OBITUARY: Claudia Olesnicki, 92, leading member of the UNWLA (07/19/98)

OBITUARY: Claudia Olesnicki, 92, leading member of the UNWLA

ST. LOUIS - Claudia Nadia Olesnicki, a leading member of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America (UNWLA), died on July 2 in St. Louis at the age of 92. She was born May 20, 1906, in Luka Mala, Ukraine, daughter of the Rev. Andrij and Leontyna (Petrasewycz) Hawryszczak.

She had been a member of Ukrainian National Association Branch 19, of which her late husband, attorney Roman Olesnicki, was president.

Mrs. Olesnicki studied law in Krakow and was particularly drawn to women's legal issues early in her professional career.

She became concerned with conditions confronting Ukrainian women in America from the time of her arrival in the United States in 1936, and headed UNWLA Branch 1 in the early 1940s. From 1944 to 1946 she was the founding editor of the women's journal Our Life (Nashe Zhyttia) published by the UNWLA.

During the 1940s and '50s, Mrs. Olesnicki's commentaries were published in the Svoboda daily newspaper.

She earned a Master of Social Work degree from Hunter College in 1959, and was a social worker with the Children's Aid Society and the New York City Bureau of Child Guidance.

Mrs. Olesnicki was predeceased by two of her sisters, Irene Koltuniuk and Oksana Rak. Survivors include her daughter, Anne Larsen of Brooklyn; son, Mark of O'Phallon, Mo.; sister, Marta Jarosz; six grandchildren and seven great-grandsons.

Funeral arrangements have been completed in Missouri. Memorial services on the 40th day following her death will be held in New York and New Jersey.