Vernona Chlopek, 95, of Palm City, Florida, passed away suddenly Tuesday, May 21, 2019. She was born in Hattieville, Arkansas to Isabella and O.V. Beeson. She was stricken with polio and malaria at the age of five. She attended Wonderview High School and the University of Arkansas, Teacher's College in Conway, Arkansas. Soon after she became the youngest director of the Arkansas Welfare Department. Frustrated with bureaucracy, she took a job with the Army Special Services (now WACS) and managed officer's clubs on the Island of Koje-do off of South Korea and then in Yokohama, Japan where she met her husband, John Chlopek, who was serving in the U.S. Army at that time. She moved to Chicago and raised five children.

She was a wonderful storyteller and would regale anyone who would listen with her colorful tales of shooting guns and riding horses in rural Arkansas, dodging bullets and kisses in Korea and Japan, being a southern belle—or "hillbilly," if you asked her—transplanted to Chicago, and many stories of her beloved children, grandchildren, and friends. Her mind was sharp until the very end. She could recite poetry, sing songs she learned as a child, and beat just about anyone at cards. She was never bored.

She is survived by her five children: John David Chlopek and his wife Mary of Portland, OR, Katherine Theresa Bergholz and her husband, John of Oak Park, IL, James Stephen Chlopek and his wife My of Skokie, IL, Michael Anthony Chlopek and his wife Ingrid Baker of Atlanta, GA and William Gregory Chlopek of St. Thomas, USVI; and seven grandchildren, John Bergholz, Karl Bergholz, Isobel Bergholz, Emma Bergholz, Griffin Chlopek, Christopher Chlopek and Edward Chlopek, her sister-in-law, Bernie Beeson, her niece, Niki Jean Mourot, nephew, Terry Beeson of Hattieville Arkansas, as well as many other nieces and nephews across the country.  She was preceded in death by her husband of 55 years John Chlopek and brother, O.V. Beeson.

Please feel free to share a remembrance, message of condolence or light a virtual candle with the family through this online guestbook.  Arrangements are entrusted to Forest Hills Funeral Home Palm City.