Velma A. Hlas

VELMA A. HLAS

Cedar Rapids

Velma A. Hlas, 90, of Cedar Rapids, passed away Wednesday, April 13, 2022, at West Ridge Care Center. Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 19, at Saint Ludmila Catholic Church by Father Kenneth Glaser. Burial will follow at Czech National Cemetery. Visitation will be after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the church. Papich-Kuba Funeral Service is serving the family and you can leave messages at its website. Memorial donations may be given to Horizons, for Meals on Wheels.

Velma is survived by her children, Mike (Pam) Hlas and Craig (Jill) Hlas, both of Cedar Rapids, Teresa Hermanstorfer (Tom Berens) of Bettendorf, Paul (Yoon-Hee) Hlas of Shawnee, Kan., and Laurie Hlas (Frank Semrow) of Oregon, Wis. She had 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Ernest; her parents, Harry and Agnes (Anderson) Dickinson; and three brothers, Walter, Robert and Donald Dickinson. She was a descendant of immigrants from Norway and England, and was proud of her heritage.

Velma was born July 29, 1931, in Fayette County, Iowa. She attended Upper Iowa College before moving to Cedar Rapids in 1952, but she remained connected to Fayette and friends from school the rest of her life. She worked in the office at Iowa Manufacturing Co. in Cedar Rapids before she married Ernie on Oct. 6, 1956, at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Chelsea. They had met at Danceland Ballroom in Cedar Rapids. Ernie died Oct. 20, 2005.

This can be said about Velma with no question: She was a good person. Simple terms like "friendly," "sweet" and "so nice" were repeatedly used whenever someone would describe Velma to her children. She always remembered and appreciated whenever anyone showed her kindness.

Velma always enjoyed music. She liked to have it coming from her radio and television. She also liked comedy. There wasn't an Andy Griffith episode she hadn't watched several times over. She also enjoyed the silliness of late-night talk show hosts over the years, from Johnny Carson to David Letterman to Jimmy Kimmel.

Bingo was a big thing for Velma. She was a regular at the weekly Sunday night game at her St. Ludmila's Church. Attending was as much for being with friends she made there over the years as it was for chasing jackpots.

For a large part of Velma's adult life, most of her world was a split-level house in southwest Cedar Rapids. It had three sets of stairs, four floors, five kids, and countless plates she somehow always kept in the air while going up and down those steps every day to take care of business.

Velma raised her family. Ernie worked long hours in his world six days a week, and also worked some on the seventh. He ran a tavern in Czech Village, a mile from their house. The family had that house to call home because of his business and his work ethic. But she kept the home going, working from morning to night, always there for her kids when they needed her. That never stopped. It probably will take a while for her children to get used to no longer getting evening phone calls from her.

When cancer overcame Velma in the last few months of her life, all five of her children spent as much time with her as they could. Hopefully, she saw it as proof the unconditional love she had for them went both ways.