Funeral Details

Carol (Levin) Brown, 81, passed away on April 25, 2023 after a brief but debilitating illness, at home and surrounded by her family. The beloved daughter of Harold and Pauline Levin, devoted and loving wife, mother and grandmother, Carol grew up in Winnetka, Illinois. She met her husband Ed at a Valentine’s Day dance when they were freshmen at New Trier High School. After dating throughout high school and college, they married in 1963 and raised their family in Highland Park. Carol and Ed were an inseparable couple and would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in December 2023.

Carol attended Indiana University and National Louis University and worked as an elementary and preschool teacher for many years, including 20 years at Beth El preschool in Highland Park. Carol was a creative, spirited and compassionate teacher who touched the lives of many students and their families, particularly students with special learning or emotional needs, whom she championed and kept in touch with for years.

Carol and Ed had three daughters, Lisa, Karen and the late Julie. Their adult lives were shaped by the loss of their middle daughter Julie, who died in 1979 at age 8 following a two-year battle with a malignant brain tumor. The profound sadness never left them, but they preserved their daughter’s memory through pictures and storytelling and found strength in how they faced her illness, death and the aftermath with courage, dignity and determination. This tragedy strengthened their marriage, intensified their love for family and their zest for life. Carol was a role model for her daughters Lisa and Karen as a strong, devoted woman and mother with a fighting spirit and boundless love for her family.

Carol loved cooking and gardening and hosting friends and family in her beautiful backyard. She was a lifelong crafter – mostly knitting and needlepoint – and took great pleasure in making pillows and sweaters for her family. She and Ed shared many interests – they were avid theater, concert, movie and museum-goers, took adult education classes together at Northwestern, and loved travel, adventure and exercise. They took month-long camping trips, visiting nearly all 50 states, canoed in the Skokie Lagoons and were avid bicyclists – on separate bikes, then a two-wheeled tandem, and then a three-wheeled tandem – consistently logging over 2,000 miles a year.

Carol was blessed to have a close-knit family that lived nearby. She treasured her three grandsons (Daniel, Jordan and Eli Meek) and two granddaughters (Alli and Emily Sattler). Carol loved hosting holidays and family dinners and treasured sleepovers, baking, board and card games, reading and watching movies, craft projects, and outings to museums and the botanic gardens with her grandkids. Her relationships with her grandkids evolved as they got older. She cheered them on in their academics, jobs and sports (she rarely missed a Highland Park High School tennis match or hockey game), cherished their visits and phone and video conversations, and extended her deep affection to the most important people in their lives, including their friends and her grandsons’ long-time girlfriends.

If you were lucky enough to be Carol’s close friend or family member, Carol would do anything for you. She was a natural caretaker and problem-solver. An honest and wise voice. A steady hand in a crisis. The trusted person to whom you turned for advice and practical guidance. Her loyalty and generosity towards those she loved knew no bounds.

Carol will be deeply missed by her husband Ed, her daughter Lisa and husband David (Meek), daughter Karen (Sattler) and husband Joel, and her five grandchildren.

A private memorial service will be held. Instead of flowers or food, if you wish to honor Carol’s life, please make a contribution in her memory to the American Brain Tumor Association at bit.ly/DonateABTA or via mail: The American Brain Tumor Association, 8550 West Bryn Mawr Ave. #550 Chicago IL 60631. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com

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