Lois Smisek Owen

Proud of her Czech heritage, a loving wife, mother and grandmother, and a loyal lifelong friend to the countless individuals she met through travel, chance encounters and the glow of her radiant smile, Lois Smisek Owen left us on Tuesday, Oct. 4. She spent her final weeks receiving hospice care at the Durham, N.C., home of her daughter and died peacefully with her family at her bedside.

Born March 12, 1935, to Emma Doether and Laddie James Smisek, Lois was raised in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood. A gifted vocalist and a pianist who could play any song by ear, Lois's father enlisted her at a young age to sing at social gatherings and events. She was a singing sensation at Morgan Park High School, where she met her future husband, John Henry Owen Jr., and continued her studies at Indiana's DePauw University School of Music. Her affiliation with Alpha Phi sorority is something she treasured all her life, and she maintained close connections with many of her sorority sisters throughout the seven decades that followed.

The sudden and untimely passing of her father, Laddie, in April 1953, shortly after his 50th birthday, led Lois to make the difficult decision to leave DePauw and return to Chicago to help her mother navigate life as a recent widow.

While practical and hardworking, Lois was also adventurous. She traveled the globe many times in her 87 years. In 1956, with a small group of girlfriends, she spent a month exploring Europe. The group made the voyage via the Queen Elizabeth, visited the recently reunified Austria, about which Lois wrote in a letter from London's Washington Hotel, dated Aug. 18, 1956, "There is much construction going on, but signs of bombing are everywhere." Always mischievous, the lengthy note added, "We were looking through the phone book and found Princess Margaret's number. Tried calling her to see if it was possible, but couldn't even get the phone to ring."

On June 1, 1957, Lois and John were married, and their 52-year union produced two sons (Kenneth Alan and David Marshall, born, respectively, in 1960 and 1963) and a daughter (Elizabeth Ann, born 1966).

John worked in the financial industry (Bacon, Whipple & Co. and William Blair), while Lois was active in the community, serving innumerable volunteer roles for an equally diverse group of organizations throughout her life. As examples, she was a membership chairman of the Beverly Hills Auxiliary of the Chicago Child Care Society (1970s), a singing puppeteer at the Robert Crown Center for Health Education (1980s) and board secretary for the Friends of the Hinsdale Public Library (1990s). Since 1993, Lois found great joy, satisfied her intellectual curiosity and cultivated deep friendships through her involvement with The Fortnightly of Chicago, a women's club.

Lois also developed her talents in business. She was hired to demonstrate products in Chicago-area stores by a then-new company, Cuisinart, earned her real estate license and was a broker for Rich Port Realtors in Hinsdale, honed her event-planning skills through her work with The American Group of CPA Firms, and was recognized as an honorary lifetime member of the National Ice Carving Association in appreciation of her exemplary work with the organization.

Through John and Lois's decades together, music remained a centerpiece. Early in their marriage, they hosted community concerts, which led to in-home performances by jazz greats Bill Evans and Don Shirley. Years later, Lois had an impromptu breakfast conversation with a man who turned out to be the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia.

Genealogy became a passion in Lois's later years, and that led her to make several pilgrimages to Sveradice, a village in the Czech Republic, from which Lois's grandparents Josef Smisek and Anna Stechova had emigrated in 1882. One such trip amounted to an international family reunion, with Lois, John, and their children being welcomed to the Czech village by relatives and the mayor for a celebratory dinner with music and dancing at the town hall.

Lois spent about 20 years and covered thousands of miles researching the histories of her families, compiling 'The Owen Family of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, The House of Aberffraw and America' in 2013. She completed the Smisek family history two years later.

"It has been something of a struggle, with age, illness and several moves getting in the way," she wrote in the foreword to the Owen volume. "I recently realized, however, that I actually didn't want it to end. Every time I started to wrap it up, I would find an exciting piece of history that included this amazing family. I am hoping that you all continue the search and add information which you discover over the years."

In 2007, Lois and John moved to Metropolitan Tower in Chicago's South Loop, where Lois, in trademark fashion, became known to some as the "mayor" of the building for her daily conversations with residents and staff in the lobby.

In 2009, John's life was ended by a glioblastoma. In 2013, Lois moved to The Forest at Duke (Durham, N.C.) to be close to her daughter and twin granddaughters and grandsons, but quickly realized her heart was in Chicago. She made a brave decision to return to her home in the Metropolitan Tower in 2017 and cherished a few years reconnecting with dear friends and regularly attending Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances. When the onset of COVID-19 shut down the city in March 2020, Lois moved to King-Bruwaert House, a retirement community located just a few blocks from the Hinsdale home where she raised her children.

Pre-deceased by her husband, John, and her sister Dolores Dennerline (Ariz.), Lois is survived by her children, Ken Owen of Avon, Ind., Dave Owen of Chicago, Ill. and Beth Owen of Durham, N.C., as well as four grandchildren, Emma, Sarah, Jacob and Owen Pinto.

The family gives deep thanks to the talented and caring staff at King-Bruwaert and those who provided hospice care in Durham.

Lois left behind stacks of letters, recordings and photos - including one of her riding a donkey in Greece - through which her family will remember her smile, her adventures, and her laugh. There will be a celebration of her life at a later date.

Those who wish to contribute to Lois's memory may send donations to the Historic Preservation Foundation of the Fortnightly, 120 E. Bellevue Pl., Chicago, Ill. 60611.