Obituaries

Joan (Johanna) Crean O’Leary, age 89, passed away in Geneva, IL, on December 16th, 2024. 

Joan was born on May 13, 1935, in Chicago, IL, to Thomas Crean and Nora O’Leary, immigrants from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. Joan was the youngest of four children including John, Mary (Sister Noreen), and Thomas. They grew up on Carpenter St. in Visitation Parish, which has served the Chicago communities of Englewood and Back of the Yards since 1886.

Joan married her life partner, John O’Leary, on July 16th, 1986. Like Joan, John was an educator and a child of Irish immigrants reared on the south side of Chicago. Joan and John shared a deep religious faith, love of their Irish heritage, dedication to teaching, and a passionate interest in literature and history. In 1989 they moved from Chicago to St. Charles, IL into a home they built together. 

Joan grew up in a family that valued education and was highly engaged with the outside world– current events, politics, and history were discussed nightly at the dinner table.

Joan’s father, Thomas, and his brothers, Jim, Jack and Mick, who also moved to Chicago, were all engaged in the struggle for Irish independence in the early 20th century. Listening to their stories had an enormous impact on Joan. In addition to her Catholic faith, Joan cared deeply about the fight for freedom and social justice in all parts of the world. These were values she held for her entire life.

Joan was also profoundly shaped by the stories of her mother, Nora O’Leary, who was born in 1898 and grew up on Illauntanig, a small island off Magharees, itself a small peninsula off the Dingle Peninsula. The island was home to the O’Learys and only one other family, the Goodwins. The experiences of Joan’s family in Ireland and especially of her mother growing up on the island were never far from her thoughts. 

Joan attended Visitation Grammar and High School, graduating in 1953. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957 from DePaul University, and was the editor-in-chief of DePaul’s 1957 yearbook. 

After graduate work in education (specifically the cognitive and developmental foundations of reading), Joan dedicated her career to working with young people who had difficulty reading. She taught in the upper grades at Robert Healy Elementary School in Bridgeport for over 20 years, and also ran a reading clinic. 

Long after retiring Joan remembered many of her students by name and a number of them stayed in touch with her. She took great pride in their life successes. Joan had many qualities that made her a tremendous educator and she was eventually honored for her teaching at the citywide level. She had great empathy, charisma, humor and an incredible ability to listen to others and take young people seriously. 

Joan came from a pro-labor family and was a proud member of the Chicago Teachers Union. She remembered the lengthy struggle in the 1960s to make the CTU the bargaining agent for all Chicago public school teachers, and she joined CTU strikes for better working conditions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Joan was a passionate reader and eventually began to write herself. She was determined to write about the experiences of her family on the island, especially her mother Nora, and put great effort into an historical novel, which was completed before her death. Her book, “And They Came from the Island,” will be published this year and will be a fitting testimony to Joan and to the people who lived on Illauntannig. The book is set during one week in April 1916, when the struggle for Irish independence was launched.

Joan shared her family’s curiosity about the world and loved to travel, visiting Spain, France, and Britain at different points. She lived in Ireland while researching her book, and made several subsequent trips to Ireland with her husband John.

Both Joan and John were active in Chicago’s Irish American community, and first met at an Irish literature event. When they moved to St. Charles, Joan became part of a local writers group originally formed by students at Elgin Community College, and was an enthusiastic participant in Kane County’s literary community, anchored around venues like Townhouse Books. The support and expertise of other local writers was critical to Joan’s completion of her book.

Joan and John built a rich and active life in St. Charles and greatly appreciated the natural beauty of the Fox River Valley. They were devoted members of St. John Neumann Parish and enthusiastic supporters of cultural organizations, like the St. Charles Singers.

The qualities that made Joan a great teacher also made her a unique and treasured sister, aunt, cousin, and friend. She was beloved across multiple generations of her own family and in her many adopted families.

Joan is survived by her nephew Thomas Crean (partner Eleanor Rodgers), niece Sarah Crean, grand-niece & nephew Nora & James Crean, cousin Dorothy Crean Larkin, and many other cousins and dear friends; as well as her husband John’s 3 sisters Marie Kielty, Theresa (Bill) Churilla and Catherine O’Leary, and John’s numerous nieces and nephews.

Preceded in death by her husband John, brothers John and Thomas, sister Mary, and sister-in-law Mary Lou Crean.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, February 1st, at 10:30 A.M, at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 2900 E. Main St, St. Charles, IL 60174, with Fr. Paul White officiating. Joan’s remains will be placed with her husband John in Union Cemetery, St. Charles, IL, and on the island of Illauntanning, County Kerry, Ireland, where Joan’s mother was born and raised.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Visitation Catholic School in Chicago or the St. Charles Singers.

To leave an online condolence or remembrance to the family, visit the funeral home’s obituary page at www.yursfuneralhomes.com. For more information, please call Yurs Funeral Home of (St. Charles, 630-584-0060 or Geneva, 630-232-7337) or like us on Facebook.

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