Hildegarde (Krejci) Latranyi

Hildegarde (Krejci) Latranyi, age 88 of Danville passed away at the family home on Sunday January 22, 2023 in the presence of her family, friends, and loved ones.

Born in Orber Plan, Czechoslovakia on September 3, 1934, a daughter of the late Ignaz and Klara Krejci, pioneers in the joint German and Czech frontier, she immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1956 after the devastation of World War II. Here in America, with nothing to her name, she nannied children and learned English in her own time. At a party for other refugees in New Jersey in 1957, she met her husband-to-be and fellow refugee from Hungary, Miklos Letranyi.

She and Milkos were married in July of 1958 and had two sons, Mark and Erik, and they lived in a Cape Cod home in Bloomfield, New Jersey. In 1968, Hildegarde and Milkos purchased a former Christmas tree farm on Mt. Zion Dr. in Danville as a camping and vacation spot away from the hustle and bustle of busy New Jersey.   

After falling in love with their vacation property, Hildegarde and the Latranyi family moved to the purchased land in 1972. In 1975 they began building the family home using stone and lumber harvested from the land and completed it in 1987. Here in Danville, Hildegarde and Milkos would start the first of several small businesses, American Scientific Maintenance, a commercial cleaning service that survives under the ASM Environmental LLC name which is now operated by their son Mark Latranyi and his wife Tammy.

Milkos continued his career as a research scientist at Schering-Plough Pharmaceutical (later purchased by Merck and Co.). The house was finished in 1987 and Hildegarde started another of her small business ventures, a winery and vineyard, the Susquehanna Valley Winery, that offered American, German and Hungarian wines from grapes that began as cuttings from Rosa Neni’s vineyard in New Jersey, Milkos sponsor when he immigrated to the United States. The winery operated by family and friends was a labor of love by Hildegarde, Milkos and their sons, earning it the respect of the local community and was featured in several articles in local newspapers.

Hildegarde enjoyed growing her businesses, raising geese for down, goats for meat, milk and cheese and gardening to feed her family. She loved sewing, embroidery, carpentry, and spending time with her family.

In November of 2013, Milkos passed away after losing a fight with Pancreatic cancer. Her brother Herbert passed in 2021, survived by his wife, Herta and their two children Hans-Georg and Andreas Kramer.

She is survived by her two sons, Mark Latranyi and his wife Tammy of Danville; Erik Latranyi of Greencastle; her grandchildren: Kolby and his husband Drake, Easton and his wife Kieran, Hunter and his fiancé Cassie, Nicholas Latranyi, Viktor Latranyi; an adopted grandson Garrett Hittle; a brother, Ingaz Krejci and his wife, Mechthild, and her niece Eva Parker and her husband and two sons in Germany.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday January 28, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 66 Center St., Danville by Rev. Timothy Marcoe. Interment will be at the convenience of the family.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Roat-Kriner Funeral Home, 1133 Bloom Rd., Danville.