There are several reasons why Wilber’s annual Czech Festival attracts thousands of tourists from across the United States each year.

There is the music, and the duck and dumplings and, of course, the beer. There is the parade and the Czech dancers and the displays inside the museum.

And there was Irma Ourecky.

Since the first Czech Festival in 1962, Ourecky was right there in the thick of things.

She was weaving rugs on the loom in the Wilber Czech Museum and embroidering aprons and tea towels with Czech sayings, which were sold there. She was baking kolaches and running the queen pageant (for years, the queen candidates stayed at Irma’s house, sleeping on bunk beds) and generally making sure everything got done.

“She was always looking for a better way to do things, and how we could change, and how we could get the young people involved,” said her daughter-in-law Doris Ourecky.

Irma Ourecky died Saturday in Wilber, after several weeks of declining health. She was 95 years old.

“We’ll think of her a lot, because every time you turn around, you see something she was in charge of,” said District 32 Sen. Russ Karpisek, owner of Karpisek Market in downtown Wilber and a former Wilber mayor.

Ourecky was always trying to get something done, Karpisek said, whether it was having murals painted on buildings around town or encouraging businesses to plant flowers in their window boxes.

And she was always trying to find ways to improve Czech Days, to get younger people involved to keep it from getting stagnant, he said.

“She didn’t take no for an answer.”

The annual Czech Festival was important to Irma for several reasons, Doris Ourecky said.

She was 100 percent Czech, and as a child she spoke the language at home until she started school. Years later, she taught Czech in the Wilber school system, Doris Ourecky said.

But Irma also cared about Wilber and its future, Doris said.

Irma realized early on that making the Czech Festival a tourist attraction would help keep the community vibrant, Doris Ourecky said.

And she thought ahead. She invited children and teenagers to the Hotel Wilber to help bake kolaches, and she told the older, experienced bakers not to criticize them. She encouraged kids to learn the traditional Czech dances.

She wanted Wilber to remain vibrant in other ways, too, Doris Ourecky said.

Irma believed it was important that Wilber keep its doctor, its dentist, its grocery store. 

It still has all those things, Doris Ourecky said.

“She wanted to make something unique and special … so she’d have a town to retire in someday,” Doris Ourecky said.

Over the years, Irma was involved in just about every organization in town, Doris Ourecky said. She wrote two books about Wilber. Her collection of awards from local and state organizations fills an entire table at the Wilber Czech Museum (of which she was the longtime president), and the Nebraska Department of Tourism named an award after her that has been given to dedicated volunteers in communities across the state.

Funeral services for Irma Ourecky will be at 10:30 a.m. today at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilber.

As Irma’s family (she is survived by twin sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren and great-grandchildren) discussed her service, they decided to have the pallbearers wear Czech vests in honor of Irma’s love for all things Czech.

Then someone suggested that the family invite everyone to wear Czech costumes or something red — which was Irma’s favorite color.

Her love for the color stemmed from when she was a little girl and her sister got a red dress for Christmas. Irma got a brown one, Doris Ourecky said.

Irma was jealous of her sister’s present. But she’s worn red many, many days since then, including the traditional Czech outfit she always wore at Czech days.

“She just loved the heritage,” Doris Ourecky said.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.