Eve Valerie Koch bubbled over with life.
A Holocaust survivor, the longtime San Francisco resident educated herself with a vengeance, immersed herself in music and adored the man she married at middle age.
Koch, who died April 26 at the age of 92, also had a quick sense of humor.
Take, for example, the time when Koch climbed into a limousine that would transport her and some relatives to a restaurant in honor of what was probably her 85th birthday.
The diminutive Koch turned to a young relative and quipped: “You wouldn’t have a joint, would you?” related Ruth Andersen, her niece.
Koch was “quick to the draw,” said Andersen. “She didn’t miss a beat.”
Born in Prague in 1910, she was a survivor of the Terezin concentration camp. Two older sisters, who were taken to Auschwitz, also survived, but many other relatives perished, and Koch didn’t like to discuss her incarceration, according to Andersen.
Koch, her sisters, Melanie Heller and Hilda Kaplan, and a teenage nephew, Herbert Heller, moved to San Francisco in 1946 to join an aunt who lived on Geary Street.
The three sisters “did everything together,” said Herbert Heller of San Rafael. At age 74, he chuckles at Koch’s longstanding reference to him as “the little nephew.”
“She was a happy lady, always cheerful,” said Heller.
After settling in San Francisco, Koch went on to work as a bookkeeper. In 1953, she married Ernest J. Koch, an accounting technician for the U.S. Coast Guard who had left his native Germany in 1937 or 1938.
The two, who had no children of their own, met through a mutual acquaintance and were nearly inseparable until Ernest Koch’s death in 1984, said Andersen. “At the time, the two were middle aged and got married and it was marvelous.
“They were always together,” said Andersen, noting that the couple, in particular, shared a love of music, reading and walking.
Valerie Koch’s parents owned a music shop in Prague and she had a vast mental repository from the days when customers would enter the family’s store, hum a few lines of a tune and ask for the sheet music to the piece.
“Until a month ago, she would sing old Marlene Dietrich songs to me in German without losing a beat or a word,” Andersen said. In later life, a hearing loss hampered her ability to listen to music, however.
Koch was a lifelong student who wasn’t hindered by a lack of formal education. “Her shelf was filled with reference books,” Andersen said. “If they didn’t have the answer to her questions, she’d pick up the phone and call the library. She needed to know.”
Andersen said her aunt was inquisitive about everything — “be it politics, be it Hollywood. You name it, she was interested and knowledgeable.”
Besides English, Koch spoke Czech, German and some French.
Survivors include Herbert (and Annette) Heller of San Rafael and Ruth Andersen of San Mateo. She was the great-aunt of Diane Polera, Vivian Cohen and Linda Levy, all of Novato; Carol Ward and David Andersen, both of Redwood City; and the great-great aunt of 12.
Services were held May 1 at Sinai Memorial Chapel. Donations may be made to a charity of choice.