Ethel Lee Jaffe

Visitation

Jaffe Residence
605 Valley Road
Glencoe, Illinois 60022

Thursday following the
service until 9 PM

Memorials May Be Made To
Lead Guitar
888 North Euclid Avenue Room 203
Tucson, Arizona 85719
520.626.6904
http://www.leadguitar.org
or
the University of Chicago Medicine
Kovler Diabetes Center
900 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637
773.702.2371
http://www.kovlerdiabetes.org

Lee Jaffe was a woman of great passions and deeply felt beliefs. She loved her family, first and foremost, but also the children she taught for decades in California and Chicago schools, while caring for people in need wherever they may be. Hers was a life of theater and music, politics and activism, laughter, and always good food. She grew up on the North Side during the Great Depression, playing in Lincoln Park and attending Senn High School. She graduated from Senn in 1946 then earned a degree at Roosevelt University, where she would meet Nathan Jaffe, her beloved husband of nearly 48 years and a Distinguished Flying Cross honoree for his service with the Army Air Corps during World War II. She taught in schools on the South Side for several decades, using music and her Spanish language skills to reach her students, while continuing her education at Loyola University, where she received a Masters in Education in 1972. She performed in theatrical productions in the city and sang with the North Shore Choral Society for many years. In the 1980s, she also began acting, singing, and writing in productions for Oakton Community College’s Acting Up!, an acclaimed theater troupe focused on senior and family issues. After moving to Tucson, she continued to perform and joined a barbershop quartet at the invitation of Harry Thompson, a retired UCLA biology professor who would become her loving companion during her later years. Those last years were like a second spring for her and she died peacefully at home, an inspiration until the very end for the many who so dearly loved her. She is survived by daughter Deborah and her husband Marc Sandroff and granddaughter Mara of Tucson Arizona; her son Michael and his wife Laurie, and grandchildren Nathan, Lilly, and Charlotte of Glencoe, Illinois; her son Matthew and his wife Rebecca of Calabasas, California; and her beloved Harry Thompson of Tucson, Arizona. Donations may be sent to Lead Guitar, a Tucson-based non-profit that promotes music education in schools, and the University of Chicago Medicine Kovler Diabetes Center. Chapel service, Thursday 2:30 PM at Shalom Memorial Funeral Home, 1700 W. Rand Road, Arlington Heights. Interment Shalom Memorial Park. For information or condolences (847) 255- 3520 or www.shalommemorial.org.

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Service Information

Service : Thursday, April 21st at 2:30 pm
Service Location: -Shalom Chapel Service

Interment:
Shalom Memorial Park
Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004