CLIFTON PARK—Eugenia “Gena” (Penock) Kolesnikoff, age 90, passed away February 12, 2025. She was born July 21, 1934, St. Mary’s Hospital Brooklyn, to Anthony and Pruzina Penock (nee Astoshonak).
Her surviving family members include: her husband, Lee Kolesnikoff; son, Joseph Kolesnikoff and his wife Rebecca; daughter, Amanda Flo; grandchildren, Theodore Flo and his wife Kristina, and Andria Kolesnikoff; great-grandchildren, Everley Flo and Mason Flo, Genevieve and Michael Boehme, and their children, Ella and Liam.
She graduated from PS 149 in Brooklyn. She also attended Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn/Queens, Columbia Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, Empire State College (bachelor of nursing), Atlantic Union College (bachelor of science psychology), and Russell Sage College where she earned a master’s of public administration.
She worked as a registered nurse at Columbia Memorial Hospital, as an instructor at Columbia Memorial Hospital School of Nursing as the first “adult woman” to matriculate; as assistant administrator and director of nursing at the Adventist Nursing Home; as an investigator in the NYS Dept. of Health and as founder of Columbia County Adult Care Support (now Col. County Hospice).
She loved to sing, receiving a scholarship to the Metropolitan Opera Studio. She sang as soloist at the NYC Town Hall Recital, Joy of Singing and other venues, and performed within oratorios and works by Handel, Bach, Rossini and others for 30 years.
A funeral service was held at Christ the Savior Orthodox Church, 349 Eastline Road, Ballston Spa, February 17, 2025. She will be interred in Ghent Union Cemetery. Arrangements were with the Parker Bros. Memorial Funeral Home, Inc.
