Mary Kay Novak McGrath, the ‘Angel of Czech Village’ in Cedar Rapids, dies at 69

CEDAR RAPIDS — After Mary Kay Novak McGrath bought eight properties in Cedar Rapids’ Czech Village in 2018, Monica Vernon recalls she filled mugs with Halloween candy and took them to businesses throughout the historic neighborhood. The mugs were printed with the message: “It takes a village.”

It was one of the many ways that McGrath led by example throughout her life and lifted up her community as the “Angel of the Village.”

“In order for her to do what she wanted to do, she needed to reach out to others first,” said Vernon, administrator of the Czech Village-New Bohemia Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District and a longtime friend of McGrath.

The village’s angel gained her wings Friday, dying at age 69 of pancreatic cancer.

McGrath grew up in southwest Cedar Rapids and cherished memories of spending time in Czech Village with her parents, Eileen and Frank Novak, and wanted to make sure the village was healthy, Vernon said.

She graduated from Jefferson High School and earned a bachelor’s from Mount Mercy University. She served on the boards of The District: Czech Village and New Bohemia, the Czech Village and New Bohemia Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

Her family runs the Cedar Rapids-based McGrath Auto Group, but she purchased the Czech Village buildings separately through her own business, Novak Investments, LLC.

Motivated by love for her community, the savvy businesswoman played a key role in revitalizing The District into a destination full of character and possibilities, Vernon said — a place where people love to park their car, walk around, get something to eat or find a unique gift.

Most of all, she was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She is survived by her husband Pat McGrath and children Lindsay McGrath-Vasquez, Gavin McGrath and Jaymie McGrath-Hobson, as well as 11 grandchildren.

Private services will be held this week. A public celebration of life is being planned but details are still to come.

She did ‘anything and everything’ for family

When Pat McGrath was working for his brother Bruce McGrath’s Pontiac and Mazda dealership as a sales manager, Mary Kay came in to buy a Mazda RX7. The rest was history, laying the foundation for their marriage of 41 years.

“She’d always kid that she paid $12,000 to meet a husband,” Pat McGrath said.

She was a strong woman, independent, driven and loving woman who he described as “the glue of her family.” Everything revolved around her children and grandchildren. She encouraged their kids to do whatever they wanted, never questioning the direction they chose to go.

“Family was her love language,” he said.

Whether it was her niece’s band concert or her brother’s stand-up show, or even sky diving for McGrath-Vasquez’s 25th birthday, McGrath was there for her family. And she was often up for an adventure — when sky diving, she even volunteered to jump first and did somersaults in the air.

“She was an extremely selfless human-being,” McGrath-Vasquez said. “Nothing was more important to her than family. She sacrificed anything and everything to make sure her family knew how loved and supported they were by her.”

Whether the kids needed “a kick in the butt” or a hug while they fell apart, McGrath-Vasquez said her mother knew how to show up for people. She taught her children to do the right thing, even when it was uncomfortable.

“In that way, she really motivated me to be the best person I could be and give my best at everything I do,” McGrath-Vasquez said. “She also had that softness about her where she could catch you when you fell or if you failed and put your legs back under you, make you feel loved ... just as you are. You're not defined by your achievements or your accomplishments or what other people think of you.”

Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell, who knew McGrath long before she was elected, said she admired the way she raised her children, treating each one uniquely and supporting them. O’Donnell’s own two girls were younger, so she took parenting cues from McGrath.

“Before she put her heart and soul into The District, she put it into her family,” O’Donnell said.

Making The District ‘a special place’

Once the kids grew up, McGrath had more time on her hands — though she stayed busy with the grandkids — and wanted to do something with it. So, she focused her energy on infusing new life into Czech Village.

“My grandparents used to shop here, my parents have always had businesses here, I was raised on this side of town. It's just a very special place for me,” McGrath previously told The Gazette.

She made Czech Village the vibrant “stroll district” it is today, Vernon said.

