Nina Guilbert Távora

Service Details

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held for Nina in St. Sebastian Catholic Church, 3126 95th Street, Sturtevant on Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 10:30AM. Visitation will be in church on Saturday from 9:30AM until the time of Mass. Interment will take place at Sunset Ridge Memorial Park, 4300 Green Bay Road, Kenosha.

Memorial Suggestions

In memory of Nina, the family suggests memorials to St. Monica’s Senior Living.

Our beloved mother, Nina Guilbert Távora, passed away surrounded by family on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, at St. Monica’s Senior Living in Racine, Wisconsin. Nina Douglas Guilbert was born on March 11, 1932, to Dr. Henry D. Guilbert and Maria Luisa Palacio Diaz de Guilbert in the family’s residence in Dr. Guilbert’s dental clinic in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Growing up in Tegucigalpa, Nina had three younger sisters and many relatives, including her Linton, Guilbert, and Lardizabal cousins, with whom to play and compete. She loved going to her grandfather’s ranch – San Diego – with her cousins, to ride horses, swim, and hike. She was as comfortable on horseback as she later became behind the wheel of her red Willy’s Jeep she named Diablo. Nina attended Maria Auxiliadora School in Tegucigalpa, where she excelled in academics and sports. She also assisted her father at the dental clinic. At age 16 she traveled with her mother to Madison, Wisconsin to attend college, graduating from Edgewood College of the Sacred Heart in 1954 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Education.

Returning home in 1954, she met U.S. Foreign Service Officer Louis V. Ebert III at a Fourth of July celebration at the Residence of the U.S. ambassador in Tegucigalpa. They were married on November 13, 1954, moved to Washington, D.C., and then to São Paulo, Brazil, where their first son, Henry (“Hank”) L. D. Ebert was born in 1955. In 1957, also in São Paulo, their daughter, Emilie Marie Ebert, was born. In 1963, their second son, Richard Van Ebert, was born in Belem, Brazil. Louis’s job took them all over the world, where they resided in Brazil, Colombia, and Mozambique. Nina returned to the United States with her children and lived in Virginia following her divorce in 1968, until she returned to Tegucigalpa in 1972. While in Tegucigalpa, she taught first grade at the Elvel School and then taught English at UNAH University.

In 1978, Nina married Octavio Juarez Távora, a Brazilian diplomat stationed in Tegucigalpa. They moved to Kingston, Jamaica, and lived there for two years, where Nina had the distinction of representing Honduras as an Honorary Consul and teaching at the University of the West Indies. Their marriage ended in 1979. Then Nina moved to Miami to earn a Master’s degree in Bilingual Education from the University of Miami. She taught at Booker T. Washington Junior High School for almost 18 years during which time she had the honor of hosting Queen Elizabeth II in her classroom. She retired at age 65 to take care of her parents in Honduras.

Following the deaths of her parents, in November 2007 Nina moved from Tegucigalpa to Meridian, Idaho to live with Hank, where they raised Hank’s teenage daughter, Annie, from 2008 until her graduation from high school in 2013. Nina lived with Hank for 10 years until relocating to Wisconsin in May 2017. During her time in Idaho, Nina traveled extensively with Hank and Annie throughout Idaho, the Oregon Coast, Alaska, Vancouver, British Columbia, New Jersey, New York City, California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia, and Florida. Nina was an excellent traveling companion, often helping pass the time by singing songs in Spanish. She was full of fun, curiosity, and laughed often. She truly enjoyed the years she lived in Idaho.

Nina returned to Wisconsin in May 2017 where she lived until her passing into eternal life. She loved spending time with her family, especially with her great-grandchildren, whose antics always made her laugh. She was blessed to reside at St. Monica’s, where she was well cared-for and loved by the staff and community. In addition to enjoying the many musical performances, picnics, bingo games and other engaging activities put on by St. Monica’s, Nina had fun with her family attending weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, graduations, movie nights, girl crafting time, wine tastings, theatre performances, pool parties, cookouts, brunches, dinners and many other family celebrations. Nina also enjoyed the family reunions with her sisters and their families who live in Wisconsin and Illinois. Nina was the heart and absolute joy of family get-togethers.

While Nina lived in numerous locations throughout her life, she made the effort to frequently visit all her children and their families over the years, both when she was on holiday breaks from teaching, as well as in her retirement. She enjoyed visiting her son Richard and his wife Marilyn while they lived in Texas, Florida and California.

Nina had a distinguished career as a diplomat, bilingual educator, college instructor, and private tutor. For a few years Nina was a legal secretary and also had several part-time jobs selling cosmetics. She worked very hard to provide for her family following her first divorce, but she did not complain. Her strong work ethic and dedication to her family helped define her, but there was so much more to her! Nina loved life and she loved to laugh! Like her father, she loved poetry and often recited poems. She loved coloring and drawing. She stayed mentally active by solving puzzles, singing, and listening to music. She loved reading Ernest Hemingway’s novels and short stories. Nina loved botanical gardens, trees, flowers, plants, geography, and astronomy. She often said she should have been a botanist. Her father had an immense influence on her life. 

Nina was loved dearly. She is preceded in death by her beloved parents, her grandson Samuel Bruss, her sister Cholina Guilbert Alvarez, her beloved aunt and godmother Marietta Guilbert Linton, her cousin Regina Lardizabal Brooks and Regina’s son, Miguel (“Mickey”) Brooks, and other relatives. She is survived by her sisters Rosemarie Guilbert Kramer and Josephine Guilbert Doyle as well as her three children Henry (Maione) Ebert, Emilie (Steven) Bruss, and Richard (Marilyn) Ebert; four grandchildren Steven Bruss Jr, Sarah (Arturo) Aguila, Stacie (Andy) Havron, Annie (Richie) Hawkins; seven great-grandchildren: Jack Bruss, Marti Bruss, Juan Aguila, Nina Aguila, Elanor Havron, Hannah Hawkins and Audrey Havron, among many other relatives and close friends in Honduras, Mexico, and the United States.

The family would like to thank the loving staff and community at St. Monica’s Senior Living, especially the caregivers which attended to Nina over the years, and the wonderful nursing team from St. Croix Hospice who cared for Nina the past year.