Dorothy peacefully passed away on February 14, 2025, surrounded by her family in her home in Austin, Texas and fittingly joined her beloved late husband Bruce Woodburn Capek on St. Valentine’s Day in everlasting peace.

Dorothy was born in Chicago on October 8, 1929. A true Chicagoan, she loved her hometown and lived there most of her life. Growing up in a red brick bungalow on Wellington Avenue, she followed in her mother’s footsteps, riding the streetcar to fetch groceries and learning to care for her family, who called her "Dolly".

Her childhood was filled with warmth and togetherness that would stay with her throughout her life. Her family’s traits of sharp humor, intellectual curiosity, strong will, and creative flair were woven into the fabric of her being, along with the lessons of frugality and hard work learned during the Great Depression.

Growing up, she enjoyed the many large extended family gatherings at her grandfather’s humble home, especially during the holiday seasons. As the kid-sister tomboy, she followed her two older brothers to play sports like softball in nearby vacant lots, became a life-long die-hard Cubs fan and even saw Babe Ruth in a batting exhibition at Wrigley Field. Dorothy became an avid fan of many other sports including, basketball, football, golf and tennis, which she loved to play. She excelled in all her studies, together with her best friend Rose who lived across the street. Dorothy blossomed into a tall, athletic, red-haired beauty who graduated Co-Valedictorian of Foreman HS in Chicago 1947.

Navy Pier proved to be an important place in her life when in September 1947, she chose the University of Illinois campus to study geology, after turning down a fine arts scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was there that she met Bruce Woodburn Capek at their adjacent lockers on the first day of class. It was "love at first sight”. Their courtship included picnics in the park, ice-skating, and catching Roy Rogers and Dale Evans perform on horseback in the arena. Wed in 1951, the happy couple spent their honeymoon months on the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus while Bruce was finishing his engineering degree.

Dorothy and Bruce journeyed to other parts of the country discovering new adventures and family life. In Louisiana, they relished the jazz and creole food of New Orleans and Baton Rouge; and then in Macon, Georgia, Bruce completed his military service while she cared for their first two children. After several years, Dorothy’s homesickness for her family and hometown brought them back to Chicago.

Settling in Chicago’s western suburbs, Dorothy and Bruce were dedicated to parenting and sharing the simple joys of a growing family in their beautiful homes, created and curated with style and hard work: first in Riverside, where Bruce grew up and with the arrival of two more children, and later in Hinsdale. Dorothy excelled in home projects and developed a real passion for everything she undertook with a real do-it-yourself approach.

Dorothy relied on her artistic talents for the growing family abode and for her own pleasure - from oil painting, designing and sewing clothing, costumes and upholstery to refinishing furniture to building brick patios. Her bountiful creative energy in and around the home was felt in all she did, especially around annual seasonal events and holidays.

Cooking became a real source of joy and pleasure, combining her natural curiosity for new recipes and techniques. She never hesitated to try out new dishes from multiple cookbooks to the Sunday Chicago Tribune Cooking sections that were diligently cut out and kept in her cooking diaries. She always knew when to “tweak” the ingredients to fit the family’s tastes. Favorites still include traditional home-style spaghetti Bolognese, exotic Hawaiian chicken, barbecue grilling of all kinds and her trademark Hawaiian banana nut bread. Big meals around the kitchen table were at the center of family life.

Dorothy’s dedication to hosting family events was exemplary, especially multigenerational family reunions. Regular visits to Chicago’s museums, parks, lakes and nature preserves were always on the agenda and the family station wagon for six was always on the road. And she never lost track of the demands of her children’s activities and academic paths. Dorothy was a classic Supermom.

On a more personal level, Dorothy developed a real passion for gardening and deep knowledge of the plant world. Her long beds of annual spring bulbs mixed with other perennials and annuals, flowering vines, shrubs and immaculate lawns under towering trees were greatly admired.

Drawn outdoors where she loved to tend to her garden, it was her kind gardening advice that endeared her to her neighbors with whom she made friends. Her curiosity and natural scientific mindset often led to fabulous conversation and questioning to better understand the world and people. Her talents and passions were an inspiration for her children and her neighbors wherever she lived.

In her later mid-life, Dorothy loved traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East with Bruce as he pursued his international independent business career. The Parisian wedding of her youngest daughter was a remarkable highlight. As the sights of Paris and London became familiar, she loved the more exotic places around the Mediterranean from Spanish palaces and Roman fountains to Greek temples and the Great Pyramids, deepening her artistic sense and appreciation for other cultural views.

Grandparenthood highlighted the "Golden Years", filled with more happy family gatherings at their rustic woodland country home northwest of Chicago in Woodstock, Illinois in the Fox River Valley. Dorothy kept active planting over 1500 tree seedlings in a forest conservation program on their property, growing a bountiful vegetable garden, watching fawns feed at twilight and listening to bluebirds sing at dawn. After Bruce’s untimely death, Dorothy’s son helped her at the Woodstock home until she moved to Austin, Texas where her eldest daughter lived.

Through her twilight "Victory Years", Dorothy was committed to her visiting family around the country and the world. In her Austin home, she savored the local barbeque and music scene and continued her gardening passions thanks to the mild winter weather that offered year-round activity. She visited her middle daughter and family on their mountain ranch in northern New Mexico. She enjoyed strolling her first great grandchild around the historic Santa Fe Plaza, in the shadow of the Saint Francis Cathedral, where she had faithfully attended the baptism of her youngest grandson.

She also visited her youngest daughter and family in Paris, traveling through the French countryside admiring beautiful gardens of the French Chateaux in Versailles and in the Loire Valley as well as along the coastal towns in western Brittany. Dorothy took milestone birthday trips to the Grand Canyon and to her Polish ancestral home but missed the precious hometown Chicago reunions.

Dorothy’s love of family stories kept her heart and mind alive throughout her life. An avid listener and fond of great conversation, Dorothy cherished every moment with all family members near and far, in person or over the internet. But she was especially proud to follow the lives of her six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren and watch them grow and start families of their own, just as she had done.

Those who knew her will remember the beauty she had created in every corner of her life. Her sweet soul, cheerful smile, and joyful spirit will forever live on in the hearts of all who knew her.

We are ever grateful for Dorothy’s long full life and all the love and joy she gave us.

Rest in peace, Dorothy, dearest mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and cherished relative.

Dorothy is survived by her children: Daughter Leslie Capek (Jim) Stricklan; Son Michael Capek and granddaughter Teagan; Daughter Wendy Capek and grandchildren, Urszula, Isaiah, and Casimiro, and great-grandchildren Paula, Paiyten, Parker, Martha Mae, Casimiro II, and Azalea; Daughter Christine Capek (Guillaume) Bougard and grandchildren Joseph and Julie.

As well as extended family: Sister-in-law Barbara Duda, Nephews Russel and Will Duda and his children Christopher and Elizabeth; Niece Dorothy Jean Duda-Waletzko and her children Anna and Madeleine; Nephews Carl and Tim Duda;

Cousins Debbie Olerich, Bonnie Louch, John Hay, Mary Dobranski, Joyce Kessler, Marcia Leopold, Charles and James Herman, Dale and Bobbie Zmigrodski, Fran Slaughter, Greg Sokol, Gene and Frank Jr. Donner, Andrea and Theresa Duda.

She was preceded in death by: Husband, Bruce Woodburn Capek (April 29, 1997);

Brother, Richard (April 18, 1995), sister-in-law Edith (May 24, 2021); and Brother, Fred (February 2, 2011) Duda.