Irene Biver, nee Bily, 75, of Freeburg, IL, born March 31, 1949, in Salzburg, Austria, passed away Sunday, March 23, 2025, surrounded by all four children and her husband.
When Irene was only 10 months old, she, her mother (Austrian), father (Ukrainian), and her 2-year-old brother Pete, came to the United States as immigrants on February 2, 1950. Her parents always celebrated February 2nd because it was the beginning of a new life after living through World War 2. Less than seven years after arriving in Belleville, her sister Gloria was born.
Irene graduated from SIUE with a joint degree in art and psychology and taught the blind (as the first sighted teacher of the blind hired by the state of Illinois) before having her first child. Although she was a “stay-at-home mom”, she was rarely at home. Irene was an active parent: room mother, field trip chaperone, Cub Scout leader, chauffeur for many, many school activities, volleyball coach (only because she was needed), school committees, and anywhere else where her children needed her.
Late into her 22 years of staying busy with her four children, she went back to school to get an associate’s degree in computer desktop publishing. This led her to her next calling. Irene was the first computer teacher at St. Joseph Catholic School in Freeburg where she spent countless hours creating a new curriculum for the entire school (preschool-8th grade), planning, grading, and maintaining the growing technology at the school. She was always the last to leave, sometimes late into the evening and even in the summer months. Being a computer teacher was her passion, but there were a few years that she was also able to teach two of her other loves: art and religion. Irene was at St. Joseph’s for 22 years (1998 – March 2020).
Irene put her heart and soul into everything she touched. While raising her four children and going back to school, she also took on the role of 4-H leader for the Turkey Hill Busy Bees. She was a 4-H leader for 18 years where she led many 4-Hers through projects, demonstrations, educational trips, and monthly newsletters, which always included a bible verse. Irene loved to travel, making it to all fifty states with her husband and to many countries around the world. She loved being outside with her flowers and surrounded by God’s beautiful creation.
She saw the beauty in everything and everyone. She touched countless lives as a computer teacher, 4-H leader, active parent and loving grandparent but most importantly as a kind person. Irene would consistently remind her children to consider the other person’s perspective, suggesting that if a person seemed unkind or unhappy “perhaps their shoes are just too tight that day” and assumed good intentions of all.
Preceding her in death are her parents, Nick and Theresa Bily; and her brother Pete Bily.
Surviving are her devoted husband of 50 years, David, whom she married on March 22, 1975; four children, Melissa (Tim) Reinhart, Matthew (Vanessa Alvarez) Biver, Michael (Colleen) Biver, and Michelle (Joe) LaScala; 12 grandchildren, Elaina and Oliver Reinhart, Isaac, Josiah, Augustin, Ezekiel, and Genevieve Biver, Kathleen, Madeline, George, and Eleanor Irene Biver, and Gabriel LaScala; and her sister, Gloria (Bob) Schmidt.
Memorials can be made to St. Joseph Catholic School, Freeburg, IL. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.rennerfh.com.
Visitation: Friends may visit with the family from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 28, 2025, at George Renner & Sons Funeral Home, Belleville, IL, and from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday, March 29, 2025, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Freeburg, IL.
Funeral: A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 29, 2025, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Freeburg, IL, Fr. Von Deeke officiating.
Burial will follow at St. Joseph Cemetery, Freeburg, IL.
