Elise Junn

Elise Iekyung Junn, born June 23, 1960, passed away peacefully at home on August 4, 2025, surrounded by family.

Elise’s first name is in honor of Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” which her father loved. Her middle name is a tribute to her Korean heritage and is a combination of Korean syllables, which mean shine brightly. It was chosen by her parents because the night she was born, two stars were orbiting in close proximity, creating a brighter than normal light. And shine bright she did.

Elise grew up in Jenison, Michigan, graduating from Jenison High School as the valedictorian. She ventured to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard-Radcliffe in 1982 with a major in economics. She continued her study of economics at the University of Chicago and obtained a master’s in economics in 1985.

Elise married Al Sawyers in June 1989 in Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, where both Elise and Al attended graduate school.

Elise was the proud mother of three children—Amelia, John and Robert—and supported them in all their academic, musical and athletic pursuits. She also pursued her own interests with intensity and became a serious marathoner. She completed seventeen marathons, including the Abbott World Marathon Majors: New York (nine times), Boston (three times), Chicago (twice), Berlin, London and Tokyo. Notably, her first New York City marathon, in 1996, was less than three months after the birth of her daughter.

Additionally, in 2007, she ran New York with her mother, who was 78 at the time, and her nephew. Not to be denied by cancer, Elise continued to run while undergoing treatment and completed her final race in April 2025, participating in the Boston 5K, which precedes the Boston Marathon.

Always willing to help others, she will be missed by all who knew her. She was predeceased by her father, Robert Junn, and is survived by her husband, Al Sawyers; her children, Amelia, John and Robert Sawyers; her sisters, Ellen and Jane Junn; her mother, Sue Junn; and many nieces and nephews.

A service will be held in her honor on August 14, 2025, at the Brick Presbyterian Church in Manhattan at 3:00 p.m., with a celebration of her life at the Union Club of the City of New York from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m..

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Breast Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center