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 Maria Dorotea Jaroslava Hybler Krofta
October 08, 2002
Maria Dorotea Jaroslava Hybler Krofta, 85, of Yokun Ave. died yesterday at home.
Born October 27, 1916, in Jaroslav, which is now part of Poland, she was the daughter of Marie Swoboda and Julius Hybler, who was then stationed on the Russian front as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army. After the war, she returned home with her parents to Semily, in northern Bohemia, part of newly independent Czechoslovakia.
She was educated in Prague at the English College, a girls' boarding school, where she met Milos Krofta, who was studying at the nearby Charles University. The pair were married on Aug. 3, 1937, in Kalna Voda in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. Dr. and Mrs. Krofta made their first home near Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, where Dr. Krofta's family lived and where he began work in the local paper industry.
Together, they survived through the war years, despite the arrest and imprisonment of Dr. Krofta's parents, the Nazi confiscation of the Kalna Voda mill, and Italian, German, and Communist takeovers. In 1945, Dr. Krofta left Yugoslavia under threat of arrest by the Communist authorities who had seized the paper mill he managed. For six months, Mrs. Krofta attempted to join her husband in Italy. On New Year's Eve 1945, she talked her way past the border guard using an expired Czech passport, and walked with her 5-year-old daughter, Tjasa, and 7-month-old daughter, Hanka, into the British-occupied zone of Trieste, Italy.
A friend lent her his wife's papers and, posing as an Italian, Mrs. Krofta was able to cross into Italy and rejoin her husband in Milan. In 1951, the Krofta family emigrated to the United States under the displaced persons program. Dr. Krofta took over the management of a paper mill in Ancram, N.Y. In 1953, the Kroftas moved to Lenox, where they lived for 50 years.
For many years, she served as advertising director of the worldwide Krofta Cos. Mrs. Krofta was active in and supported many organizations, including St. Ann's Church, The Lenox Club, the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Pittsfield Hospital, the Republican Party, and numerous charities and arts organizations. A lifelong member of the Lenox Garden Club, she was president from 1986 to 1988.
She maintained homes in Italy and Switzerland as well as in Lenox. She excelled at cooking and baking, gardening and sewing, handicrafts and puppet-making. She leaves two daughters, Tjasa Sprague of Lenox and Hanka Robertson of Waltham, six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
FUNERAL NOTICE -- Maria Dorotea Jaroslava Hybler Krofta is also survived by her loving grandchildren, Amy Robertson, May Johnson, and Carl, Steven, Kevin and Michael Sprague, and her beloved great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be Saturday, Oct. 12, at 10 at St. Ann Church in Lenox with the Rev. Christopher J. Waitekus, pastor, celebrating the Liturgy of Christian Burial. There are no calling hours.
Burial will be at a later date at Mountain Cemetery in Lenox. The ROCHE FUNERAL HOME is in charge of arrangements.
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