Zagar, Helena

Helene Zagar was born October 2, 1907 to John Szotek and Catherine Lewontski, in south Chicago, Illinois. Both her parents came to Chicago from Poland. Her father left her mother before her youngest brother was born to raise all four children by herself. She has a sister Catherine and two brothers, Walter and Peter.

Helen went to a parochial school until she was 14 years old. She then had to go to work for the Sherwood Music School in Chicago as a page girl. She attended night school so she could graduate high school. She was a determined young girl who did this so she could help her mother raise her siblings. She was married off, as she puts it, by her mother, in 1924. At that time it was an arranged marriage with another family from Europe. Her husband was Walter Henry Barton. Their son Walter Jr. was born in 1925, and a year later Walter left, and Helen had a son to raise. She began a job at the local bowling alley, where she met Rex Ingram, whom she became good friends with for nine years. One day in 1936 they decided to marry. As Helen says, they married then went to pick up Walter Jr. from school-- and began a new life together.

In 1972 her husband Rex left one morning like every other day, but he did not return home. Eighty three days later Helen received a phone call while at her grandson’s house in Arizona that her husband Rex had been found dead. He had Alzheimers. Their friend John Zagar looked after her and helped around the house over the next year. In 1973 they decided to marry. They were both Catholic and since her first husband was still alive she was not allowed to marry in the Church, so she and John went to her son’s house in Illinois and married there at the court house. He passed in 1992 from cancer.

In 1998, Helen had a stroke, and then in 2001 decided to move to Arizona where her son lives with his wife of 65 years. Helen loves surrounding herself with friends. She belongs to St. Andrews Church and is a strong believer in God and says He is what keeps her going. She remembers her travels to places like Amsterdam and seeing the Vatican in Italy. She loved to play golf in the ‘90s, or as she puts it “pushed the ball around.” Her home is full of flowers as they are her favorite. Helen spends her time playing cards at her friend’s home and listening to books on cassette, since she is considered legally blind. She still gets pedicures and has luncheons with friends.

Helen is a very loving, happy woman with a good sense of humor who knows how to tell a joke. She has three grandchildren Richard, Roger and Susan. She has three great grandchildren, Joanie, Sarah and Mark, and she has one great- great granddaughter, Mary. Helen says no matter what, you have “to do your best every day.

To listen to or read the transcript of an oral history interview with Helena Zagar recorded on August 11, 2011, click on the icons below:


Interview audio	Interview transcript