Joan Ellen Raisner

Our mother, Joan Ellen Raisner, born December 28, 1939, passed away peacefully, early Sunday morning, January 2, 2022, in her senior assisted living apartment in Berkeley, California, just after her 82nd birthday.

An intimate memorial of Joan’s immediate California family members will be held in the Bay Area where our mother resided for the last six years. We are grateful she returned to the Pacific Ocean that once again called to her, to the San Francisco Bay where our mother’s adult journey began, to where she and her Cocoa, Florida high school sweetheart embraced their activism and started their family. Eventually they relocated to Chicago, Illinois, to the Midwest heartland, to the shores of Lake Michigan, and furthered their shared values of challenging the status quo to manifest an egalitarian society.

Since Joan lived an involved and varied life of over 50 years in the Chicagoland area, a celebration of our mother’s life will be mounted this spring when new buds bloom here in Evanston, Illinois. A time and space for shared stories and tributes will be created for her local family and connections, as safety protocols will allow. Joan’s two youngest children are both Evanston Township High School alumni. Her eldest is a retired ETHS teacher who recently honored our mother with a fundraiser brick at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore in support of its mission to eliminate racism and assist women and families in crisis, issues close to our mother’s heart and this being her first local place of employment.

Forever on the front lines of social causes Joan aligned her jobs, activism, and community building contributions throughout Cook County, from Humboldt Park in the late 60’s to Beverly/Morgan Park in the mid 70’s, and finally to Evanston and the North Shore in the early 80’s. She tirelessly taught nursery school in Chicago’s only castle, accompanied and advocated for rape victims in hospitals, organized and supported unions at every job, mediated in front of chief judges on behalf of children, and had her own therapist practice.

Joan left her indelible leadership and mediator mark in a multitude of organizations and institutions with degrees in teaching, social work, and counseling. She volunteered and served her community well, including the Human Relations Board for the City of Evanston. And, she inked many a protest poster that championed the struggles of the oppressed, that demanded equality for rights and welfare of women, and that sought the end of the institutionalized divisiveness of racism.

Our mother dabbled in many skills and delights: Artistic painter and crafter; musical instrument player and campfire singer, actor and garment maker; gardener, carpenter, and baker. She penned poems, short stories, speeches, essays, and that ever elusive New Yorker cartoon caption. Joan surrounded herself enjoyably with crossword puzzles, board games and dollhouses, life-size stuffed tigers and Beanie Babies, twinkling holiday displays and plants in every window, and shelves and shelves of books.

Our matriarch who held court socially and passionately in actual courtrooms and classrooms, in living rooms and backyards, on picket lines and marches, is survived by her ex-husband and life-long companion, Chris Raisner, and their three children and partners, Hilda Raisner (Bob Kiolbassa), Oliver Raisner (Angelina DeAntonis), Sadie Zimpelman (Pete Zimpelman); her three grandchildren, Jacobi Raisner, Juney (Pete Jr) Zimpelman, and Aspen Zimpelman; and, her two younger sisters, Patricia Smith and Jennifer Pfeiffer along with their extended families.

The family is thankful for the shared memories of our mother, Joan Raisner, during this time.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.MalecandSonsFH.com for the Raisner family and acknowledgments may be sent to Hilda Raisner at [email protected]

Donations may be made in our mother’s name to the YWCA Evanston/North Shore link below.

http://www.ywca-ens.org/donate

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