Dr. Elemér † * and Éva Kiss † *
Éva Horváth Kiss was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1913 to Iván Horváth and Erzsébet Szőke. Although she aspired to become a doctor, her family would only give her permission to become a pharmacist. She received university training as a pharmacologist and in the 1950s, worked at the Szt. Imre pharmacy at the Móricz Zsigmond Circle, one of the centers of resistance for freedom fighters during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. During the freedom fight, Éva provided gasoline for “Molotov cocktails” and shelter and medical care to wounded freedom fighters in the back of the pharmacy.
Éva was married to Dr. Elemér Kiss, originally from Szentgotthárd, Hungary. Elemér was a lawyer in Hungary, who worked at the Hungarian National Bank. When the Revolution broke out, he joined the Revolutionary Committee at the bank. They had two daughters Nóra (Szabó) and Edit (Lauer). For the sake of their daughters, they made the difficult decision to leave their beloved homeland after the defeat of the Revolution, In 1957, after the Kiss family arrived in Maryland, Éva began working at Microbiological Associates in Bethesda, MD, where she stayed for 10 years. Elemér enrolled at Catholic University. After receiving his Master’s Degree in Library Science he worked translating scientific articles in 5 languages to English at the Library of Congress.
Éva and Elemér were the devoted grandparents to Dr. C. Ákos Szabó, Kriszta Lauer Nagy and Andrea Lauer Rice. Elemér died at the age of 90 in 2000. Éva was the loving Dédmami to Miklós, Daniel, Nicholas and JP. She died at the age of 94 in 2008.
