their first child, our oldest Joyce Ann.   During that same year, my father and mother began to build by themselves the house that mom would pass away in last week, on Westwood.   

After Joyce was born, mom settled into the 1950’s wife, homemaker and mother and by the end of the decade, after Dom and Tony,  I was born as the last of her four children, In February 1959.

By 1960, my father was entering his life’s work in the local legal political arena and mom was there by his side from start till finish some 40 years later, as he would retire from his active public life as first Assistant County Prosecutor, then elected Jefferson County Prosecutor, then long-time Jefferson County Common Pleas Senior Judge.   

In those early golden years of their youthful parenting many friends family and many characters of every walk of life were welcomed into house and mom was the hostess to hundreds of people who created for us children an amazing lifetime experience of meeting so many people of so many varied backgrounds it is hard to express in words what she allowed us to enjoy and to appreciate as she made our house a welcome center for the Kaleidoscope of humanity that my father’s career and her life brought to our front door and living room.

However, it wasn’t just the politicians and associates of my father, but so many women of my mom’s friendships she had cultivated in our neighborhood and around the area, that we as children were exposed literally to what it meant to b the sons and daughter of immigrant family’s strong parents who sought to demonstrate what hard work, sacrifice and dedication could accomplish.

Mom demonstrated to us personally her great love and appreciation for the arts.   She had an operatic voice which literally just towered over all other voices on Sunday Mass and oftentimes, at St. Pius, when she began to sing, many in the church just stopped and allowed her voice to soar above the congregations and we all were enveloped in her heavenly voice.

Mom made it a rule in our house that every single one of her children would learn an instrument so we all took piano lesson and other instruments and dance lessons for my sister.  We also heard Mom singing often as she painted with windows open on a large tripod numbered paintings as she listened to great classical operas.

It was through her, our lives were deeply infused with the love of the arts, reading, classical music, singing, and dancing and art itself.

However, by far, to mom most important and  lasting legacy came to us, not only through her consistent routinized duties as a mom and wife and friend to anyone who came to our home in those days, but in her spiritual and personal faith that she grew into and came to rely on, then later in life, completely focused finding its deeper meaning and purpose in life for her.    

Mom from a early time in our lives, taught us the Sermon on the Mount and what it meant to be considerate for those who were hurting and less fortunate.

By the time the older kids began to leave for college, mom however found new life and a new vitality; she called it a “healing” in a new found relationship with Jesus Christ.  She in a word, fell in love with Jesus Christ and she could not but share this new love with everyone and anyone she could.

She began to involve her self in ministry to women of her own age who were dealing with various issues.  She became a lay minister of sorts to many, and she opened our house to a weekly bible study and prayer meetings, which in time became basically hours long prayer services for healing in our home.

 Many lives were affected by her direct open frank sharing of her faith for years.  She became an officer in the the local Women’s Aglow and operated a local prayer phone-line, often fasting, and a  constant support for anyone who needed spiritual guidance and compassion.

She practiced what she preached and encouraged all of us to pray when things get difficult in life and she gave us constant advice and admonishment to “stay close to God, pray to Him” and she never veered from this till her last breathe. 

 Mom remained committed to the poor, to the working classes and even with my father, to their Democratic principles for which both stood for all their lives, even as she embraced her more vibrant evangelical type of faith while still attending the Catholic church often.

She too never once wavered on her progressive views on race and poverty.  She and my father grew up around the steel workers and coal miners of our region.  They saw first hand, with her own father working in the open hearth blast furnace of Wheeling Pitt Steel the struggles of the union working classes.

Finally, mom’s later in life, great passion beyond ministry and spending time with her grandchildren, via her faith, was the passion for donating to many non profits: Two stood out in her latter years the first was saving animals of every single kind across the entire world.  She donated for decades to more than thirty animal related organizations that helped every single kind of species.  

Her other special compassion giving and her immersing herself in, was the love of the American Native American experience.  Our house today, is still adorned with Native American portraits, Indian dolls and items of appreciation from Indian Schools which demonstrated her support for their lives and culture.

Lastly, and finally, in her final complex years, after her husband of 55 years passed away, and then later, as she declined in health, she showed the same stunning strength, and resilience both in her words and with her faith that she had demonstrated throughout her life.  She came to a very difficult place and endured five major operations in recent years, yet, each time, she came through these with amazing faith.     

I wish to thank all those who assisted in this beloved late journey with mom; this list is too numerous but includes the nurses and aides at Ohio Valley Hospice, Heritage Home Care, Trinity Health Care and UMPC Neuro Step down unit and specifically mentioning Tiffany, her last Aide who was nothing but love’s face and hands to mom in her last months.

There are others who cared for her night and day for these past years.  Their sacrificial care for my mother will never be forgotten including my close companion Keturah Krankovich, her children Elijah & Vendela Pirozak and Ms. Alisha Klotz, Royal Mayo and Michael Walenciej, all who along with Joshua became mom’s steady direct care-takers.   

As Jesus once said, “who are my brothers, who is my mother? Who are my sisters”?  It’s those who do the caring for the widows, the sick the elderly.

Donations would be encouraged in her name if any,  simply to the many credible non-profits she supported, like Doctors Sans Borders, the ICR, or UNICEF, others can be sent to any of the major international animal rescue organizations like Best Friends.  Also, the St. Labre Indian School In Ashland, Montana.   

Visitation will be held Saturday from 10 am until time of services at 12 pm at the Mosti Funeral Home, Sunset Chapel, 4435 Sunset Blvd., Steubenville. Burial will follow in Mt. Calvary Cemetery.

Offer condolences, www.mostifuneralhome.com