Jean Freeman, 84, a longtime Chicago resident and retired customer-service supervisor at a publishing company, died Wednesday in Evanston Hospital. Mrs. Freeman was born in Chicago shortly after her parents emigrated from Minsk, Belarus. She and her sister were placed in the Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home after their mother died in 1919 during the flu epidemic and their father was not able to care for them financially. She was reunited with her family two years later. During the Depression, Mrs. Freeman supported her family by working as a clerk at a dime store. Mrs. Freeman changed her name to Joan Koven to get an office job because most stores did not hire Jews, said her daughter, Carolyn Maloy. Mrs. Freeman raised her family on Chicago’s West Side. She worked for 20 years at Harcourt Brace publishing company in Niles and retired as a customer service supervisor in 1979. Survivors, besides her daughter, include her husband, Irving; another daughter, Diane Stern; a sister, Sadie Rosenberg; and four grandchildren. Services were Friday .
