JEAN RIESCHL died June 28, 2016, and has gone on to her next gig. The hope is that wherever she is now she will have the same opportunities, enthusiasm, and energy for working toward peace and justice among all people as she had during her earthly stay.
Jean Osborne was born on November 24, 1917 in Princeton, West Virginia when the world was a very different place. Raised by her parents along with her younger brother Howard, she had a challenging, yet fulfilling childhood, because of and despite her high-spirited ways. Throughout their lives, she cared deeply for both her parents, but was especially close to her father. Happy summer vacations were spent with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandmother in a beautiful old countryside home. Mom always said that she loved that grandmother more than anyone else in the world, and that the time spent together shaped the rest of her life.
Our mother graduated from high school with honors, having been an editor of the school newspaper, the winner of a prize for a publication on West Virginia, the first female member of student council, and queen of the senior class. She then attended Virginia Intermont, a junior college for women 100 miles from Princeton. She was able to enroll with the help of scholarships, work study, and loans. The first year she roomed with a woman who had the distinction of being serenaded under the dorm window by Tennessee Ernie Ford, who later became a friend of both women.
After graduation Mom acquired a position with American Airlines in Washington, D.C. It was during that time that she met Bob Rieschl, who was serving in the Air Force. They were married at the base on New Year’s Day 1944, and shortly after that Dad was sent overseas as a bomber pilot. While he was gone, Mom again went to work for the airlines at the Palmer House in Chicago. She thrived on the excitement and fast pace of that job and that city.
Following the war, they lived for a short time in Wisconsin and Tennessee. Then they settled in West Nyack, New York. During the time spent as the vintage housewife and while raising the 3 of us, Mom got the itch to do something more stimulating and impactful. She returned to school, first completing her undergraduate degree at Rockland Community College and Fairleigh Dickinson University, and then earning a master’s degree in business from Montclair State College. She later used her degrees and her business acumen as an adjunct business instructor and as a successful substitute teacher for many years. She also began thinking about peace and how she could become involved in that burgeoning movement.
After Dad retired they moved to a property on Lake Michigan in Kewaunee, Wisconsin and built an amazing house out of a barn and granary. Mom became fast friends with a woman who was extremely interested in and knowledgeable about politics. Together they started an organization called Lakeshore Peacemakers, first within a church framework and later as an unattached entity. For the next 18 years, they sent out a monthly newsletter to anyone they thought would be interested in their political ideas and peace information. They also started a chapter of the League of Women Voters which is still active today. It was a humorous bit of irony in our family that Dad had American flags painted on his mailbox to show his right-wingedness, while most of what was deposited in that box was for Mom and about as liberal as it could have been. After Dad’s death she moved back to New York, and found renewed energy, getting involved in the Peace and Justice organization and in Women in Black.
Throughout her adult life, Mom was an active member of a Methodist church, although in later years she often felt pulled towards something a bit more worldly and liberal. Her faith never faltered, nor did her love for God, Jesus, and all things connected. Most recently she still had personal friends with whom she talked and visited, but she also found great enjoyment watching her friends on TV – Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, and Bill Moyers, to name a few. She watched, listened, and agreed as they brought it all out into the open, ardently believing in their causes and comments.
Jean is survived by us: Tally Avener and husband Dan of Belfast, Maine, Cathy Rieschl of Warwick, NY, and Bill Rieschl and his close friend Nancy Heitman, also of Warwick. She loved us very much, as she did her 2 grandaughters – Katie Avener of Orlando, Florida, and Maggie Avener of Philadelphia. Also surviving and dear to her are 2 nieces – Nancy Mitchell and her husband Brian of Summit, Wisconsin, and Karen Jones and her husband Jim of Orlando.
Mom wanted to say goodbye and to thank all those she loved through the years. We would like to express our profound appreciation for all the amazing caregivers and Hospice folks who cared for her and for us so tenderly during her last months and days.
Contributions may be made to Hospice of Orange and Sullivan Counties, Southern Poverty Law Center, or the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Please sign on to the website for the Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat funeral home in Warwick and post your e-mail address if you would like to be kept informed regarding the memorial service to be held in the Fall.