Rosella L Stern

She was born in Chicago on June 6, 1941, to Jerome Stern and Stella Rein Stern and lovingly welcomed into her expanding Chicago extended family of immigrant grandparents, Buby Dora, Grandpa Louis and Buby Becky and many aunts, uncles and a growing number of cousins.

Throughout her life she fought for causes she believed in and was even a vocal civil rights supporter as a teenager in the 1950s. She was the first girl in her extended family to earn college degrees and began teaching high school in a blue-collar Chicago neighborhood when she was 20. Being short and young, she just went out and bought high heels and stood up all day to establish her authority. After receiving her Master Degree, she taught community college classes into her 70s. She would have had a PHD, but was abandoned by her dissertation committee when she chose to write about women writers. She stood up to sexism much of her life…

She received an NEA grant, was executive director of two non-profit organizations, and ran a women's rehousing and jobs program in Seattle. She had a knack for approaching each new challenge with creativity and ingenuity.

She was a consummate writer, poet, designer and life-long educator. She helped many others realize their talents. Her most recently published poetry books are, “If Not Now – West Coast Poems” 2012, “Preliminary Kaddish” 2015 and “52 Pickup – A Pack of Poems." A few weeks before she died, she began to collate and edit the poems she wrote this last year during her campaign against her cancer and recovery from intensive surgeries. In a tribute to her book Preliminary Kaddish, Terry Ann Thaxton, Director of the University of Central Florida MFA Program wrote, “With concision, a sharp eye and a feather-touch, Rosella Stern captures the specific life of one man and woman while also revealing the mystery of death. These poems celebrate the life of the speaker’s husband through his dying and his death. Beautifully heavy with the natural landscape, they also celebrate the life of the widow.”

Because of the thoughtfulness and resourcefulness of hospice nurse Cindy, both Rosella’s daughter Rebecca and Rosella’s sister Paula were able to speak in Rosella’s ear by phone several hours before she died. She is survived by her daughter Rebecca Bloom (Beth Bloom), grandchild Eli Bloom, sister Paula Donahue, loving companion Eric Carter, devoted friend Nancy Voight, Aunt Gloria Edwards and many cousins and dear friends.

Many thanks to some of the people who helped her this year - Eric Carter who gave her emotional and physical support to the end, Nancy Voight her advocate and devoted friend, Brenda (her in-home caregiver), Jennifer Howard, long-time friend Cookie and neighbor Martin.

Her mother, father, and husband Freddie Walker preceded her in death. The service can be viewed by copying and pasting either of the links below.

https://youtu.be/PfMS2ng_pCw

https://youtu.be/RaLxZAduGm0