Ione Seiken

Ione B. Seiken, who rejected the conventional expectations of the 1950s and in doing so met the love of her life, died Saturday, February 18, 2023 at her home in Schenectady, surrounded by her loving family. She was 90.
Ione was born to Christine and Glenn Benson, on December 14, 1932. She was born on the kitchen table in a farmhouse on the farm in Rock Valley, Iowa that Glenn had bought from his father. She was named Ione Christine Benson and grew up on the farm with her older sister Betty and her younger sister Helen. Ione recalled rising early each morning to hand-milk the cows.
As a girl, Ione would walk to school with her sister Betty, who was born on the same kitchen table two years to the day before Ione's birth. Their home had partial electricity but no plumbing. Ione participated in 4-H steer competitions, among other pursuits. Ione remembered starting school at age 5 already knowing how to read. She and Betty would ride bikes, help out on the farm, and regularly take in double features at the local movie theater for 10 cents. Later on, the Benson family moved into town.
While in high school, Ione was an avid basketball player who also ran track. In 1950, Ione graduated from Rock Valley High School and decided to pursue higher education.
She went to college at Iowa State University and then the University of Iowa, where she graduated in 1954. In the early 1950s, the standard for young women in America's heartland was to get married while in college and drop out, or graduate from college and become a nurse or a teacher. Bucking convention, Ione bought a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, enrolled in graduate school in Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan, and started a job at Jumbo Burger in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Ione enjoyed telling the story of how, during one of her Jumbo Burger shifts, a tall, lanky young man ambled into the restaurant and ordered a burger. The young man, Arnold Seiken, was a New York City native studying for his Ph.D in mathematics at Michigan. He said hello to his waitress, Ione, and sat down to order. A courtship ensued and in September of 1955, Ione Benson married Arnold Seiken. They were married for 66 years.
"The best thing I ever did was marry Arnold," Ione said. "So many good things came from that."
Ione recently recalled that as they got married, they did not know what to expect with life because the world had been changing so fast after World War II.
After marrying, Ione and Arnold lived in Michigan, Illinois, and Rhode Island, where Ione loved the ocean and sailing. They moved to Schenectady in 1967 when Arnold was hired as a mathematics professor at Union College. He soon became department chair.
While busy raising her three children, Ione also pursued hobbies with a passion. She was an early environmentalist who enjoyed bird-watching and took graduate courses in ornamental horticulture and worked in a greenhouse. She and Arnold often went bird-watching and for long nature walks. She loved visiting art museums and libraries, going to water aerobics classes, and volunteering as a poll worker on election day for the League of Women Voters.
But first and foremost, she devoted herself to her family and her home. She prided herself in cooking homemade meals each day, often experimenting with making Japanese food in an era when meatloaf was more the norm. She at times sewed clothes for her children and she regularly cut their hair. She sewed curtains for each room, painted the interior of the home, and in the summers tended to dozens of flowering plants on their front porch.
"I've always been supremely proud of our three children," she said recently. She was also a devoted grandmother who took great pleasure in engaging with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In retirement, Ione and Arnold remained in Schenectady, residing in the home they had lived in for 55 years and where they had raised their children. In recent years, they became fixtures at the wellness center at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, where they had many friends and were the oldest couple regularly using the gym. They also spent their retirement traveling to be with their children and grandchildren in New England, California, Texas, Maryland, and London, England.
Ione is survived by her daughter, Dabra, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; two sons, Aron of Los Angeles, and Jason (Juyoung) of Chevy Chase, Maryland; five grandchildren, Benjamin, Nicholas, Samuel, Isaac, and Helena; four great-grandchildren; and her sister Helen Boen of Port Charlotte, FL. Ione was predeceased by her husband Arnold Seiken and her sister Betty Lee.
Calling hours will be held at New Comer Cremations & Funerals, 343 New Karner Road, Albany, New York on Sunday February 26, 2023 from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. A funeral service will be follow at 1:00 pm at the funeral home. Burial will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation to Marion Medical Mission or Doctors Without Borders, or to a cause close to your heart.

Click here to view Ione's service