Lois Ellen Graessle

1943 - 2016

GRAESSLE Lois Ellen Graessle, Jacksonville girl, writer, educator, activist, artist and citizen of the US, UK and the world, died in her London home on March 10, 2016 after a several year intimate relationship with cancer. Born in Jacksonville on February 8, 1943, she was the first child of Al Graessle of Jacksonville (an attorney and later a Circuit Court Judge) and Lois Thacker Graessle of Kissimmee (an attorney who became a widely respected community activist). She and later her siblings were baptized and raised at Riverside Park United Methodist Church. While her father served in the Navy during WWII, she and her mother moved to her grandparents' home in Kissimmee. These years were deeply meaningful for Lois, and her relationship with her Thacker family was one of her most cherished. Lois attended Ortega Elementary, Lakeshore Junior High and Robert E. Lee High School where she graduated in 1961. She was a Brownie and a Girl Scout and attended two national Roundups. She was a writer, working at the Journal & Times-Union as the Teen Beat writer, and was editor of the Lee newspaper. She attended Northwestern University, and became active in the civil rights movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery. In 1964 she graduated the top of her class from the Medill School of Journalism. Upon graduation Lois set off with a backpack and a portable typewriter and hitchhiked around the world for the next 18 months, working various jobs, including as an au pair in Geneva and aboard a freighter from India to Japan. She returned to Jacksonville and lived for 18 months at the Laughing Place in Mandarin along the St. Johns River owned by dear family friend Dekle Taylor and his family, writing and becoming friends with Mandarin artists Charlie Brown and Memphis Wood. In 1967 she turned down a doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina, and moved to London. Her career was as a freelance journalist and as an educator, working with disaffected teenagers and creating access to higher education via unconventional routes. She was intimately involved in the 1960's feminist movement, editing newsletters, co-organizing protests and Women's Liberation conferences, and putting feminist stickers on degrading posters in the London Underground. She was an advisor assisting individuals and organizations (such as Refugee Action, Water Aid, the Mental Health Foundation, the International Tibet Network and Vietnamese community groups) for which she received an honorary masters' degree from Buckingham New University. Lois wrote or co-authored eleven books on subjects from collaborative ways of planning, managing money, refugee community organizing and biographies of two of her mentors. Her final book, Blessed Mess-Tales of Living, Loving and Dying With Stuff, is to be published shortly. In 1990, Lois married Eric Bourne who as a child fled Germany with his parents in 1934 when the Nazi's came to power, settling with his mother in the UK. They were married by the Laughing Place, with guests attending from both sides of the Atlantic. She shared time with Eric in the tiny village of Milldale and maintained her London home, becoming involved in book art, meditation and community groups. Her friendships stretched across all walks of life and across the globe. She maintained lifelong friendships with her school, church and scouting friends, her Thacker cousins, and with her siblings and their children. She became a friend to virtually everyone she met, from royalty and CEOs to those in the most modest of circumstances. She is survived by her sisters Nancy Graessle Smith of Jacksonville and Julie Graessle (Jay Balloffet) of Belmont, Massachusetts, her brothers Bill Graessle (Joann) of Jacksonville and Robert Graessle (Alexcia) of Jacksonville, ten nieces and nephews, one great niece, and her stepdaughters Deborah and Susan Bourne of the UK. All who knew her loved her and were touched by her quick wit, infectious interest in life and people, and her appreciation for beauty wherever it is found. We have all been enriched by having her among us. A celebration of her life will be held at noon on July 30th at Riverside Park United Methodist Church, 819 Park Street, Jacksonville, 32205.