Farm town community leader Betty Kalinke left a proud legacy

FROM THE FARM

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Betty Kalinke, center, with first husband Melvin Kalinke, right, and their only child Keith are shown dressed in turn-of-the-century rural attire in July 1968 during the San Pierre Pioneer Days Festival. Kalinke family/Provided

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Betty Kalinke-Chesak is shown in June 2017 holding a publication honoring the life and career of child star Shirley Temple while chatting with columnist Phil Potempa in the lobby of Oak Grove Retirement Home in DeMotte, Indiana. Philip Potempa/for Post-Tribune

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I have a sly smile distinction in my small farming town of North Judson that I owe in gratitude to our farm neighbor Betty Kalinke-Chesak.

As I’ve written about in previous columns and my cookbooks, North Judson’s crop claim to fame is peppermint and spearmint. Each June, our community celebrates with our annual North Judson Mint Festival, which hit year number 47 this past summer for the annual feting of our fragrant agricultural acreage.

In 2006, Betty, as the chair of the Mint Festival Committee, asked if I would be the honorary grand marshal for the Mint Festival, which included leading off the parade. As it so happened, torrential rains and winds canceled the festival parade in 2006. Betty, with the blessings of her committee, asked me to return the following year as the festival grand marshal (a first to ever have anyone do this duty two years consecutively) for the 30th Anniversary Mint Festival in June 2007.

We lost Betty Lucille (Zakostelsky) Kalinke-Chesak last month at the age of 88 on Oct. 11 at Oak Grove Christian Retirement Home in DeMotte, where she was a resident in recent years. As our farming neighbor, my family has known her since her June 15, 1956, wedding to the late Mel Kalinke, who was a very good friend of my dad.

In later years, she was united again in marriage on Dec. 27, 1997, to the late Allen Chesak, whose huge, beautiful farm also wasn’t too far from our own.

Betty will always retain the title of a community leader with the keen mind of a businesswoman, always involved in key organizations. She graduated from North Judson High School in 1954, and earlier this year, as she had done for many years, she organized her 70th high school reunion. Betty was an avid collector, served as our town historian for North Judson, was a key member of the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum and was active with the ladies’ group at St. Peter Lutheran Church.

Even before her involvement with the Mint Festival, most people knew Betty from her banking career. After graduating high school, Betty began work as a teller at the American State Bank in North Judson and worked her way up to the position of assistant vice president and trust officer. Later in life, Betty continued her education and attended and graduated from Ancilla College with an associate degree.

Despite her rural roots, Betty loved to travel and was always ready for adventure, without any worries about feeling homesick. She believed experiencing the world and other cultures was a key component for being conversational and well-rounded. Throughout her life, she traveled across the seas to the Soviet Union, East Germany and England and also throughout most of the United States and Canada.

Betty loved to attend speaking events and shared stories with me about some of the notables she crossed paths with during the decades, including famous names such as Mrs. Mikhail Gorbachev, Barbara Bush and the Dali Lama. She once attended church services with President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn and had a framed photograph with the White House couple.

Betty is survived by her only child, beloved son Keith (Brenda) Kalinke, who played high school football with my oldest brother Tom, and she also has stepsons Robby and Rick Chesak. She is also survived by her grandchildren Kayla (Josh) Poort, Kory (Julie) Kalinke, and Grace Gidley and her great-grandchildren Adisynn and Abygail Kalinke and Rhett and Ruby Poort. She is preceded in death by both her husbands, her parents and her sister Diane Hirschberg.

In recent years, I would visit with Betty on Sundays when I would join my mom Peggy to spend time at the neighboring Oak Grove Retirement Home in DeMotte for my mom to visit her twin sister Patty, who spent her final months at the facility before her passing in 2023. We’d often bring magazines for Betty to enjoy; one in particular was a commemorative publication about the life and career of child star Shirley Temple.

“I loved Shirley Temple, and growing up, I had a Shirley Temple doll and drinking glass with her picture on it,” Betty said.

“They don’t make movies anymore like the pictures Shirley Temple would star in. There was always a happy ending for audiences.”

In June 2015, Betty and husband Allen had me drop by their farm to deliver some cookbooks. Betty served a minty libation she called “Betty’s Raspberry Mint Cooler,” which is perfect for toasting her long life and her long list of successes.

Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa @comhs.org or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.