Teallie Graham Pawlak

Teallie “Tea” Graham Pawlak passed away peacefully at her home on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, at the age of 91. Born Teallie Alberta Bates on July 15, 1934, in Evanston, IL, to Albert and Teallie Bates, she spent the first few years of her life in Racine, WI, before moving back to the Chicago area at six years old. Tea admitted that while her life may have started out rough at first, things turned out well for her.

Tea married Kenneth “Ken” Graham on December 28, 1955, and the two began to build their life together. While Ken was in the U.S. Army, the couple lived in Virginia; Tea worked as a civil service employee until she became pregnant with their first child, Jeffrey. The family moved back to Illinois a few months after Jeffrey was born in 1958, eventually settling in Buffalo Grove in 1963, where Tea enjoyed her time volunteering for the children’s baseball league. During this time, the family had grown to include son John and daughters Kathy and Kelli.

On June 7, 1969, the Grahams moved to their beautiful new home on Squire Drive in Greendale, WI, a home that Tea loved and maintained for forty-seven wonderful years. Tea loved her life in Greendale; she found the perfect community in which to raise her family, to build new friendships, and to grow the life that she and Ken had always wanted. She continued to follow her passion for volunteering, this time with Greendale Twi-Nite baseball, and while she spent most of her life as a homemaker, Tea did work for 9 years at Watertech of America.

Sadly, Tea unexpectedly lost Ken on March 3, 2005, after 49 years of marriage. Such a profound loss led her to attend a bereavement support group, where she happened to meet a lovely gentleman by the name of Joseph “Joe” Pawlak, who had also recently lost his own wife. The two developed a friendship, which eventually led to love, and the pair were the first couple to be married at the brand-new Faith Community Church (of which Tea was a charter member and spent many years as their secretary) on May 11, 2006. Through tragedy, they found one another, and life and love were born anew.

Tea and Joe spent the next 10 years in the house on Squire Drive before making the decision to downsize and move to Layton Terrace in 2016, a move that found them amidst a new community of their peers. Both found themselves among new friends and with a plethora of new activities to engage in, with Tea calling bingo, working in the general store, and even serving as an ambassador for the facility for a time. Tea and Joe spent an amazing 19 years together before his passing on Sunday, April 6, 2025, at the age of 94. Not many people can say they had two great loves in their life, but Tea certainly could.

You could honestly say that Tea had three great loves in her life: Ken, Joe, and her Chicago Cubs. Tea was a lifelong Cubs fan! Anyone that knew her knew how dedicated she was. Through good times and bad, she remained steadfast; she was no fair-weather fan. Her grandpa taught her baseball when she was a little girl, and he told her to never forget that she was a Cubs fan, and she never did; she was still listening to her team on the radio in her final days, making sure that someone was updating the Cubs schedule on her refrigerator with wins and losses in her own special code. Tea was thrilled to have witnessed the 2016 World Series championship against the Cleveland Indians, staying up late through a rain delay until the final out was recorded.

Other than volunteering and her Cubbies, one of Tea’s favorite things to do was design her own personalized greeting cards on her computer. Anyone who has ever received one knows the time, effort, and heart that she put into every card she ever created, which just showed the type of person that she was. Tea never forgot a birthday, an anniversary, or a special occasion; recently, it became difficult for her to spend time at the computer, but she still made sure to reach out and offer her well wishes in other ways, whether by phone or Facebook (she was a modern woman, after all), and apologized for being unable to craft the perfect card. Her thoughtfulness knew no bounds, and that quality is one of many that made her such a special person.

Tea was a beloved wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and friend to many. She is survived by her children Jeffrey (Nancy) Graham, John (Tina) Graham, Kathy “Missy” (Tim) Nelson, and Kelli (Jeffrey) Serchen; Joseph’s son Mark (Donna); grandchildren Kennedi (Jason), Konneli (Ryan), Allie (Jesse), Jackson (Hannah), Wade (Jaclyn), Sam (Jack), Kylie (AJ), Graham (Leanne), Bennett (Sara), Lori (Steven), Amanda (Chris), Jason (Nikki), Casey (Samantha), and Jessica; 16 great-grandchildren; sister Charlene “Bunny” Borman, as well as her nieces and nephews, and many friends.

Nothing in life gave Tea more joy than seeing the amazing life and love that surrounded her. Whenever her entire family was gathered together, often in a moment of prayer before a meal, or just in a needed moment of calm among a very large, very boisterous family that tends to compete for the center of attention, Tea would look around at her loved ones, raise her hands to the sky, and shout, “Kenneth! Look what we did!” While the family will miss their matriarch so much, they know she is now at peace, reunited with Ken and Joe.

The family wishes to extend its gratitude to both Badger Hospice and Comfort Keepers for the attention, care, and profound kindness they provided to Tea in her final days. We can never thank you enough for all that you did for our beloved Tea.

A memorial gathering will be held at Max A. Sass & Sons-Greenridge Chapel (4747 S. 60th St., Greenfield) on Friday, September 5 starting at 9AM until time of memorial service at 11AM. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to either Badger Hospice or Comfort Keepers, or, as requested by Teallie herself, to Faith Community Church in Franklin, WI.