Sarah Báldy, 1964

Sarah Elizabeth Báldy was born in 1940 in Hungary, and spent her early childhood in Hungary. Sarah, her parents and younger sister were “displaced persons” leaving Bremerhaven, Germany on the USS General Muir on 31 March 1951, bound for New York City. Their destination was listed as Detroit, Michigan. Sarah also traveled from Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1962 on Pan American Airlines. She graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit in the early 1960s. Sarah was a French and German teacher in Oak Park High School in 1964 and 1965. She was married to Joseph Z. Renvez about 1965 and temporarily left teaching to raise her family – she and Joseph had four daughters.

Sarah returned to the teaching profession in the late 1970s and I met her in the fall of 1990, in my senior year at Avondale High School. I was not privileged to know her even as well as I knew most of my other high school teachers. I took first-year German as an independent study, because third hour was my only free hour and German was not available that hour – it was Mrs. Renvez’s prep hour. Four days a week I did my German lessons in the library, and the fifth day I would meet with Mrs. Renvez in her classroom, where we would work on speaking and listening exercises. She was kind and patient with me and always impressed with how much I had accomplished on my own. She did despair of my German, spoken with a French accent, but we would laugh it off together and move forward. I took first-year German again as a senior in college as my “easy” class (with three mathematics courses) and was able to recall most of what I had learned four years before.

 

Detroit Free Press, 13 December 1998. “Baldy, Sara E., age 81. December 11, 1998. Beloved mother of Sarah (Joseph) Renvez, Catherine Baldy and Balint John (Mary) Baldy. Dear sister of Aloyzia Baldy and Clara Sumeghy. Also survived by seven grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. Visitation at the John K. Solosy Funeral Home, 8480 South St., Detroit, Sunday 2-5 p.m. Funeral services Monday 10:30 a.m. followed by Mass 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Church. Inurnment Woodmere.”

 

Detroit Free Press, 26 June 2017. “Sarah Elizabeth (nee Báldy) passed into eternal life on June 24, 2017, at the age of 76 in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Devoted wife of Joseph for 52 years. Cherished mother of Suzanne (George), Elizabeth, Christina (Philip) and Katherine (Jeremy). Proud and much-loved grandmother (Mami Mami) of Alexander, Sara E., Sara, Paul, Sydney, Tatum, Isabella, Clara and Norah. Dear sister of Catherine Báldy, B. John (Mary) Báldy and the late Paul (Lana) Báldy. Sarah was born in Budapest, Hungary on October 16, 1940. She was the first child of Sara E. and Paul Báldy. Sarah arrived in the United States in 1951 with her family and was a proud member of the Hungarian American community in Detroit’s Delray neighborhood. After graduating from Wayne State University, Sarah taught briefly in the Oak Park School District before stopping to raise her family. In the late 1970s, Sarah returned to her love of teaching first as a substitute teacher, then as an ESL teacher and finally as a foreign language teacher for the Avondale School District until she retired in 2003. Sarah leaves behind family, friends and former students whose lives she truly blessed with her kindness, humanity and generosity. Sarah’s family wishes to thank the caregivers at Sunrise of Bloomfield Hills South and Heart to Heart Hospice in Bingham Farms for their compassion, support and tender loving care. Visitation will take place on Tuesday, June 27 from 4 to 8 p.m. at McCabe Funeral Home, 31950 W. 12 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills, MI 48334. Funeral mass will take place on Wednesday, June 28, Instate 10:30am, Mass 11am at Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church, 8423 South Street, Detroit, MI 48209. Memorial donations may be made to Heart to Heart Hospice, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Lewy Body Dementia Association and/or to Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church in Detroit.”

 

Detroit Free Press, 29 July 2018. “Joseph Z. Renvez. West Bloomfield – Joseph Z. Renvez passed into eternal life on July 22, 2018 at the age of 88 in West Bloomfield, MI. Preceded in death by his wife of 52 years Sarah E. (Báldy) Renvez. Father of Suzanne (George) Elizabeth, Christina (Phillip) and Katherine (Jeremy). Proud grandfather (Pápu) of Alexander, Sara E., Sara, Paul, Sydney, Tatum, Isabella, Clara, Norah and Brendan. Joseph was born in Szeged, Hungary on September 24, 1929. He was the only child of Isabella and Zoltán Balás. After having lived in Hungary, Romania, Austria and then Frances, Joseph arrived in the United States with his parents in 1952. Joseph was a true intellectual who spoke 6 languages fluently, had travelled around the world, could answer – in detail – nearly any historical or geographical question he was asked and was a true opera aficionado. Although he first studied law at the Faculté de Droit de Paris, a part of the Sorbonne, Joseph went on to graduate from the University of Detroit in 1956 with a degree in architecture. He later went on to work for General Motors in the Argonaut Division until his retirement in 1984. When his grandson Alexander asked him several years ago for a school genealogy project what he would want people to remember about him, Pápu replied that he wanted to be remembered as a person who “had a good sense of humor and sounded great singing Verdi in the bathtub.” Joseph’s family wishes to thank those who provided care at Sunrise of Bloomfield Hills South, Notting Hill of West Bloomfield and Heart to Heart Hospice for their compassion and support. The family will greet friends on Tuesday, July 31 from 10:30 a.m. until the time of the funeral Mass at 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church, 8423 South Street, Detroit, MI 48209. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Arthritis National Research Foundation, Heart to Heart Hospice Foundation and/or Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church.”