Claire A. Chapek

Claire Alice Kennedy Chapek died peacefully at age 99 on March 1, 2021.  She was born at home to Alice and George Kennedy on August 26, 1921 in Jersey City, New Jersey.  She had an older brother George and was followed by two younger sisters Anne and Jeanne.  In death she now joins the rest of her Kennedy family.

Growing up in the city her favorite pastimes were stick ball, hand ball and in winter skating with her father on the flooded and frozen baseball fields.  A neighborhood of aunts, uncles and cousins all lived within a short walk which made family gatherings often and easy.  Claire and her favorite friend and cousin Virginia could see each other from their bedroom windows and communicated by way of two cans attached to a line of string.  Favorite family vacations were by train to a farm on Indian Lake New York or to a bungalow on the New Jersey shore.

Claire attended Fairleigh Dickenson High School graduating in 1939.  It was there she casually knew of a basketball and baseball player named Victor Chapek.  She went on to attend Wester Business College and begin work for Western Electric in 1941 along with many other women who at the time filled the positions of men off to war.  In 1944 Claire married the gentleman from high school and absolute love of her long life, Victor.  She and Vic and newborn daughter Victoria moved to their first house in 1946, a small log cabin in the woods of Pines Lake.  A few years later, before the birth of son Matt, a move was made to a house on Beech Terrace and later to a third house on Indian Road.  Summers of swimming and winters of skating made the lake a fun place to raise a family.  Although admittedly not an avid gardener, Claire loved being outside working in the natural wooded garden surrounding her home.  Many longtime neighbors and friends she had in the 60 years of life at Pines Lake retired to Cedar Crest where Claire moved in 2008.  Her apartment there faced the woodlands reminding her of home.

Claire and Vic traveled at every opportunity they could plan time away from work.  Many trips were made throughout Europe and to any island that had a sandy beach and warm water.  After Vic’s death, she retired from her accounting job and continued another 20 years of travel adventures with good friends and in particular loved returning to her favorite destination Ireland.  They are the memories she most often recounted along with the highlights of the lives of her children, grand and great-grandchildren.  She will be remembered for her light-hearted and easy going way with people, her optimism and her determination to live independently and fully all her 99 and a half years.  One of her favorite expressions often used when a stressful situation arose was “life is too short!”.

Most sadly for Claire her husband Victor died in 1985 and daughter Victoria Edge in 2012.  She is survived by her son Matt (Betsy) Chapek, 3 grandsons Ryan (Jeanice) Edge, Graham (Becky) Chapek, Tyler (Dayna) Chapek and 4 great-grand children Connor, Riley, and Brady Edge and Eliza Chapek.

In Claire’s memory gifts may be made to Friends of Laurelwood Arboretum, PO Box 2433, Wayne NJ 07470 or Franciscan Bread for the Poor, Inc., St. Francis Breadline, 144 West 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001.