Maia Conner

On November 5, 2024, Maia Eileen Conner, 56, died peacefully at Loyola Hospital while lovingly attended by her siblings. She had been undergoing treatment for uterine cancer before succumbing to complications from the disease.

Born in Evanston, Illinois to Marsda and Roger Conner, Maia was the fourth of seven children and their first daughter. After living briefly in Scotland, the family settled in Beverly-Morgan Park on Chicago’s south side, where Maia grew up studying ballet, tap, and jazz at Valiquette School of Dance, participating in Girl Scouts, playing tennis and trombone, and excelling in macrame. Maia earned a Bachelor of Science degree in math and computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1990 and was pursuing a PhD at Notre Dame when diagnosed with schizophrenia the following year.

Although the intractable illness changed the course of her future days, Maia never allowed it to define her. With the tireless support of her parents, she went on to earn a second BS degree in medical technology from Rush University in 2000. She leveraged this credential to pursue a meaningful career as a medical technician at a number of hospitals, most recently MacNeal.

Maia loved her work and, despite the limitations of the mental disorder, she led a remarkable and rewarding life. She was an avid patron of the Chicago opera, symphony, and theater scene, and she enjoyed frequenting the Brookfield Zoo and Morton Arboretum. A devout Catholic, she regularly ventured on religious retreats, volunteered at local shelters, and attended services at area churches, including Ascension in Oak Park, where she also served as a catechism teacher on occasion. In the last year of her life, Maia had started teaching herself Spanish so she could better connect with more of her neighbors in Berwyn, which she fondly called home.

Maia is survived by two brothers, two sisters, numerous nieces and a nephew, who will remember her for her generous heart, her courage in the face of adversity, her whimsical humor, her love of parakeets, and her abiding sartorial flair. Memorial services to be scheduled for later this year.

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