Daisy Jalaba, Southfield Grocer was active in Chaldean community

Mrs. Jalaba (Southfield Funeral Home)
Daisy Jalaba was known for her generosity and unselfish nature, dedicating many years to her church, charity work and helping her husband run their grocery store on Detroit’s west side.

“She would give you the shirt off her back,” said her daughter Mary Ann Yono. “She would worry about everybody before she would worry about herself.”

Mrs. Jalaba, of Southfield, died Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013 at Beaumont Hospital. She was 95.

Mrs. Jalaba was born Oct. 15, 1917, in Wheeling, W.Va., to Dawood and Hane’ Kory. She’s believed to be among the first Chaldean women born in the United States, her daughter said.

She moved with her family to Detroit in 1937, two years after she graduated from high school in New York.

Mrs. Jalaba and her late husband, George Jalaba, raised six children in Detroit’s Boston Edison neighborhood. They ran a grocery store, Big Top Food Center on Vinewood. It was there she showed a kind hand to her patrons.

“If they didn’t have something to eat, she would sneak them food,” Yono said. “If they came up short, she would let them go.”

Jalaba and her husband started the Chaldean American Ladies of Charity and were among the founders of the Mother of God Church, originally on Euclid.

A number of parishes sprouted from that church, said Jalaba’s son-in-law Nabby Yono.

When she wasn’t working at the grocery store or involved in church, Mrs. Jalaba enjoyed traveling with her husband. Although they had traveled overseas, their favorite destinations were Niagara Falls and the Upper Peninsula, Nabby Yono said.

Mrs. Jalaba also was known for her warm personality.

“She was very bubbly, very friendly, smiling all the time,” Nabby Yono said. “She loved everybody. Even the ones she didn’t know.”

Funeral was Friday at Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church followed by internment at Holy Sepulchure Cemetery.

She was predeceased by her parents, four siblings, her husband and one son, Ronald Jalaba.

In addition to her daughter and son-in-law, she is survived by daughters, Beverly Jalaba, Betty Jalaba, Barbara Jalaba; sons Raymond Jalaba and George Jalaba; a daughter-in-law, Karen Jalaba; 18 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

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From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130829/OBITUARIES/308290054#ixzz2dRN6sUI1