Joan Mary O'Keefe

1929 - 2020

Joan Mary O'Keefe (nee Randall) was born to Charles August and Mary Louise Randall in Syracuse, New York on April 26, 1929. She attended LeMoyne College and Syracuse University and, decades later, would finish undergraduate studies at DePaul University and go on to earn a master's degree from Loyola University. She met her Brooklyn-born husband, Gerard O'Keefe, while he was traveling in upstate New York as a salesman for the A. G. Spaulding Company. They married on May 16, 1953, and Gerry's work would take them from Syracuse to Chicago to Cincinnati and back to Chicago, while Joan raised six children and gave unflagging support to her husband's career, which resulted in his induction in the National Sporting Goods Hall of Fame. She was the consummate housewife when it was a term of honor. As her children got older, Joan was able to direct her energies to the faith in which she so devoutly believed and the Church that she loved. She spent the rest of her life in the fields of religious education and adult faith formation. While living in Cincinnati in 1974, she was appointed by then-Archbishop Joseph Bernadine to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Commission charged with drafting the national standards for religious education. She was a pastoral associate at Saint Norbert in Northbrook, Saint Julian Eymard in Elk Grove Village and the Church of Saint Mary in Lake Forest Illinois. Joan helped found the Ministry Commission in Lake County and the Pastoral Associates Counsel in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Her work on behalf of the Church was recognized when the Archdiocese of Chicago presented her with the 2012 Bishop Quarter Award, given annually to a lay person who demonstrates consistent service to the ministries of the Archdiocese. But she always considered her family her greatest achievement. She was loving, supportive and generous and had very good taste. She will live forever in the hearts of her family, including her children Gerard (Margret), Eileen, David (Fran), Margaret (Robert) Hogan, Mary (William) Lederer and Ann Lauritson, by her grandchildren Katherine and Sara O'Keefe, Michael, John, Ellie and Maggie O'Keefe, Bobby (Hilary), Colleen and Grace Hogan, William, Kate and Joan Lederer and Madeline, Charlie and Lily Lauritson, by her brother, C. Jefferson (Donna) Randall and the late Robert Randall, and by numerous nieces and nephews. Due to the pandemic, the Funeral Mass from St. Mary's will be by invitation.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Cristo Rey St. Martin, 3110 Belvidere Road, Waukegan, IL 60085 (www.cristoreystmartin.org). Info: 847-675-1990 or www.donnellanfuneral.com.