Giuliana Conti Busch

Giuliana Conti Busch was born March 18, 1924 in Rome, Italy, the eldest of four siblings, passed away April 3, 2017. Giuliana spent much of her childhood split between spending time with her parents in working class Rome and with her extended family in rural Umbria. Though her adult life was largely to be spent in America, Giuliana's personality and sensibilities remained unabashedly Italian. Two of her greatest lifelong passions, cooking and Italian art, were the unmistakable byproducts of Umbria and Rome. In her teens she thought she would become a seamstress, but life had other plans. She learned English, and put it to good use working for the Allied Military Government in Rome after the end of the Second World War. There she met what must have an unusual American soldier, who with a thick German accent. Son of a world famous German conductor who refused to raise his baton under the Nazis, Hans Busch had been a stage director of Opera in several countries before moving to America and enlisting to fight those who ruled his former homeland. Now in Rome putting his Italian to good use in the Occupation government, he and Giuliana enjoyed a fairytale romance culminating in a marriage in St. Peter's Basilica in 1946. When Hans accepted a position with the Indiana University School of Music, the couple moved to Bloomington in the late 1940's. Ambitious, Giuliana pursued an undergraduate degree in French at IU and, in time, she was to complete all the course work for a PhD in Comparative Literature. Among the "Refugee Generation" of extraordinary musicians in the post war IU Music School she was known as a gracious and charming hostess. In 1962 she and Hans divorced and the following year she spent a year at the University of Rome before returning for a year to Bloomington. In 1965 she accepted a position with Lake Erie College in Ohio teaching Italian language and literature, where she was to remain for nearly a decade. Giuliana's home there was often filled with her student fan club, attracted by her teaching style and genuine concern for them as individuals. Giuliana then moved on to Washington DC where for the last twenty years of her career she worked for the US Government teaching Italian. Upon her retirement she returned to Bloomington to be with her closest friends. In 2014 she suffered two severe bouts of pneumonia which left her in an increasingly frail and debilitated state. Even as the physical ailments multiplied and dementia reared its ugly head she remained stoic to the end. Giuliana is lovingly survived by her son John, his wife Annie and her grandchildren Alexander, Isabella, and Arianna all of Bloomington, and by her brother Peppino and sister Anna Maria of Rome. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Friday April 21, 2017 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church at 11:00AM. Burial will follow in the Rogers cemetery immediately north of her beloved Yellowwood Lake in Brown County. Allen Funeral Home and Crematory 4155 South ld State Road 37 is handling the arrangements and online condolences, photos, and memories may be shared with family and friends at www.allencares.com.

Tributes

Giuliana Conti Busch

March 18, 1924 - April 3, 2017