Jean Annette Casper

Jean Annette Casper (née Braxton), 87, of Milwaukee passed away peacefully in her sleep on Sunday, July 28, 2024. The cause was complications of mixed vascular and Alzheimer’s dementia. Jean was preceded in death by her mother, Kathleen McGeachy Braxton, and her brother, Daniel Webster Braxton, Jr. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Dennis Casper, and her daughter, Kathleen Casper. Jean was born on June 30, 1937, in Chipley, Fla., into a large, extended family on her mother’s side. After graduating from Chipley High School, she attended Florida State University, majoring in art education and graduating in 1959. She became certified as a mathematics teacher and taught mathematics and Spanish in Florida and Alabama before joining the Peace Corps in 1963. During her training for the Peace Corps at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., she met her future husband, Dennis. He had recently graduated from Cornell and was the administrative assistant in the training program. The Peace Corps sent Jean to Quito, Ecuador. When an anticipated teaching position fell through because of political unrest there, she was hired to work in the library of Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, part of a U.S. Agency for International Development program to modernize the library. Jean quickly took to library work, which became her lifelong vocation. Dennis and Jean married in January 1965 and lived in Urbana, Ill., where Dennis was pursuing a degree in philosophy at the University of Illinois. Jobs for graduate student wives were difficult to obtain, but thanks to her experiences in Ecuador, plus her fluency in Spanish, Jean got a sought-after job with a Latin American library resources program. Concurrently she completed a master’s in library science and began working on a master’s in art history. In 1970, Jean and Dennis moved to Milwaukee, where he took a position on the faculty in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Their daughter, Kathleen, was born that year as well. When Kathleen started kindergarten at the Alverno [College] Campus Elementary School, Jean began volunteering as a librarian and was eventually hired, a position she held for eight years. In the mid-1980s, she moved to Longfellow Middle School in Wauwatosa, from which she retired in 1999. She was gratified to be able to share her love of learning and books with the students at both Alverno and Longfellow. Jean was an intellectually curious woman with wide-ranging interests. During those years, she also completed her master’s in art history. Throughout her life, she was interested in genealogy and became an expert at genealogical research, pursuing in particular her own Scottish family history. She excelled at telling family stories. She was active with the Milwaukee County Genealogical Society and took several research trips with other members. In retirement, Jean and Dennis took up birdwatching. In addition to weekly bird walks at the Urban Ecology Center, they traveled widely, to Ecuador, Costa Rica, Baja California, Mexico, and throughout the U.S. Jean appreciated beauty both in nature and the arts. She was a lifelong concert and theater-goer, with particular interests in early classical music and in Shakespeare. She played the piano and was a talented artist, painting in oil and watercolor, and sketching in pen and ink. She was knowledgeable about the decorative arts and collected beautiful things, including rummage-sale treasures. Jean was acutely aware of issues of racial and economic inequality, and was a staunch believer in racial, social and economic justice. She was a very loving person and cherished her close, loving friendships with people of diverse backgrounds. Memorials in Jean’s name may be sent to the Great Waters Group of the Sierra Club, the Urban Ecology Center, or the Milwaukee Public Library. A celebration of Jean’s life will be held at a later date. Details will appear closer to the event on the website of Northshore Funeral Services, https://www.northshorefuneral.com A celebration of her life will take place on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. St. Rita’s Square Senior Community (in the “Trattoria”) 728 E. Pleasant Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202 Jean’s life will be celebrated through music which she loved: **Scottiish tunes performed by the Celtic band Frogwater **Songs from works by Handel performed by singers from the Florentine Opera Company Refreshments will be served. (Questions? Contact Dennis at 414-975-8720 or dcasper@uwm.edu.)

Jean Annette Casper

June 30, 1937 - July 28, 2024