Gayle Kosalko, credited as one of the early creators and backers of Whiting’s Pierogi Festival, died Friday, March 6.
According to her friends and family, she had been hospitalized and in various care centers since last October.
Marty Dybel, owner of Baran Funeral Home and founder of Marian Theatre Guild, said Tuesday he spoke by phone frequently with his friend Gayle, and she remained optimistic that she would return to her volunteer work promoting Whiting.
Dybel, along with co-founders Tom Dabertin and Darlene Beerling, are the trio credited on the Whiting Pierogi Festival website as the creators of the festival, which will mark its 32nd year this July. Dybel and others hail Gayle as the creator of the festival’s popular mascots, which headlined the annual zany event and outrageous parade.
“I came on board with the organizers of Pierogi Fest starting with year number four, and interestingly enough, I’d never been to the event before, even though I lived just three blocks from downtown,” Kosalko said during a Sept. 21, 2023 on-air interview on WJOB Radio 1230 in the Hammond studios.
“The character of Mr. Pierogi didn’t come until I came on as part of the festival for that fourth year. I created him and that same year, I also created Miss Paczki and her Pieroguettes dancers with all of their various fillings. And then a couple years later, I added Halupki Guy, all wrapped in cabbage, which was always one of my favorites. I used a Disney approach for this festival that an event like this needs to have a mascot and costumed characters to greet guests.”
Matt Valuckis, 50, of Hobart, was raised in Whiting, and he was cast as the first Mr. Pierogi by Gayle during her first year as the executive director of the Whiting-Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce, a position she held for a decade until December 2007.
“It was Gayle who first invited me to be a part of Pennsylvania Avenue Players, the kids theatre troupe she founded, where I found not only my love of theatre, but also the friends I still have 41 years later and a love of theatre that led me to how I would meet my wife,” said Valuckis, whose wife KeriAnne eventually made his mascot costume.
“In 1997, Gayle asked me to step into the Mr. Pierogi costume after John Milch was unable to. She trusted me to create a character that would not only represent Whiting, but our Eastern European heritage.”
After 25 years, Valuckis retired from the character role, and WJOB 1230 AM radio personality Tony Panek of East Chicago was selected and named the new Mr. Pierogi in the fall of 2022. Panek met Gayle for the first time in September 2023, when she was a radio guest on a show he was producing.
“Gayle will always be known as the ‘mother’ of Mr. Pierogi and all of these beloved festival characters,” Panek said.
“She was always humble about the role she played in this festival, but she’s definitely one of the reasons this festival has grown to such success and the media attention it receives.”
Born on March 30, 1949, Gayle shared 52 years of marriage with her devoted husband, Charles “Chuck” Kosalko. She is survived by her husband and their two daughters, Jonna Kosalko (Dan Rabin) and Holly Kosalko. Her parents, Thomas and Florence Faulkner, moved Gayle and her brothers to Whiting at an early age, where they attended Sacred Heart School and Whiting High School. Gayle majored in theatre at Clarke College in Iowa, studied English at Calumet College, and later pursued a master’s degree in Music at Indiana University Northwest.
She met husband Chuck while performing “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Marian Theatre Guild, where she remained active for half a century until her frail health last fall. In recent years, she was a devoted leader at the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, she designed exhibits and three years ago, dreamed up the organization’s annual charity dinner event, The Groundhog Day Gala Dinner and Dance.
Visitation will be at Baran Funeral Home, 1235 119th St. in Whiting 4-8 p.m. Thursday, March 12. The Marian Theatre Guild, together with members of the parish, will offer prayers at the funeral home at 4:30 p.m. Thursday with “A Celebration of Life,” as a time for sharing stories, starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 13, starting at the Baran Funeral Home and followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Whiting, with the Rev. Mark R. Peres, C.PP.S., officiating and then cremation to follow. Expressions of sympathy may be shared online at www.baranfh.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials should go to the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, the Whiting Food Pantry, or the Whiting “Gimme Shelter” (for pets). For additional information, call 219-659-4400.
Phil Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
