Deloris Jane Cieslewicz

Deloris Jane Cieslewicz (née Lorbiecki) of West Allis, Wisconsin passed away peacefully on April 15, 2023 surrounded by her children. Deloris was born in Milwaukee on July 28, 1929, the only child of the late Irene (née Komorowski) and John Lorbiecki. She attended St. Barbara Elementary School and graduated from Notre Dame High School earning a scholarship to Cardinal Stritch College. After high school, she worked as a secretary in the purchasing department at Allis Chalmers Mfg. Co. in West Allis. On September 3, 1949, Deloris married John Martin Cieslewicz of South Bend, Indiana, a World War II veteran and Loyola University student. Deloris and John knew each other for years before marrying, meeting as children on a farm near Rosholt, Wisconsin where their respective families spent summer vacations. The couple lived in Chicago while John completed his degree before returning to Wisconsin and purchasing a home on West Beloit Road in West Allis where they resided for 61 years, raising three sons and a daughter.

Family, friends, traditions, and community were foremost in Deloris’s life.

For decades Deloris hosted Christmas Eve celebrations that brought the generations of her family together. Her children embraced hosting in recent years, and Deloris continued to enjoy seeing four generations gather around the table and tree, even on the most recent Christmas when the weather was anything but hospitable.

Traditions were important to Deloris, from the breaking of the Polish Oplatki among family members at Christmas, to Święconka, the Polish Easter basket blessing, each spring at Saint Rita Catholic Church or the Basilica of Saint Josaphat. Deloris and John loved to share their Polish heritage with their grandchildren, teaching them to make Polish sausage and bake Christmas cookies, as well as help with many school cultural projects.

Deloris and John also shared their heritage more widely, volunteering for many years at Milwaukee’s Polish Fest and as members of the Polish Genealogical Society of America. In the 1990s, Deloris developed a passion for genealogy, transcribing countless pages of historic documents so that others could research their ancestry on the PGSA website. Through her research, she reconnected with distant relatives in Poland, establishing correspondence with several. In 2009, an article titled “Deloris Cieslewicz, Master Indexer” was featured in the Winter Edition of Rodziny, the PGSA Newsletter, praising her work on the Jubilee Book Project. Author Kenneth Nowakowski wrote, “Over the years, indexers have come and gone, but Deloris Cieslewicz has stuck with the project from the very beginning. To date about 450 books have been completed; of those, Deloris has indexed more than 350 on her own…Deloris is truly a PGSA member of whom we can be proud.”

Deloris enjoyed volunteer opportunities in the community as well. She was a Brownie Troop leader, and along with her husband John, served well into retirement as poll workers at the McCarty Park site in West Allis and volunteered at Boerner Botanical Gardens. In addition, in the early 2000s Deloris was a member of the West Allis Fair Housing Board.

During the holiday season, the mailbox revealed the extent of her lasting relationships as mounds of mail arrived daily, ranging from a card from “the little girl next door” on Beloit Road, now retired herself, to relatives in Poland and Australia, all thinking of Deloris at Christmas. She looked forward to reading her email daily and asked anyone stopping to visit her, “Will you please check my mailbox before you leave?”

Deloris took great pride in her growing family, remembering every birthday, anniversary, and graduation with a card. Deloris had an uncanny ability to have her cards arrive through the mail on the exact date of celebration, regardless of distance.

Deloris was a loving mother to her four children and their spouses, Jack (Diane) Chase, Michael (Mary) Cieslewicz, Janice (John) Nelson, David (Dianne) Cieslewicz. She is further survived by eight grandchildren, Carrie (Mark) Felix, Jeff (the late Carin) Chase, John (Alisa) Cieslewicz, Leah (James) Potter, Catherine (Aaron) Duffy, Jessica Nelson (Joseph Yarmer), Abigail Nelson, Maryelise Cieslewicz (Daniel Beauboeuf), and thirteen great-grandchildren, Ashley Chase (fiance Jack Newson), Jack Felix, Sydney Felix, Kayla Chase, Ryan Chase, Colin Potter, Julia Cieslewicz, Katherine Cieslewicz, Caleb Potter, Owen Nelson, Andrew Cieslewicz, Elle Duffy, and Albert Duffy. Deloris was grateful for the friendship of her cousin Barbara Fitzgerald and countless other relatives and friends.

Visitation at the Max A. Sass & Sons Greenridge Chapel on Tuesday, April 25 from 10 AM - 12 PM. Funeral Service at 12 PM. Entombment at St. Adalbert Cemetery.