Yvonne Jean Ghareeb

CLEMMONS, N.C. - YVONNE JEAN GHAREEB, passed away peacefully at her home in Clemmons, North Carolina, on Sunday, July 14, 2024, of pancreatic cancer. She was 87 years old. By her side was her longtime, beloved partner of 50 years, Michael Pule.

Yvonne was born on February 1, 1937, to Josephine and George Ghareeb in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1940 they moved the family to a small town in southwest Michigan named Union Pier, raising Yvonne and ultimately her younger brother, Richard Ghareeb, who pre-deceased her. Both parents served the country during WWII through automotive work in George's shop. Subsequently, Yvonne spent much happy time with her grandmother, Josephine Oselka. "Babi," as Yvonne called her, came to be the young girl's hero and lifelong role model. Yvonne would embody Babi's loving strength and perseverance all her life.

After graduating from New Buffalo High School in 1955, Yvonne completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959 from Michigan State University in communications arts with an emphasis on speech and theatre. She got a teaching job at Jay Sterling Morton High School in Cicero, Illinois. Thus began a great love for the theatre that manifested in her work as a performer, teacher, administrator, director and producer. Her innate talents shined most as a director, which she liked best of all the many theatrical endeavors she undertook.

Yvonne moved from Chicago to New York City in 1971. For the next 20 years, Yvonne worked as a director at scores of union and non-union theatres across the country, as well as crafting curriculum and teaching at various university theatre programs, including Kansas State University.

In1989 Yvonne began to volunteer at the then-fledgling Broadway Cares, created in the Broadway community as a response to the brutality of the AIDS epidemic in New York City. In 1992, Broadway Cares merged with Equity Fights AIDS to become Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS with Yvonne among its first paid staff of five. Yvonne retired from Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS in 2015, after 25 years of dedicated, deeply personal commitment to the organization and helping millions of those affected by AIDS over the last 35 years.

Upon retirement, Yvonne and Michael moved to Clemmons, NC, to share their lives with best friends and chosen family, Skip Lawing, Tony Garcia and Carol Ingram. She is also survived by her sister-in-law, Carolyn Ghareeb, eight nieces and nephews and her childhood friend of 84 years, Mary Alice Bradford Hamley.

After a private ceremony, her ashes will be interred at Pine Grove Cemetery in New Buffalo, Michigan, in the family plot.

At Yvonne's request, donations in her memory can be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. http://www.broadwaycares.org