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Letter to the editor

She was a calm presence in turbulent times

By ANDREW MEACHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published August 30, 2007

Lovie Silas came into the world as an afterthought. She spent the rest of her life finding beauty in it.

She was the daughter of a physician in his 70s and a 20-year-old mother. As a child, she was shuffled from friend to friend for day care and from home to boarding schools. Though she went on to live in the same house in St. Petersburg's Meadowlawn neighborhood since 1962, she had learned early on never to stop moving.

"She would walk or dance or run in place," said daughter Tracie Rusch, 45.

Ms. Silas did have to stand still while draining eggs and painting them, something she did year-round. She continued making art projects with paper and scissors and rocks long after retiring as a teacher's aide working with special-needs students at Lynch Elementary.

Ms. Silas died last Thursday following a two-year battle with hydrocephalus, the buildup of too much cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. She was 75.

Evenings passed quietly at the home she shared with her husband, Bill, where their four children grew up. The couple did not subscribe to cable television, but Ms. Silas watched M*A*S*H reruns, Nova and nature shows.

She absorbed magazines, particularly Reader's Digest, played show tunes and classical music on the piano, and listened to favorite recordings, such as Peer Gynt, or the Grand Canyon Suite or Tchaikovsky. By all accounts, she was a calm presence during turbulent times.

Her marriage was one such disturbance. The couple divorced in 1974. Bill moved to California and remarried. During that time, Rusch said, "She came into her own."

She socialized with two other recently divorced women from St. James United Methodist Church. Her son, James, gave the trio a name: the "Hot to Trot Club."

She paid off the house and held a mortgage-burning party. She coped with teenagers despite never having rebelled herself.

"She always had the wisdom of an adult," Rusch said. "It was difficult for me as a young person who didn't have that wisdom. She didn't understand how I could make all those mistakes, and I didn't understand why she didn't understand."

Lovie and Bill Silas remarried in 1981. Her children remember the years since as filled with a renewed peace. They stopped at the house often and sat at the dining room table long after dinner.

Ms. Silas had made place mats with Spirograph patterns, seeing in all things, as she always did, a pattern.

Lovie Silas

Born: Aug. 31, 1931.

Died: Aug. 23, 2007.

Survivors: A husband, Bill Silas; children Jim (Cathy), Keith (Aly), Tracie Rusch (Roy) and Anita Silas; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Service: 2 p.m. Saturday, St. James United Methodist Church, 845 87th Ave N, St. Petersburg.

[Last modified August 29, 2007, 22:10:51]