Jean Carol Vitale

Born in Washington, D.C. with her twin sister Joan while their parents, George and Eleanor (Smith) McNutt, were working for the government, Jean has always lived in Illinois. Some of her fondest childhood memories were summer days with her Smith grandparents on their farm in Scott County. As a teenager, she left Quincy High School early to enroll at Shimer College in Mt. Carroll. There, her love of teaching emerged, and she helped organize and run a church-supported nursery school.

Coming to Springfield much later, she married Gary Vitale in 1966, and began a long 43-year career teaching piano privately. Many of her students have won prizes in the Illinois Federation of Music Clubs' Junior Festival, and some of them have become piano teachers themselves, three in Springfield today. Besides holding offices in IFMC, Jean was a member of PEO, Questers, and church groups at Westminster Presbyterian Church, where for many years she sang in the choir and joyfully worshiped Christ.

Her love of all things beautiful and her respect for tradition inspired her to fill her home with antiques, support historical and genealogical societies, and led her to be one of the founders of Springfield's West Side Neighborhood Association. She started the Association's program of identifying and placing plaques on homes of architectural and historical significance, and she led the campaign to win downzoning for the neighborhood, helping to preserve its character.

She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Eleanor, and her eldest daughter, Mary Ellen Clark. Besides her twin, Joan Anderson (husband George), she is survived by husband Gary, daughters Julia Eggold (husband John) of Springfield and Elizabeth Gantner (husband Paul) of Campton Hills, Illinois, together with nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren, the youngest of whom, eight-month-old Lucy Jean, has her name. She is deeply mourned by family, friends, students, and by those who, when they talked with her, so often found themselves revealing their innermost thoughts.

Visitation will be from 1-4 p.m. Sunday, January 16, at Bisch Funeral Home West, 2931 S. Koke Mill Rd, Springfield, IL with a funeral service at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Walnut and Edwards, Springfield, at 10:00 a.m. Monday, January 17. A short grave-side service in Greenmount Cemetery, Quincy, Illinois, will follow at 2:30 p.m. on January 17. There she will be laid to rest next to her parents in the McNutt family plot. Two memorials are in her name: one for Cottey College, a PEO supported school for women, and the Jean C. Vitale Memorial Piano Scholarship Award, sponsored by IFMC-District 4.

Please visit Jean’s online “Life Remembered Story” at www.bischfuneralhomewest.com where tributes and condolences may be left for the family.