Eva Carolyn (Burke) Vanderheiden

June 18, 1942 – June 9, 2026

Eva Carolyn Vanderheiden

A loving and caring Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, wife, daughter, friend to all. Eva passed away peacefully early in the morning on June 9th, surrounded by family, after successfully living with ovarian cancer for more than 5 years. Eva is survived by her 4 daughters and their families, including 5 granddaughters, 3 grandsons, 3 great grandsons, and 2 step- great granddaughters.

We remember mom fondly as being a very friendly, cheerful, most patient, and giving person – someone who easily made friends and got to know people quickly (even in the hospital) and truly cared about them and what was going on in their lives. Mom would do anything for her family and always made a point to attend significant activities and life events of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Throughout her life mom loved hearing about things her kids, grand-kids and great grandchildren were involved in and she made a point to keep up with what everyone had going on.

Born and raised in Nebraska, Eva was the only child of George and Evelyn whom she fondly spoke of quite often. Mom had a large, extended family she knew well and was close to, often speaking of first and second cousins and their children and grandchildren with in-depth knowledge of how everyone was related.

Eva and Leon

Mom was blessed to have had many grand adventures as a young adult before moving to California with her husband, Leon, and spending the rest of her life on the west coast. She loved sharing these great stories about growing up on a farm, working at the Pentagon, traveling to Europe on the Queen Mary, and marrying Leon in France while he was stationed there during his service in the Army. Mom was blessed with a sharp mind her entire life and a better memory than most of us, allowing her to share these and other detailed stories of events from decades ago- much to the delight of her grandchildren and the sometimes embarrassment of her children.

Although mom had a career as a legal secretary, family was most important and she often went out of her way to support her children and grandchildren. She was an accomplished seamstress, always ready to share her time and talents to help family and friends with a sewing project such as prom dresses, Halloween costumes, and special clothes for the grandkids. She generously gave her time to the grand-kids, creating special and fun events out of the time spent with them.

Mom always enjoyed getting together with family and friends. A special memory is the big celebration of mom’s 80th birthday with all her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and sisters-in-law present. There was lots of laughter, surprise sing-alongs, reminiscing about bygone times, and mom sharing special memories, keepsakes, souvenirs, and other antiques and mementos from her past.

Mom loved music and musicals. Oklahoma! was one of her favorite musicals and she participated in her high school’s rendition of it. Mom had a beautiful singing voice and sang to us at bedtime when we were kids, and she’d call and sing us her old-time songs to make sure we stayed awake on long drives home as adults. Songs like I’ve Been Working On the Railroad, She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain, Surrey With the Fringe On Top, and Oklahoma! were some of her favorites and even her grand-kids and great grand-kids can pretty much sing all the words because she sang them so often! Another great memory is taking mom to see Neil Diamond, one of her favorite artists, in concert and sharing in her joy of music by dancing and singing along.

Mom will be remembered for always wearing her signature hats, her love of board games (especially Qwirkle), wonderful hugs, the amazingly strong grip of her good-bye handshakes, her great stories, sharp mind and wit, and her love of pie!

These are just a few things we (her daughters) feel are important to remember about this special lady. We are honoring mom’s wishes for a private family scattering of her ashes. We invite you to share thoughts and memories by leaving a comment on this site.