Cecile Doris (Perper) Kraus

Cecile Doris (Perper) Kraus was a loving, encouraging, and supportive mother, an understanding and compassionate wife, a feminist, an intellectually curious educator, and a classical pianist. She died of complications from Alzheimer's Disease at the Vi at the Glen retirement community in Glenview, Illinois on July 19, 2023, at the age of 93. Cecile was born May 15, 1930, at Michael Reese Hospital on Chicago's South side, the only child of Neddie Masters and Abraham Perper. She spent most of her early years until age 15 at the St. George School for Girls, a boarding school in Chicago https://leopardfan.tripod.com/id1007.html. She was co-valedictorian at Hyde Park High School, where she graduated in 1947, and earned a scholarship to Roosevelt University. Cecile earned a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from the University of Chicago in 1950 and a B.A. in Education from Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1952, where she met her future husband, Sidney Kraus. They married on September 5, 1952. In the 1950s, Cecile taught 5th and 6th Grade at William H. Ray Elementary School in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The couple had three children: Ken, born in Chicago, Illinois, 1956; Pamela, born in Iowa City, Iowa, 1958; and Jody, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, 1960. The family moved to Iowa in the late 1950s where Sidney received his doctorate, and to Indiana in the early 1960s where Sidney started his first job as a professor. The family moved back to Chicago in February 1964 until the summer of 1970, when they moved to Amherst, Massachusetts. Cecile earned a Master's Degree in Education from UMass-Amherst in 1972. That year, the family moved to Shaker Heights, Ohio. Inspired by the women's liberation movement, Cecile decided shortly thereafter that she would no longer be responsible for the daily chores of the household and family; her children and her husband should take over the bulk of the duties, including meal preparation, laundry, snowplowing, and lawn mowing; and she would finally devote herself to fulfilling her professional dream. For the next 10 years, Cecile taught full-time and simultaneously worked on her PhD, often working late at night and on weekends. She earned a PhD in Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Kent State University in 1983. During this period, she taught at East Cleveland's W.H. Kirk Middle School and Shaw High School and worked as a Reading Supervisor for the East Cleveland Board of Education. Her dissertation presented her original empirical research comparing competing approaches to changing teachers' attitudes and methods for teaching reading. She advocated moving from the traditional phonics-based approach to the "whole language" approach founded by Kenneth Goodman. She was an Assistant Professor of Education at Ohio University in the mid-1980s. In 1990, in Cecile's first year as a Professor of Education at Cleveland State University, she won the Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Education. She and Sidney moved to the Vi in 2004. For many years at the Vi she led a short-story discussion group for residents that was one of the most popular programs in the community, drawing 15-30 people every other Saturday morning: https://www.viliving.com/locations/il/chicago-glenview/happening-here/ne.... Over her many-year tenure in the Vi's memoir writing group, Cecile wrote an impressive collection of stories of her most defining life events and those events and interchanges she found most hysterical. It was her wish to leave this collection for her grandchildren once she was gone. She was also an accomplished classical pianist, favoring Mozart and Bach. Cecile is survived by Ken (Shelly Rusch) Kraus, Pamela (Bill Traines) Kraus and Jody (Christina Ponsa-Kraus) Kraus and five grandchildren Aaron and Dasi Richardson, Annie and Ben Kraus and Atticus Kraus. She was predeceased by Sidney in 2014. Cecile was a warm and empathetic soul, who approached life with endless enthusiasm for its joys and unflappable endurance for its pains. She overcame poverty, isolation, and mental health challenges born of childhood trauma to raise a close-knit, loving, full-of-humor family which she richly enjoyed and was most proud of. She became a respected educator and academic. She thrived on humor, reading, music, the New York Times, PBS, and most of all, time with her family. She will be deeply missed. May her memory be a blessing. Graveside service Wednesday 10AM on August 2 at Memorial Park Cemetery, 9900 Gross Point Road, Skokie IL (Section Gan M'nucha). Shiva (family receives visitors) is August 2 from 12PM to 8PM at 9441 Central Park Avenue in Evanston. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Salvation Army: 1403 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201, https://give.salvationarmyusa.org/give/164006/#!/donation/checkout?c_src.... Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com