Blanche L. Kishner nee Lambert, 102.

Blanche L. Kishner nee Lambert, 102.

Everyone who knew Blanche thought she was a remarkable woman. Blanche Lambert Kishner, daughter of the late Sayde and Morton Lambert, was born and raised in Chicago and was educated at Lakeview High School, Northwestern University, and the University of Wisconsin. She used to reminisce, with a smile, how as a young girl growing up during the depression, she had only two sweaters to wear to school on alternate days. At a young age she married her beloved Harry Kishner, an attorney from Philadelphia. They returned from their honeymoon in New Orleans on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Blanche spent the next four years relocating to Cambridge, MA, Warrenton, VA, and the Florida Everglades to live with Harry while he was in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. To help support them until the war ended, she held a number of jobs for which she had neither training nor experience, but which provided fabulous stories that she told with brio later in life.

Blanche was a devoted mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and had a multitude of friends. She loved movies, reading (especially The New Yorker), travel, and politics. Blanche was a superb artist and a particularly fine watercolorist. At age 13, she joined the "life drawing class" at the Art Institute of Chicago, then the youngest member ever. She continued participating in art workshops and occasional art shows from then on. She also proved to be a talented golfer, picking up the sport in her 30's and winning various local tournaments.

Blanche lived in Chicago, Glencoe, Wilmette, and finally at the Mather in Evanston, where she continued to make new friends and chaired the art committee. After her daughters were raised, Blanche took up a new career in residential real estate, headquartered in Glencoe, IL. She spent 43 years as a realtor on the North Shore, becoming extremely successful, selling over 200 homes in Glencoe alone. Her artist’s eye, her extraverted personality, her love of people, and her boundless energy combined to make her a natural.

Blanche prided herself on always being beautifully coiffed and made up. One of her good friends once said, "Blanche, I don’t think I have ever seen you without makeup," and she responded, "you never will!" And to another friend she said, "I never give out two numbers, my age and my weight." Out of respect for that rule, we will say only that her remarkable life exceeded a century in length.

Blanche was predeceased by her husband Harry in 1998. She is survived by her two daughters, Martha Baumgarten and her husband, Clive, of Richmond, VA, and Kathy Kishner and her husband, Stuart Ryder, of Wilmette, IL; by her two grandchildren, David Baumgarten and his wife, Elise, of Washington, DC, and Molly Schiller and her husband, Jacob, of Chicago, IL; and by her three great-grandchildren, Sasha Baumgarten, Abby Schiller, and Cara Baumgarten.

Private graveside services were held.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60603, www.artic.edu.

Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com