By Emily J. Minor
DELRAY BEACH — Lisl Bischof Ekvall, a
native of Vienna, Austria, who fell in love with a U.S. Navy man after the war
and moved to the states — died April 17 after a sudden hospitalization. She was
85.
Mrs.
Ekvall married her husband, David Ekvall, in Delray Beach in 1959, and she had
lived here since, raising the couple’s two sons, Erik and Christopher, in the
area.
A
widow since 1980, Mrs. Ekvall earned a doctorate degree in philosophy from the
University of Vienna and after World War II worked as an interpreter for the
American occupational forces. She often translated war documents and even served
as the language liaison when the U.S. government had to hand over individuals
to the Austrians, said her son, Erik.
Erik
Ekvall said his parents met in Austria when the country was still divided into
sectors and Austrians couldn’t move freely from one area to the next. His
father, David, was in a restaurant when a young woman approached and asked if
he would take a letter to her friend in another sector. Since American soldiers
could travel freely, the young Navy man agreed.
The
woman’s friend was his mother, said Erik Ekvall. The two fell in love, came to
the states, lived briefly in David Ekvall’s native Illinois, and then moved to
Florida. While in Illinois, Mrs. Ekvall studied as a Fulbright scholarship
recipient.
Through
the years, Mrs. Ekvall loved walking her beloved beach. She did this daily, he
said. “Huge, long walks,” said her son.
“She
was very comfortable in her own skin,” said Erik Ekvall, who said his mother
never had an interested in remarrying. “She had a group of good friends. She
went for her long walks.”
Mrs.
Ekvall lived for many years in her in-laws’ family home on Andrews Avenue in
Delray Beach. Her husband’s parents had bought in Delray Beach in the 1940s and
after they died, the couple moved their young family to that home. She lived
there, said her son, until she moved to Seagate Towers condominiums in 1984.
Besides
her two sons, Mrs. Ekvall is survived by four grandchildren and a sister and
nephew in Austria.
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