Tatjana "Tina" Merz of Pell Lake, WI passed away at age 92 at the Aurora Lakeland Medical Center in Elkhorn, WI on Wednesday April 25, 2018.

She was born on February 7, 1926 near Kiev, Ukraine.  Her parents were Andre and Pasha Panchenko, and her siblings were brothers Michael ("Misha") and Ivan, along with younger sister Nadia.  Uprooted by the Stalinists and later captured by the Germans, she finished WWII as a prisoner in Germany.  After the war, she met her first husband, Michael Ranczynski, in Allied West Germany.  They immigrated to Chicago in 1951.  Tina married her second husband, Peter Merz, in 1974.  They moved to Pell Lake, Wisconsin in 1990.

Proud of becoming a US Citizen, she was a juror and spent decades as an election volunteer/staffer in Chicago.  Tina was known for her kind heart, always helping neighbors and friends, particularly fellow immigrants from Eastern Europe. She always had a soft spot for animals, adopting strays her whole life and taking care of them.  There will be over a dozen cats and dogs waiting to snuggle on her lap in Heaven.

Tina is survived by eldest son, Alexander Ranczynski of Buffalo Grove, IL, younger son, Victor Ranczynski and ex-husband Peter Merz of Pell Lake, WI.

A Memorial Service will be announced at a later date.  The Haase-Lockwood & Assoc. Funeral Home and Crematory of Genoa City is serving the Merz Family.