Sonia A. Klakus

Sonia Klakus, age 71, passed from this life on June 4, at St. Luke’s Hospital, where she succumbed to cancer.

She left a wide circle of colleagues and friends in New Bedford, where she resided with her husband of 30 years in their Clinton St. home.

Born in Fairhaven to the late Stanley and Gladys Pelczarski, she attended the College Prep Program at High Mowing School in Wilton, NH, where she developed a love of reading and a deep and abiding respect and love of nature. Both loves shaped her future career. Proud of her Polish heritage, she spent a year studying at the Polish Language and Culture Institute in Lodz, Poland, where she met her future husband, Janusz Klakus, well-known in museum circles for his restorations of wood-based antiques.

Following the deaths of her parents, her older sister and brother, Christine and Jan, she deeded the nearly three-acre salt marsh surrounding her childhood home on Washington St. in Fairhaven to the Fairhaven-Acushnet Land Preservation Trust.

Sonia continued her education at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theater Arts, followed by a Master’s Degree in Education at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, MA.

Throughout the years of her education, she taught third grade at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, until a reduction in enrollment eliminated her position where her colleagues remembered her as both a zealous and dedicated teacher and a welcoming mentor to new teachers.

Shortly thereafter, Sonia entered classes preparing her for the world of computers, where she could pursue her love of reading, and she became a Library Assistant I at the New Bedford Free Public Library in 2004. Three years later, she was promoted to a Library Assistant in Technical Services, serving in this position until the last week of her life.

Dedicated to learning, teaching, and nature, she left behind a large number of colleagues, a quiet garden alive with color at her home, and the prayers and love of many friends.

Her funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 10:00 A.M. at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish, 343 Tarkiln Hill Rd, New Bedford, MA.

In light of Sonia's love of music, please consider a donation in her memory to the new organ campaign fund at St. Gabriel the Archangel Church.

Arrangements are with Machnowski Funeral Home, 472 Ashley Blvd., New Bedford.

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