Therese Busta

Therese Busta age 89 of Cresco, formerly of Protivin, Iowa died Friday morning, February 4, 2011, at the Evans Memorial Home in Cresco. A Memorial Mass will be held this summer at Assumption Parish, Little Turkey with inurnment in St. Mary's Cemetery, Little Turkey. Times and dates to be announced. Hugeback's Protivin Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Therese Busta was born June 5, 1921, in Little Turkey, IA, the daughter of Wencel Anton (W.A./Jim) and Anna (Jirak) Busta. She graduated from Rudolphinum High School, Protivin, in 1939. She attended Iowa State Teachers College (UNI), Cedar Falls and then taught country school. When her parents moved from Little Turkey to New Hampton, Therese moved to Chicago. She worked with the well-known architect, Stanley Tigerman. Therese then moved to Fort Myers, Florida, trained to be a cosmetologist and worked in salons until she decided to drive her father's 1951 Nash Rambler to Los Angeles. She became a respected accountant for Volkswagen for many years, and later joined a Los Angeles Cadillac dealership. Upon returning from a vacation day one summer, she learned that Elvis Presley had visited the dealership that day and purchased three Cadillac‘s. Therese spent 25 years in Los Angeles and hosted each sibling at least once during that time. She attended night classes at five different colleges, studying accounting, data processing, art appreciation, and art history. In 1987, Therese retired and moved back to Protivin, Iowa. When the moving van arrived from California with all of her possessions, the first item to exit was her 1971 yellow VW Bug. In 1998, Therese moved to Cresco where she lived out her life, enjoying the community and its many offerings very much. She traveled to Europe six times as well as to China, Tahiti, Fiji, Panama Canal, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and to most of the lower 48 states. One of her favorite trips was to Australia and New Zealand. Her most recent trip was in 2008 when she accompanied her nephew, Bob (Betty) Soukup to San Jose, California where her niece Margaret (Soukup) Hoge and husband Hal hosted them and treated them to a two-day limousine tour of Napa Valley. Therese is survived by numerous nieces and nephews; including Bob (Betty) Soukup of New Hampton. She was preceded in death by all of her eight siblings: Anna Vrba; Eleanor Skoda; Regina Pechota; Robert Busta; Mayme Vrba; Nellie Denner; Clara Soukup; Benjamin Busta and her parents.