Kseniya Urlicic has died

Ksenija Urličić, a legendary television editor and presenter who played a pivotal role in the history of Croatian television, has passed away two months before her 87th birthday, just weeks after the death of her husband, engineer Ivo Urličić. Known to the public under the nickname "Čelična lady," she was renowned for her uncompromising approach to work. However, behind the television cameras, family, particularly her daughters Katarina and Neda, along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren, was her greatest priority. Despite both daughters growing up during their mother’s peak career, they chose quiet family lives far from the public eye. Ksenija's older daughter, Katarina, was born from her first marriage. Katarina decided early on to focus on family life, becoming a mother at the age of 18 shortly after finishing high school. This made Ksenija a grandmother in her early forties, earning her playful nicknames among colleagues at HRT such as “Miss Grandma.” Although she completed her studies in preschool education at the Higher Pedagogical School, Katarina eventually dedicated herself fully to raising her children. In her marriage to former HRT director Kazimir Bačić, she had four children: daughters Andrea and Lucia, and sons Luko and Matija. Ksenija met her lifelong partner, Ivo Urličić, at the beginning of her career. Their love story began in 1966 while she worked as a television announcer. She was drawn to him because he was an engineer with glasses, and she often visited the studio in the Workers' House where he worked. To get closer to him, she came up with a simple trick. “I remembered my transistor broke and asked him to fix it for me. That's how everything started,” she once recounted. In 1968, Ksenija and Ivo had their younger daughter, Neda. Like her older sister, Neda devoted herself to family life. She married a composer, musician, and television editor, with whom she has two children, a daughter named Klaara and a son named Val Ivan. Throughout her interviews, Ksenija often spoke proudly about her daughters and their dedication to family. Over time, her family grew larger, and the former editor of HRT's Entertainment Program became a grandmother to six grandchildren and a great-grandmother to six great-grandchildren. Her Zagreb home with a spacious garden has long been a place for large family gatherings organized by her daughters. Ksenija's husband, Ivo, was described as a constant stabilizing force in her life. He was calm, composed, and patient, representing what could be called technical intelligence. His interests were always focused on high TV technology, far removed from the glitter of the spotlight. He spent years working abroad, including five years in Cameroon in Africa for the United Nations, and some time in Rwanda. Thanks to this experience, Ksenija realized the meaning of the movie title “My Africa.” Ivo was a realistic person and very useful to someone like her, who tends to be carried away and somewhat floats in clouds. Former HRT director Branko Puharić once told friends Miroslav Lilić and his wife, Pupa (also an engineer), “If there were no Ico and Pupa, Ksenija and Miru would need a guardian.” Their story began 60 years ago when Ksenija was working as an announcer. Many courted her back then, but she found herself most attracted to the young, spectacled engineer, who was completely serious and uninterested in anything except technology. He was already the head of Studio C (Workers' House). He caught her attention, so she often went to watch recordings at the Workers' House after her shift. She recalled asking him to fix her broken transistor, which led to their meeting. She admitted that perhaps the numerous wires that fell out of the transistor and that he easily rearranged and fixed were decisive in making him realize her true intentions. He even drove her home in his car after she intentionally missed all official buses. She believed that the number of wires was crucial in making him understand her genuine intentions. Ksenija was born in Split and moved to Zagreb with her parents when she was three. She was the youngest child in her family, having two older brothers, Zlatko and Žarko, and a sister, Maya. Her brother Žarko Domljan was the first president of the Croatian Parliament. She often mentioned that her siblings in her family were responsible for diplomacy, which she admitted was never her strongest suit. She confirmed with a smile that the story of her throwing a stone at future HRT director Antun Vrdoljak's head during a summer vacation in Imotska as a girl was accurate. It was a childhood prank, but it showed she did not let things slide easily. As a teenager, she almost ended up in acting circles. At 15, she attended an audition for the film “Mala Jole” by Nikša Fulgosi. She later thought she got the role because she knew how to swim and jump into water excellently, which was crucial for the story about Jolanda Gruber, the first female ship captain. She admitted she didn’t really enjoy acting. The filming on a boat, training sessions, distance learning with professors of Latin and mathematics, acting classes, memorizing scripts, separation from family, and exhausting makeup sessions were all traumatic and repulsive experiences. Therefore, she did not attend another audition for a film. However, this attempt at acting eventually led her to television cameras. Ivan Hetrich, an assistant director on the film, offered her to apply for an audition for TV announcers. Thus, she began earning student money in her first year of studying Romanistics. She belonged to the golden generation of television stars, alongside Jasmina Nikić, Helga Vlahović, Vesna Spinčić-Prelog, and Željko Fattorini. They all developed together with the new medium that was very attractive. Every day, they entered people's homes. Together, they crossed the boundary from black and white to color images and remained.