Irma Jean Sheon

Raised in New Madrid, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee and during the Jim Crow era, Irma developed an early awareness of – and hatred for - racial injustice. She could not understand why African American adults referred to her as “Miss Irma,” while she was required to call these elders by their first name. She found no explanation acceptable and moved to the north at 18 to attend the University of Illinois. She acknowledged racism in the north was not much better, “it just looks different,” which inspired her to fight even harder.

Influenced by her mother Rose Shainberg, a human rights activist, Irma dedicated much of her life to advance equal opportunity, combat discrimination and advocate for social justice causes.

After college, she married physician Robert “Bob” Sheon in 1957. The couple later moved to Toledo, Ohio, where he became a leader in rheumatology at the Toledo Clinic and the Medical College of Ohio.

In Toledo, Irma became active in civic and community affairs. She protested the Vietnam war, and was appointed by the Mayor to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, advocating for fair hiring practices and expanded access to jobs. She also worked to establish healthcare and labor rights for migrant farmworkers.

Irma played a key role in Holocaust education efforts in northwest Ohio. As founding director of the Holocaust Resource Center in Toledo, she helped build the institution into a regional resource for teachers and students. She was instrumental in bringing the “Facing History and Ourselves” curriculum to local schools, promoting education about the Holocaust and the dangers of prejudice. She made many lifelong friends, including one whose son needed to find a kidney donor. Irma was a match and gave the gift of her kidney to extend the life of another.

Later in life, she and Robert moved to the Washington, D.C., area to be closer to grandchildren and continue her advocacy and philanthropic work.

Throughout her life, Irma wrote countless letters to advance social interests. In 1967, she wrote the Memphis Commercial Appeal demanding an end to segregating readership by unnecessarily listing the Negro race of certain victims of fire or crime (“It is 1967, after all!”). At age 80, she used social media to garner support to end the practice of gerrymandering and published 12 letters to the editor in the Washington Post on the topic.

Among her passions were her spending time with her children and grandchildren, reading, and the Washington Nationals (she once covered her wedding day picture with an image of Bryce Harper). Her SPOC mantra (Stay Positive, Optimistic, and Calm) guided her every day.

Irma is preceded in death by her parents, Rose and Jake Shainberg, siblings Victor Shainberg and Thelma Waller Greenberg of Memphis, and her husband, Robert Sheon, whom she married in 1957.

She is survived by her sister, Louise Newman and three children, Sarah Gerecke (husband Jeff Gerecke; grandchildren Renata Gerecke and Claudia Gerecke); Amy Sheon (grandchildren Zachary Krislov, Jesse Krislov, and Evie Krislov), and David Sheon (wife Michal Fishman; grandchildren Nathan Sheon and Lila Stith, and great grandchild Rosemary Stith).

Donations may be made to the Equal Justice Initiative here: https://support.eji.org/give/153413/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=inmemory&c_src2=sheon