“This woman is one of the best community developers I’ve ever run into,” Vernon said. “... She understood that you needed these interesting retail places and charming, fun and cute and delicious restaurants. Because she had all those buildings, she was able to create an ecosystem that would work.”

Not only did she make major structural fixes to the buildings — replacing roofs and siding — but she kept Czech Village and NewBo traditions and made them new with a sense of humor. She had an innate sense of how the buildings needed to look and feel, what components would evoke pleasure and fun.

When she bought the old fire station at 1111 Third St. SE, she transformed the place with broken pipes into an AirBNB rental. She was persistent in recruiting Nikki Kettelkamp, who owned Scout in Marion, to run a shop in The District and eventually drew her to the building’s lower floor to open Scribe Stationer. It’s now recognized as one of the world’s best stationery shops.

Near the corner of C Street SW and 16th Avenue SW, Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor evokes childhood memories with ice cream and old-fashioned sodas and sports a 1920s aesthetic. It’s an addition to Sweet Mercantile Soda Fountain & Candy Shop, next door at 98 16th Ave. SW. This venue was her dream, Vernon said.

“I thought what better thing than a toy store and soda fountain,” McGrath previously told The Gazette. “It was nostalgia for me. I grew up with a soda fountain and it was just such a great memory having all the drinks made for you.”

When McGrath learned the eight Czech Village properties were going to be sold, her husband said she quickly closed the deal within three weeks “and she was off and running and wanting to really make an impact in Czech Village.”

She restored historic, disaster-damaged buildings into places full of charm and quirky touches, like crystal chandeliers where she stuck antlers in it with pieces of turquoise coming down.

“Everything she did made you feel alive again,” Vernon said. “She loves places that make you feel alive and make you think about the old times but also the future times.”

McGrath was someone who liked to be in the background and did things quietly as she brought her vision for Czech Village to life tirelessly, passionately and fearlessly, O’Donnell said.

“I believe that Czech Village would not be what it is today without a Mary Kay,” O’Donnell said. “She was the best kind of visionary. She was a visionary with a heart and soul for Cedar Rapids.”

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She knew what she wanted, then went out and found it, O’Donnell said.

“When I think about Cedar Rapids and what we’d like it to look like and be, I always think of Mary Kay,” O’Donnell said. “... There are a lot of people with ideas and even plenty of people with means in our community, but not many have the will to do what she did.”

Harnessing her ‘heart and soul’

While McGrath had “so much more to give and so many ideas,” Vernon said, those devoted to The District plan to build upon her legacy.

At the entrance to Czech Village, where the “Mucha Meets Iowa” mural by Ali Hval overlooks a sliver of land between the art piece and the clock tower, McGrath was a benefactor for a project to turn the space into Novak Plaza in honor of her late parents.

There will be benches and a coffee table for people to gather — things McGrath and Vernon designed together. Old-fashioned flowers like the deep red peonies that grew in McGrath’s mother’s garden will be planted. Instead of grass, it’ll be filled with low-growing greenery that doesn’t have to be mowed and perennials with deep roots.

The plaza will be dedicated as soon as possible, Vernon said.

“We’re going to make her proud,” Vernon said. “... “She could have done anything with that time, talent and treasure and chose to invest it in our community.”

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The two both have memories of going to the old Czech Village Roundhouse with their parents and grandparents, Vernon said, and McGrath was happy the city is pursuing plans to bring the structure to life again. The original was destroyed in the 2008 flood.

“Mary Kay’s vision was driven by heart and passion,” O’Donnell said. “It was personal. It’s going to be important that we going forward harness that heart and soul and make it personal.”

With a mix of toughness, love and tenderness, McGrath-Vasquez said her mother stood up for underdogs and fought against mistreatment. She hopes to carry on the kindness McGrath extended to anybody who walked in her path, whether her mother was checking out at a gas station, “making best friends” in the airport security line or making Cedar Rapids a better place for everyone.

“She just cared so much about our community and the people in it and making sure she could have a positive impact in any way she could,” McGrath-Vasquez said.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com