Omaha Exploration

Before opening the South Omaha staple that is Lithuanian Bakery, the Mackevicius family had to survive the atrocities of World War II.

Stefanija Mackevicius grew up on the outskirts of Šiauliai, Lithuania, which is now one of Omaha’s sister cities. Born in 1922, as a teenager she worked as a housekeeper and nanny in the home of a German officer during World War II. During that time, she was often mistreated by the family and forbidden to visit her parents. As the tide of the war began to turn against the Nazis, the officer fled Lithuania to Hamburg with his family and Stefanija. She managed to escape while en route.

During the same time, Vytautas Mackevicius witnessed his fellow countrymen being rounded up and executed or sent to Siberia by the Soviet Union during the war. While he managed to flee Lithuania on foot, his brother Alfonsas joined the resistance and killed himself to avoid capture. Born in 1921, his parents were exiled to Siberia and put to work felling trees before being released 14 years later.

After the war ended in 1945 and Lithuania came under the control of the Soviet Union, Stefanija found herself stuck in Germany living with other displaced Lithuanians in barracks-style housing. Vytautas, meanwhile, ended up in Hamburg, West Germany, where he served in the British Army from 1946 to 1949. Having survived, the two met during that time in Germany.

They married in the camp and started a family while waiting for a chance to immigrate to the United States. The chance came in 1950 when they and 300 other Lithuanians had their immigration sponsored by a priest at Omaha’s St. Anthony Church, whose congregation was largely Lithuanian. Most settled in the area surrounding the church. While initially staying with another family, they ended up moving into a house of their own.

Vytautas found work at the Armour packing plant in South Omaha as did many of the Lithuanian immigrants. He didn’t know a lick of English but was determined to learn it. Stefanija learned English watching soap operas while at home with the children. The Lithuanian neighborhood had some small businesses but lacked a bakery. Stefanija shared the bread that she baked at home with neighbors in 1962. They enjoyed it so much that they offered to pay for it. One thing led to another and in 1964, they constructed a brick building next to their house and opened Lithuanian Bakery at 5217 S 33rd Avenue.

The bakery was an instant hit with its variety of bread including sourdough rye and pumpernickel, not to mention its bagels, tortes, tarts, cottage cheesecakes and a dozen other specialties. As word spread, it began to attract customers from hundreds of miles away craving its old-world tastes. After Vytautas discovered a Lithuanian cookbook in his father’s belongings, he became fascinated with the recipes. They incorporated these recipes and his experience as a meat cutter into the business when they added a meat market in 1966.

This included sausage, which was one of Vytautas’ interests. Unfortunately, his days at Armour weren’t particularly useful in this regard. He had to learn the art of making sausage in the basement of his house through trial and error. His first attempts resulted in a lot of wasted meat. After six months, he felt good enough about the product that they began offering it in the store and eventually expanded to more than 40 varieties.

Stefanija baked while Vytautas made sausage during the day before heading to work the night shift at the meat packing plant. When the meat packing plant relocated in 1968, he dedicated himself to the market full-time. He would often throw in a little something extra with a customer’s purchase. The small bakery began offering its bread by mail in the late 1970s. Vytautas continued to work at the store until he passed away in 1984 at the age of 63. Stefanija continued to run the bakery alongside her sons Algird (Al), Alfonso (Alfie), Vytautas (Joe), and daughters Dobile (Dobie) and Birute (Becky). It was even a rite of passage for the grandchildren to work at the shop while they were in high school.

The bakery didn’t even introduce its most popular item, a Napoleon torte filled with apricot and vanilla buttercream, until the early 1970s. The process, while time-consuming at three days to make, was extremely popular and has been credited with keeping the bakery in business. They began selling the tortes by mail in 1988. In the mid-1990s, the tortes were featured on QVC as a part of a holiday show selling items from each state. They sold 1,200 tortes within three minutes. They even made the tortes for Omaha Steaks and sold them in local grocery stores. Stefanija continued to work at the store into the 1990s, during which it opened a second location at 7427 Pacific Street. The matriarch of the family passed away in 2017 at 94.

Her sons continued to operate the business with Al in charge of baking, Alfie overseeing the torte production, and Joe managing operations and customer service. They continue to find new ways to sell their popular tortes, including partnering with Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary to make 4,000 tortes by hand during the holiday season in 2025.

On the wall of the bakery is a mural that shows St. Anthony’s Church in flames. In 1920, a fire destroyed the church which served as the place of worship for Omaha’s Lithuanian community. In 1932, Reverend Joe Jusvich became the pastor and restored the church. In the years that followed World War II, “Father Joe” sponsored the displaced Lithuanians allowing them to settle in Omaha. The mural also includes the Iron Curtain, a map of the Baltic countries, a stork and other images that tell the community’s story.

The story of the Lithuanian Bakery is one of survival, love, and hard work. It was due to their perseverance that they landed in Omaha and started the old-school ethnic bakery that has grown to become one of the most beloved in the South Omaha melting pot whose stockyards drew people from all over the world, the Mackevicius family among them.

Content written by Omaha Exploration – follow my page for more! Please also feel free to leave a comment. If there’s something you want to learn more about, let me know. In the meantime, keep exploring!

Omaha Exploration is sponsored by @Rockbrook Mortgage Inc.

Click here to learn about opportunities to sponsor Omaha Exploration!

Subscribe

Follow me on

• Facebook
• Instagram

Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• Vytautas K. Mackevicius (1921-1984) – Find a Grave Memorial
• Stefanija Mackevicius (1922-2017) – Find a Grave Memorial
• https://www.omahamagazine.com/fooddrink/bringing-a-taste-of-their-homeland-immigrants-diversify-omaha-food-scene/
• Tortes made by hand in South Omaha enjoyed nationwide this holiday season
• https://lithuanianbakery.biz/
• Lithuanian Bakery