Jacqueline "Jackie" Schulz

Jackie Schulz, 92

Longtime columnist, Symphony OP&RF supporter

We have lost the “Matriarch of Forest Park” said one of her longtime friends. 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 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.

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 Forestboard, and Jackie was a longtime board member.”

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. Haley noted that Jackie never wrote about herself, or her trips abroad. The headline of the story we wrote about her in 2017, when she finally gave up the column, was: “The most interesting person she never wrote about.” 

There will be a “Celebration of Life” for Jackie on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024 from 2:00pm - 5:00pm at the Park District Administrative Building  

When Jackie Shultz will once again be “The Talk of the Town.” 

John Rice

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