I met Jo Ann Rose Horowitz in 1979 as a graduate intern with the Illinois Women’s Agenda (IWA), the largest statewide coalition of women’s rights organizations in Illinois. It was formed in 1975 as part of a national response to the United Nations’ call for an International Women’s Year. 

Jo Ann served on the IWA steering committee representing several organizations including the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and ERA Illinois. She advocated for full and equal access to education, wage equality, and gender equality under the law. Her work included hundreds of meetings with a wide range of participants requiring her extraordinary knowledge of Robert’s Rules of Order, a cornerstone of fair and peaceful meeting procedure.

Women’s Equality Day, Aug. 26, was a very special day for Jo Ann. In 1995, Governor Jim Edgar named her to the commission to plan events for Illinois Women’s Equality Year. Jo Ann said she “wanted to make people aware of what women went through to win the vote.”

Jo Ann Rose Horkey, later Horowitz, was born on July 5, 1931, to Joseph and Emma Horkey. Her father was an immigrant from Hungary. Her mother came from Illinois. Jo Ann eventually lived on Circle Avenue in Forest Park while she taught at J. Sterling Morton East High School.

In her retirement, Jo Ann moved to Helena, Montana, living as Chaucer once wrote in Troilus & Criseyde, “I am myn owene woman, wel at ease. I am my own woman, completely free.” She died there on Jan. 6, 2006. She is buried in Isanti Union Cemetery, Isanti, Minnesota. Her headstone reads, “Friend Feminist Educator.”

Following her death, a west suburban chapter of the AAUW and the West Suburban Teachers Union, Local 571 offered college scholarships in Jo Ann’s name for her leadership in education. Local 571 recognized her years as a teacher at Morton High School, and as “a vital force in Local 571, the IFT and AFT.”

This Women’s Equality Day, it is a privilege to remember Jo Ann Rose Horowitz.

Patricia Horne