Bernice K. Stalbaum

Bernice K. Stalbaum, 74, passed peacefully in her home in Roselle, Illinois, on May 21, 2019.

Bernice was born April 25, 1945, to Otto and Emma (Brinkman) Jochum within a large family on a farm in Huntingburg, Indiana. She graduated from Huntingburg High School in 1963, and shortly afterward met her husband, Donald Stalbaum, whom she married on June 3, 1967. The couple settled in the western suburbs of Chicago and raised three children, Gina, Nolan, and Kevin. While her own children were young, Bernice channeled her love of children into an in-home daycare. Years later she would end her career at the office supply company Fellowes with two decades of service in accounts receivable.

Though private and unassuming, Bernice had deep passions, including family, baking, and Chicago sports. Her family was everything to her; she adored her grandchildren, caring for them at every opportunity, and was a fixture at their sporting events, rain or shine. She loved baking Christmas cookies with the family and spoiling them with her pumpkin cake roll, strawberry-rhubarb pie or signature pumpkin pie. Her enduring legacy is the loving bonds she fostered with and among her family.

Bernice is survived by her husband; her children, Gina (Cory) Orzak, Nolan Stalbaum, and Kevin (DonnaMarie) Stalbaum; her siblings, Sister Mary Emma Jochum OSB, Jo Ann Spilly, Darlene (Leroy) Jerger, George (Mary) Jochum, Jeanie (Ronald) Haynes, Ottie (Diana) Jochum, Lucy Estabrook, Julia (Ken) Balbach, and Kathy Jochum; and her grandchildren, Antonio Stalbaum, Ailie Orzak, Aidan Orzak, Kenzie Stalbaum, and Kaida Stalbaum. Bernice was preceded in death by her parents, as well as siblings Mary Ann, David, and James Jochum.

Visitation will be held Monday, May 27, 2019, 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Salerno’s Rosedale Chapel in Roselle, Illinois. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Isidore Church in Bloomingdale, Illinois, on Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. with interment at Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton, Illinois.

Memorial donations may be made to the Northwestern Memorial Foundation, 541 N. Fairbanks Court, Suite 800, Chicago, IL 60611, or the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, 28 W. 44th St., Suite 609, New York, NY 10036.