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South Omaha was Toni Wasikowski’s world.
“She has been involved in south Omaha all her life,” said her son the Rev. Ron Wasikowski of the Elkhorn area.
She was born, reared, wed and raised a family in a Polish immigrant enclave in south Omaha, he said. Even when she married, she lived only two blocks from the South 33rd Street home of her parents, the son said.
South Omaha also is where she emerged as a neighborhood leader.
Antoinette M. “Toni” Wasikowski died Saturday at Brookstone Meadows, said her son. She was 86 and died from the lingering effects of an infection, he said.
“Her neighborhood was very, very important to her,” Wasikowski said of his mother.
Her neighborhood activism began in the 1970s, he said, when she and others discovered that their residential area was zoned for heavy industry. The neighborhood organized to fight City Hall and won, he said.
The experience led her to become an early member of the South Omaha Environmental Task Force, he said.
On June 4, the South Omaha Neighborhood Alliance presented her with its outstanding volunteer award.
“We have lost a wonderful community activist,” said former State Sen. Don Preister, a longtime south Omaha leader. She now rests knowing she made other peoples’ lives better.”
Other survivors include son Lawrence of Omaha and two grandsons.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Joseph.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 32nd and K Streets. She was a lifelong member the church.
Contact the writer:
444-1165, sue.truax@owh.com
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