Joan Giangrasse Kates – Page 13

York High School girls basketball coach Valerie Cothern — shown in 1984, the year her team won the state 2A championship — "made every player feel important," that team's point guard said.

Valerie Cothern, ex-York High state champ girls basketball coach, dies at 74

June 12, 2018 at 2:13 a.m.

The daughter of circus performers, Valerie Cothern performed her own high-wire act in the 1984 Illinois Class 2A girls basketball tournament. Cothern took an underdog York Community High School team...

Bombing survivor Tsuyako Liebmann, active in Buddhist community, dies at 89

June 12, 2018 at 2:32 a.m.

Tsuyako Liebmann witnessed firsthand the devastation in her native Japan during World War II as her home in the district of Asakusa, known for its Buddhist temples, was engulfed by...

Muriel Tuteur, active in labor causes, dies at 93

June 11, 2018 at 6:13 a.m.

Muriel "Manny" Tuteur's involvement in the labor movement started in the 1940s, when as a young college student looking for ways to participate in the war effort she was hired...

Edith Skom, writing teacher and novelist, dies at 86

June 9, 2018 at 2:14 a.m.

Edith Skom taught in the Cook Family Writing Program at Northwestern University for more than 30 years, offering expository writing courses from introduction to advanced, as well as a popular...

Werner Ellmann, who witnessed horrors of World War II, dies at 91

June 11, 2018 at 7:03 a.m.

German-born U.S. Army World War II veteran Werner Ellmann was deeply struck by the horrors he witnessed while among the U.S. troops liberating Mauthausen, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in...

Ethel Arenz, piano teacher, dies

June 9, 2018 at 2:23 a.m.

When Ethel Arenz was 12 years old, she played music by Frederic Chopin on the piano during a half-hour program on WMAQ radio. She later received a scholarship to Chicago...

Henry Christiansen, ran recruiting company, dies at 76

June 11, 2018 at 6:39 a.m.

Henry Douglas Christiansen launched his recruiting company from the dining room table of his La Grange home, but his ambitions were far from modest, his family said. Founded in 1973...

Ira Weinstein, took part in ill-fated World War II mission, dies at 96

June 11, 2018 at 6:48 a.m.

The Battle of the Bulge and D-Day are landmarks of World War II, but less well remembered is the disastrous Kassel Mission of Sept. 27, 1944, one of the great...

Lydia Cochrane, Steinway piano heir active in Chicago culture, dies at 87

June 11, 2018 at 6:19 a.m.

A descendant of the founder Steinway & Sons, Lydia Cochrane was "subjected" to piano lessons as a girl but never embraced the instrument synonymous with her family name, her family...

Megan Behnke, Montessori school teacher who fought cancer, dies at 50

June 12, 2018 at 7:12 a.m.

Megan Behnke learned she had cancer the same day she brought her newborn daughter home from the hospital 13 years ago. Doctors attending the birth noticed a mole on Behnke's...

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