OBITUARY: Neonila Steckiw, 77, OUN member, community activist (06/14/98)

OBITUARY: Neonila Steckiw, 77, OUN member, community activist

SARASOTA, Fla. - Neonila Steckiw, an active member of the Ukrainian communities in Buffalo, N.Y. and North Port, Fla., in the area of cultural affairs, died here March 10 at the age of 77.

Mrs. Steckiw was born in Ternopil on June 27, 1921, the daughter of composer Vasyl Bezkorovainy and Stefania Stebnytska.

She attended the gymnasiums of Zolochiv, Ternopil and Lviv, completing her secondary education at the latter in 1939. Mrs. Steckiw studied Ukrainian philology at Ivan Franko University in Lviv as well as music at the Mykola Lysenko Institute and dramatic arts with such leading directors as Bendersky, Blavatsky and Hirniak.

In 1941, she was arrested by the NKVD for membership in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). She was among the students and OUN leaders sentenced at the infamous "Trial of the 59" in Lviv, (after which 15 of the 59 were executed), but subsequently was able to escape from prison.

Fleeing Soviet occupation in western Ukraine, she came to Austria as a displaced person in 1944. She continued her studies at the university in Innsbruck and also became involved in the expatriate student community. She founded and directed the amateur women's quartet Soloviy and joined the Landeck-based theater studio of Yosyp Hirniak and Olimpiia Dobrovolska, which toured Austria and Bavaria.

While on tour in Mittenwald, Germany, she met Yevhen Steckiw, her future husband. The couple was married in 1949 and that same year emigrated to the U.S., settling in Buffalo.

From then on Mrs. Steckiw devoted her life to her family, with concurrent involvement in Ukrainian communtiy affairs. Among the highlighs of her work was the founding, together with Yuriy and Iryna Lavrivsky, of the the drama group Chaika, which apart from putting on numerous plays made frequent appearances on the local Ukrainian radio program. Mrs. Steckiw also was a longtime teacher as well as director of the Ridna Shkola, the school of Ukrainian studies, in Buffalo and a contributor to the Svoboda daily and the UNWLA's publication Nashe Zhyttia (Our Life).

Mrs. Steckiw was an active member of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America (UNWLA), St. Andrew's Ukrainian Religious and Cultural Center in North Port, Fla., the Ukrainian American Club of Southwest Florida and a member of UNA Branch 304.

Upon the retirement of her husband, the Steckiws moved in 1989 to Sarasota, where Mrs. Steckiw continued her involvement in the Ukrainian community of North Port, especially in UNWLA activities.

In order to generate funds for such causes as humanitarian aid to Ukraine and The Ukrainian Museum in New York, Mrs. Steckiw, along with her husband, held evenings of poetry and humor, that that took them beyond North Port to Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Bound Brook, N.J. and Hunter, N.Y.

An avid collector, with her husband, of works by Ukrainian artists, she was instrumental in the 1992 publication of "The Art Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Steckiw." Apart from deeding some of the artwork to The Ukrainian Museum in New York, proceeds from the sale of the book are to benefit the museum (see separate article).

Among Mrs. Steckiw's last projects was the compilation of the musical oeuvre of her father, which she donated to music libraries in Ternopil, Lviv and Kyiv.

Funeral services for Mrs. Steckiw were held on March 14 at St. Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in North Port with burial in Venice Memorial Gardens. Mrs. Steckiw is survived by her husband, Yevhen, a retired physician; son, Andrew, a lawyer in Philadelphia; and daughter, Roma Long, of North Port, Fla.

As a token of the love and esteem in which Mrs. Steckiw was held, $8,920 was donated in her memory, in lieu of flowers, to various Ukrainian causes. Upon her death, poems dedicated to her were penned by Hanna Cherin, Yaryna Zoryana and the humorist Pavlo Hlazovy.