Louise O'Donovan

Our beautiful and elegant mother, Louise O'Donovan, succumbed to cancer and complications while in hospice care. She was 85.
Born in rural Kentucky, Louise (Mom) was a shy little girl. As a teen, she qualified as valedictorian for her class and became a cheerleader. Her beauty attracted several suitors, including her future husband, Raymond, whom she first met in grade school. He couldn't reveal that he liked her, or risk "losing his street creds." So, during recess, he had two other boys hold her arms while he doused her with a squirt gun.
Mom married him, anyway, in April 1956. She gave birth to her first child at age 18 and had five children before she turned 25 – four daughters and one son. Eventually, the family moved into a midcentury ranch outside the city limits. The landscape business Dad launched expanded with Naperville, which grew from 13,000 residents in the early 1960s to nearly 150,000 today. Landscape projects included homes, businesses, and Naperville's famous Riverwalk.
We kids kept Mom busy. She packed our lunches, sewed costumes for school plays, and took us to "The Sound of Music." She drove our brother to Little League games and our father's workers in the station wagon. After school, we'd come home to flapping sheets on the clothesline and the aroma of a great meal simmering on the stove.
Mom was an exceptional cook, creating delicious sauces for roasts, spaghetti from scratch, and drool-worthy desserts. Dad hid her fried apple pies from the rest of us. Growing up, we were the hungry heathen gathered around the table. Mom taught us the value of having table manners and being polite. She cultivated us, teaching us to appreciate art, literature, and knowledge. In the old-school sense, Mom taught us how to be ladies. Careers were important, but our babies were the priority.
By the 1970s and '80s, Mom ventured out on her own, taking painting classes and dancing lessons at Fred Astaire. She had a flair for home décor. She loved well-tailored clothes and enrolled in fashion design at the College of DuPage.
Grandchildren ushered in a new phase for Mom. She proved to be a generous Nana. Often, she had to use a cane to get to a chair or the bleachers for a performance or game, but she came.
Although her ideal entertainment was an absorbing book, she also enjoyed the Smothers Brothers, Dick Cavett, and Erma Bombeck columns. She preferred the easy-listening music of Glen Campbell, the Mamas and the Papas, and "Hotel California."
We will remember Mom in her later years, seated in her recliner, a pile of books to the left, scattered Tribune sections on the rug. On the end table, a mug of cold tea. On her lap, the remote and her cell phone. The past five or so years brought debilitating physical problems, osteoarthritis, intestinal illnesses, and multiple myeloma. But she kept up the good fight. She suffered the last week of her life, so afraid to die.
While a part of us is relieved she no longer suffers, we won't have Mom to call and talk to anymore.
Louise was preceded in death by husband Raymond O'Donovan, son Raymond O'Donovan, Jr., daughter Judith O'Donovan of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and grandson Daniel Russell Maya of Plainfield. She is survived by her three daughters, Cheryl O'Donovan-Urbanik of Schaumburg, Lisa O'Donovan of Naperville, and Susan O'Donovan-Maya of Plainfield. Her grandchildren include Samantha Louise Tischhauser of Sandwich, Collin, Andrew, and Justin Maya of Plainfield, and Matthew and Ryan Urbanik of Schaumburg. Her great-grandchildren include Patrick Berzin of Sandwich and Hailey Curtis of Somonauk.
The visitation honoring Louise O'Donovan's life is scheduled at the Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Homes & Crematory, 24021 Royal Worthington Drive, Naperville, Thursday, July 25, 2024 from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.
An additional visitation will be held on Friday, July 26, 2024 from 10:00 a.m. until the time of funeral service 11:00 a.m. at Faith Lutheran Church, 3000 Liberty Street, Aurora, Illinois. Interment Naperville Cemetery, Naperville, Illinois.