We have lost the “Matriarch of Forest Park” said one of her longtime friends. Jacquiline “Jackie” Schulz passed away peacefully on Dec. 8, 2023. She was 92 and died in the home her grandfather had built on Beloit.
Jackie endeared herself to Forest Park residents with her weekly “Talk of the Town” column She penned almost 2,500 columns, from April 8, 1970 to August 3, 2017. But even if she hadn’t written a single word for the Forest Park Review, she would still have been a beloved figure in this town.
Born on Feb. 25, 1931, she inherited her warmth from her Irish mother and her grit from her stern German father. Jackie also had a German uncle, Philip Manfroid, who engraved glass for Tiffany’s. She proudly displayed some of his creations in her credenza.
Jackie started out as a South Sider and grew up in St. Killian Parish. She attended Catholic elementary school, high school and college, including Loyola University, where she graduated with degrees in English and Education.
She used her degree to become a Chicago Public School teacher. Her first job was teaching Kindergarten at Jenner School, in the heart of the Cabrini-Green neighborhood. Her class sizes were enormous, with 75 kids in the morning and 50 in the afternoon. Nevertheless, she continued teaching primary grades in public and Catholic schools for 43 years.
Meanwhile, Jackie moved with her family to the two-flat her grandfather had built in Forest Park. The first-floor apartment would be her home for the rest of her life. Not that she was home much. When she wasn’t exploring her hometown, she was exploring Asia and Europe during the summer breaks. She also brought the world to her door by renting her second-floor apartment to a succession of immigrant families, most recently a couple from Albania, who took their turns as caregivers as Jackie’s health declined.
In addition to her passion for travel, she was a music lover from a young age. She became an accomplished pianist and was also proficient enough to play cello with the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest.
According to David Leehey, president of the Symphony, “Jackie was a pillar of the community in Forest Park for decades. I met her when we were both singing in the Oak Park Concert Chorale in the 1980s. Jackie started the Sing Along Messiah that was held annually for almost 30 years. We were members of MacDowell Artists Association and subsequently president and vice president of that organization from 1999 on. She and I put together a chorus and hired Jay Friedman to conduct the one and only performance of the Millennium Festival Orchestra (Beethoven’s Ninth, Jan. 1, 2000). Subsequently I became president of the Symphony of Oak Park & River Forest board, and Jackie was a longtime board member.”
It was the music of her writing, though, that captured the Review’s readers. Publisher Bob Haeger hired her to write a “gossip column” for the exalted annual salary of $200. But Jackie had no use for gossip and started a society column instead. She decided to list birthdays because everyone has one.
Many readers got a thrill from seeing their birthday listed in her column. This includes Lisa Grimes Becker, who has known Jackie since Lisa was 4 years old. She recalled, “You held your breath all week until you saw your birthday in the Review.” Jackie also celebrated graduations, promotions, marriages and anniversaries.
It’s a daunting task to fill a weekly column and Jackie found a unique way to gather local news. She walked her dog, Callahan, all over town. She’d bump into people and get their story. “My dog got me my friends and newspaper columns,” she recalled in 2017. Callahan served as Jackie’s assistant for 15 years. He was succeeded by Barkley.
She was a great lover of animals and served as an unofficial veterinarian. People brought their ailing animals to her, said her longtime neighbor Jeri Grant. And if she couldn’t heal them, she took them to the official vet and often paid the bill.
When the Review was acquired by Wednesday Journal Inc. (now Growing Community Media) in the late 1980s, Publisher Dan Haley became her boss. He immediately gave her a pay raise to $50 a column. He described Jackie as “kind, good-hearted, happy and connected to everything that moved in Forest Park. She was a joyful person. Those of us who had the honor to know her will miss her.”
Haley also noted that Jackie’s columns were always about Forest Park residents. She never wrote about herself, or her trips abroad. “It wasn’t that kind of column,” Jackie said in a previous interview. “The focus should always be on other people.” The headline of the story we wrote about her in 2017, the 100th anniversary of the Forest Park Review, when she finally gave up the column, was: “The most interesting person she never wrote about.” She not only captured other people in her stories, she also took the photos that ran with the column.
Monday was deadline day and Jackie would come to the newsroom to type her column. As one member of the staff noted, “She always entered the room in mid-sentence.” She needed help to navigate the technology and post her photos. Jill Wagner was among the staffers who got to know Jackie. “She was a sincere delight. A real character. Full of joy and love. A human charm.”
Tom Holmes pegged her as, “One of the unique personalities in town.” Igor Studenkov got to know Jackie by reading her columns. “Her warmth, compassion, curiosity and love of knowledge shone through her columns. We were lucky to have her.”
She was also lucky to remain in her home to the end, her dearest wish, which was granted by her caregivers. Kathy Doss was with her during her last days, as were Jeri and Roger Grant; Xhevahire and Ilir, the couple upstairs; and Kelly. Kathy reported that Jackie was in good spirits and good appetite on Thanksgiving. She continued to have companions and visitors until the end.
There will be a “Celebration of Life” for Jackie on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 13, 2024, at the Park District Administrative Building
When Jackie Shultz will once again be “The Talk of the Town.”