A second loss for John's Grocery

IOWA CITY - After her husband of nearly 70 years died last month, Erma Alberhasky told her caregivers at Legacy Pointe she would be there only two more weeks.

“And it was right about two weeks that she had the stroke,” Ron Alberhasky, son of Erma and John Alberhasky, said Tuesday. “She wanted to be with him.”

Erma Alberhasky died Monday at age 88, nine days after suffering a stroke. Family members, Ron Alberhasky said, are comforted to know she is reunited with John Alberhasky, her high school sweetheart and husband of 69 years, who died Oct. 14 at age 92.

“She was a great lady,” Ron Alberhasky, 63, said. “She helped guide us down the path of life, sometimes kicking and screaming.”

In 1948, Erma and John Alberhasky purchased a grocery store northeast of downtown Iowa City and renamed it John's Grocery. That store, still in the Alberhasky family, remains an Iowa City icon at 401 E. Market St., famed for its vast beer and wine selection.

His mother had some health problems in recent years and suffered from Alzheimer's disease, Ron Alberhasky said, but she was in fairly good health and greeted mourners at her husband's visitation and funeral last month.

“She was remarkable,” he said. “She held up real well.”

Erma Alberhasky, a lifelong Iowa City resident, enjoyed gardening, the Chicago Cubs and Hawkeye sports. For many years, she and John parked a camper to tailgate near Kinnick Stadium and took bus trips to every Hawkeye away game, Ron Alberhasky said.

When John Alberhasky was serving in the Navy in Hawaii during World War II, he sent home money that Erma and John's father used to build a house in north Iowa City that became the couple's first residence, their son said.

“She basically helped build their first house,” he said.

The John's Grocery website was modified last month after John Alberhasky died to read, “In heaven, there is now beer,” a slight change to the popular Iowa Hawkeye victory song that goes “In heaven there is no beer/that's why we drink it here.” After Erma died this week, the site said, “In heaven, there is now more beer.”

Erma is survived by seven children, 16 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Lensing Oak Hill, 210 Holiday Rd., Coralville, with a vigil service at 7:30 p.m. A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Iowa City, with graveside services at 1 p.m. at St. Joseph's Cemetery.