Frank Shimko

YOUNGSTOWN - Services will be held at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 15, at Kinnick Funeral Home, officiated by Fr. Richard Lambert, and will continue at 10 a.m. at St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church, 356 S. Belle Vista Ave., Youngstown, for Frank Shimko, 82, of Youngstown’s west side, who died Sept. 11, 2018, while listening to polka music.

Frank was born in 1935, in Spangler, Pa., the last of six children of Frank and Susanna Cramer Shimko.

After his 1953 graduation from Spangler High School, he moved to Youngstown to join family and seek employment.

Frank married Barbara Motil, his high school sweetheart, on Oct. 12, 1957, and had three children, Ronald and his wife, Lisette, of Coral Gables, Fla., Robert and his wife, Mary Kay, of Hicksville, and Karen Capron and her husband, Richard, of Akron.

Frank began his career working for MacKenzie Muffler in Youngstown and then was employed by Copperweld Corporation in Warren until he retired in 2000. He also worked for GF Trucking and Youngstown Welding and Engineering. Frank served our country as a member of the Ohio National Guard.

Affectionately known as “Car Wax Frank,” he enjoyed detailing cars and provided the best of the best to his devoted customers. His talent and skill developed over many years, following in his father’s footsteps since 1947, as he began waxing and washing cars with his dad as a child. He made many great friends throughout the decades waxing their cars.

Frank was an avid race car fan and went to many raceways while making lots of friends. He immensely enjoyed polkas and polka dancing, especially the waltz, and in fact met wife Barbara at a dance at a St. Boniface, Pa. picnic grove in 1951, where he washed her dusty feet before returning her home. He enjoyed many live polka events at venues such as Idora Park, Seven Springs, and Kuzman’s. Frank was seldom seen without a set of headphones on as he worked and played.

Frank is survived by his wife, Barbara; their three children; as well as three grandchildren, Matthew and Melissa Shimko and Rachel Capron; great-granddaughter Teagan Heitzmann; and loving sisters, Madge Banik, Betty Bobby, and Dorothy Santichen, each of Pennsylvania.

Frank was preceded in death by his parents and by brothers Joseph and Edward.

Family and friends will be received on Friday, Sept. 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Kinnick Funeral Home, 477 N. Meridian Road, Youngstown.

Instead of flowers, Frank’s family requests that donations be made in his memory to the building fund of St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, 356 S. Belle Vista Ave., Youngstown 44509.

Frank was deeply proud of his Rusyn heritage.  “Vicnaja Pamjat!”

To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.