Teresa (Bernardynski) Rutkowski passed away on Friday, February 20, 2015 in Georgia. She was born June 10, 1925 in Krakow, Poland and was raised in Warsaw, Poland. She was the only child of Zofia (Szapkowska) and Henryk Bernardnyski.

As a young teenager growing up in Warsaw in the late 1930s, Teresa was particularly interested in fashion and fashion design. She had hoped to continue her studies in London with her parents' blessing, but the war with Germany and the Soviet Union precluded this aspiration. While still a teenager in the early days of World War II, Teresa embraced the Polish Underground Movement at considerable personal risk. She focused her special attention to nursing wounded and injured members of the Polish liberation movement. During this critically important and formative period of her life, Teresa forged life-long, enduring friendships with other Polish patriotic young women. During the Warsaw Uprising against the German Army forces, Teresa and several of her Resistance compatriots were captured and transported to a German Prisoner of War camp. She remained a prisoner until the closing days of the war, as American forces approached from the West. Teresa never saw her mother again but did return to Poland to visit her father in the late 1970s. With the war's end, and unable to return to Russian-occupied Poland, Teresa gravitated to a Polish military occupation base in Germany, where her English-speaking skills were valued. In this capacity she met her future husband, Lieutenant Jerzy Rutkowski. In 1947 Teresa and Jerzy (George) Rutkowski married in Germany and their son Walter was born there. The family left Germany upon the disbanding of the Polish Army and moved to Scotland where they waited for entry into the United States under the Polish Resettlement Program. Lieutenant George Rutkowski had trained as a Polish Army paratrooper in Scotland prior to the D- Day Normandy invasion. Thus, Scotland beckoned the young couple and child after Germany. While there for two and one-half years, their daughter Dorothy "Gigi" was born. The family arrived in the United States on December 6, 1950 and settled in Connecticut where they lived for about 20 years before coming to Thomson, Georgia in 1970. Their two other sons, George and Gregory, were born in Connecticut. Teresa graduated from Post Junior College in Waterbury, Connecticut where she studied Business. With this degree she helped her husband manage R&R Insurance Agency. Teresa was a beautiful seamstress and a wonderful cook.

Teresa was predeceased by her husband, George and their son, Walter. She is survived by her daughter, Gigi and her husband Jim, her son George and his wife Sheron, and her son Gregory and his wife, Robyn. She is also survived by her grandchildren; Jeffrey, Gregg, Laura, Susan, Dianna, Elizabeth, Amanda, and Adam as well as eight great-grandchildren; Miranda, Dylan, August, Smith, Chase, Austin, Drew, and Kinley.




A Graveside service will take place in New North Cemetery, Washington Avenue in Woodbury on Tuesday May 5th at 9:30 a.m. The Woodbury Funeral Home of Munson-Lovetere 2 School Street Woodbury, CT is in charge of arrangements.

Memorials: In lieu of lowers the family requests that memorial contributions in Teresa's memory be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas 66675 or at www.woundedwarriorproject.org.

Cemetery: New North Cemetery

Location: Munson-Lovetere Woodbury

Services: A graveside Service will be held on Tuesday May 5, 2015 in New North Cemetery at 9: 30 a.m.

Visitation: There are no calling hours.