Elizabeth Goldwasser

Elizabeth "Lizie" Weiss Goldwasser, 102, died peacefully in her home on August 8th, 2022. She was a loving and beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt and friend, and was at the center of an enormous galaxy of people who brought great joy and fulfillment into her extraordinary life. Lizie was born March 21, 1920, the daughter of Louis and Honi Weiss, and grew up in New York City. She attended the Walden and Lincoln Schools, received an undergraduate degree from the George Washington University, and later in life earned a Master of Education degree from the University of Illinois. In 1940 Lizie married fellow New Yorker Edwin "Ned" Goldwasser, and the two of them enjoyed a remarkable marriage spanning 76 years until Neds death. After living together in New York City, Washington, DC and Berkeley, CA, Lizie and Ned moved to Champaign-Urbana in 1951, when Ned joined the faculty at the University of Illinois. Lizie described her first glimpse of her new home this way: "Ned and I drove into town, and I looked around, and I knew I had fallen off the end of the earth." Little did she know that she would grow to love the community so much that she would choose to live there for all but ten of the next 71 years. It was there that she became a magnet for an ever-expanding community of people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life.

Lizie and Ned spent ten years away from Champaign-Urbana from 1968-78, while Ned served as co-founder and the first Deputy Director of Fermilab, outside Chicago. Once a city girl, Lizie thoroughly enjoyed living in the Chicago area and made a number of life-long friends there, but she was also buoyed by the knowledge that Ned had never officially left the U of I, having chosen to remain on leave instead. So when Ned was recruited back to campus to serve in the University administration, Lizie was ecstatic to return.

Lizie loved all kinds of music, from Broadway musicals, to folk music, to opera, to Elvis and nearly everything in between. She sang to her children, sang in various choruses over the years and sang to herself. She knew songs for every occasionprotest songs, love songs, and even one song about a drug addict (which she sang to her children when they were quite young). She was also an avid supporter of the arts, and especially of the Krannert Center.

Above all, Lizie stayed busy. For years, she was an active member of the local chapters of the League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union. She was also a devoted supporter of the Urbana Free Library. Well into her 90s, her social calendar continued to be extraordinarily full, replete with concerts, movies, lectures, classes, parties and visits with friends. Recent additions to her already busy schedule were two small groups of friends she hosted most weeks, one on Tuesdays for wine and cheese, the other (the "Chin Waggers") on Thursdays for tea and sweets.

Lizie and Ned shared a passion for travel, and during a span of over 70 years they regularly took trips to countries all over the world. In addition, well into their 90s, they made frequent trips to visit children and grandchildren who were scattered around the country, and annual trips to California to visit old friends.

A highlight of every year for Lizie and Ned was their annual visit to Stephentown, NY, where Lizies mother built an enclave of small cabins and one big house that served as a summer gathering place for extended family for nearly 50 years. The common room in the big house was large enough for 40 people to share stories, games, cooking and eating. As with her friends in Urbana, Lizie was the social glue that kept this going year after year.

After Neds death in 2016, Lizie continued to be an active and involved member of the Champaign-Urbana community and beyond. Her welcoming home attracted a steady stream of visitors who would often arrive unannounced. Lizie thrived on human interaction, and she had an extraordinary ability to remember names, faces, childrens names, occupations, and even birthdays. After losing her three siblings and virtually all of her contemporaries, she became "de facto mother" to her nieces and nephews, and continued to have close, often quasi-parental relationships with the children and grandchildren of her deceased friends.

Although not immune to frustration with the aging process, in her later years Lizie grew to accept old age and her declining health with dignity and grace. A survivor of breast cancer (diagnosed in 1978) and COVID-19 (diagnosed in November 2020), she had a real appreciation for how lucky she was to be able to live such a long and fulfilling life, and she served as an inspiration for all of those who continued to visit her home. Her remarkable zest for life was so consuming that she would frequently stay awake and busy into the wee hours of the morning. And wee hours or not, she ended every day by making a slow and extremely harrowing climb up a long flight of stairs to go to bed. When asked why she insisted on climbing all those stairs every night given how dangerous it was for one so old (and she was asked just that on more than one occasion), with characteristic bluntness, Lizie would say, "I do it because thats where my bedroom is." She flatly rejected the notion that having a second-floor bedroom was problematic, and in fact insisted that her daily stair-climbing was helping to keep her alive.

In addition to her husband Ned, Lizie was preceded in death by her sisters Barbara Merrill and Katherine Pollak, brother Peter Weiss, grandson Daniel Goldwasser and niece Dierdre Weiss. She is survived by her sons Mike (Marion), John (Kathy Cash), Davey and Rick; daughter Kathy; grandchildren Sarah (Dan Pay) and Ellen Goldwasser, Shama and Sophie Cash-Goldwasser, Ben Goldwasser (Alisa Mackay), Jake Baker (Christine) and Josh Goldwasser; great grandchildren Louise Baker and Ned Pay; and 18 nieces and nephews.

Her family would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Lizies friends and neighbors who made it possible for her to live alone in the house she had lived in for 44 years and loved so much. It truly took a village, and we are so appreciative of those who brought food, bought groceries, wheeled the garbage containers to the curb and back, emptied mousetraps, drove her to doctor appointments and cultural events, and brought sunshine to her life each and every day. The family would also like to thank Yolanda Fortier, Jean Mason and especially Connie Williams, three patient and devoted helpers and caregivers who tirelessly attended to Lizies many needs and won her trust and friendship. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations made in Lizies name to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (https://www.aclu-il.org/en), the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (https://www.naacpldf.org/) or Planned Parenthood of Illinois (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-illinois).

A celebration of Lizies life is being planned and will take place next spring.

Cremation rites have been accorded at Sunset Funeral Home and Cremation Center 710 N. Neil St. Champaign, IL. 61820

Please join her family in sharing memories, photos and videos on her tribute wall at www.sunsetfuneralhome.com