Jeanette Ruth Sobel was born on February 12, 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the third of four children of Celia and Michael Sobel, whose families had emigrated from areas around Ukraine when they were children. Jean grew up in West Philly during the depression and WWII, didn’t go to college and didn’t drive a car, but she shopped the local stores, including a fine woman’s boutique called Helen Caro. One Valentine’s Day in 1954, Jean, at 23 years old, was shopping at Helen Caro, and confessed to one of the saleswomen that she didn’t have a date that year. The saleswoman there introduced her to a young, good looking single manager who was the cousin of the owner. The manager was Dan Ackerman. They were married two years later, and Jean became Jean Sobel Ackerman.
A few years later, Jean and Dan had their first child, Beth, and shortly after that moved the family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they had their second daughter, Suzanne (Sue). Jean lived with Dan and their daughters in Milwaukee, raising their family and playing mother to all the girls’ friends who would come by the house after school. To the day she died, some of the girls’ friends still refer to her as their second “mom.”
Jean and Dan followed their daughter Beth out to Los Angeles when she relocated after law school in the early 80s. They stayed there and were by her side for the birth of both their grandchildren, Sarah Schroeder in 1991, and Aaron Schroeder in 1995. Jean helped drive Aaron to preschool and always had food in her car for snacks. When Beth separated from her marriage in 2000, she and her kids moved in with Jean and Dan for a couple of years, and those kids knew their Grandma very well – including living through 9/11 with her.
In 2002, Jean and Dan moved to Las Vegas to live near their other daughter, Sue. Dan passed away in 2011, and Jean moved in with Sue and her then boyfriend, Victor Torres. Sue and Victor were married in Punta Cana in 2013, and Jean continued to live with them. Thereafter, the three of them moved to Virginia where Victor got a job, and then a few years later, they wound up back in Wisconsin, this time, Madison. Jean continued to live in Madison with Sue and Victor until her death on January 12, 2022 – just one month shy of her 91st birthday.
Jean always had a sharp wit and quick mind; she did logic problems and cross word puzzles and corrected everyone else’s spelling and grammar – up until the day she died. She loved traveling and went on many cruises over the years, first with Dan, and in later years, with Sue and Victor. She also loved painting and politics, most recently watching CNN all day and fearlessly posting her views on Facebook. She loved dogs and cats, embracing all the dogs living in the house the last several years. Her last act was to kiss one of the dogs on her lap goodbye. But her greatest love was her family. She lived long enough to watch her grandson Aaron marry Kate Ramsay Schroeder, and she embraced Victor’s children, Alex and Jordan, as her own grandchildren. Her only regret was that her body could not keep pace with that resilient mind of hers so that she could more time with her family.
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