Jane E. Cohen, 82, an active participant in Chicago area civic groups and the wife of late Cook County Circuit Judge Nathan M. Cohen, died Tuesday, Jan. 16, in Highland Park Hospital, after a stroke over the weekend. Mrs. Cohen spent much of her childhood vacationing in the North Woods of Wisconsin and made it a summer ritual to surround herself with family at a seasonal home in Eagle River. “She just felt like we all had our busy lives and careers and what-have-you, but she always viewed everybody being together, particularly there, as putting life into perspective,” said her grandson David Fein. “Her passion was to have the house full, even if that meant somebody sleeping on the cot.” Under such circumstances, Mrs. Cohen was in her element–active and playful, even as an octogenarian. (“You had to drag her off the dance floor,” her grandson said.) A 1937 graduate of Shorewood High School in suburban Milwaukee, the former Jane Krauskopf studied at Stephens College and married Judge Cohen in 1938. He died in 1984. Mrs. Cohen had been a Girl Scout leader on the North Shore and was a frequent outreach volunteer for the National Council of Jewish Elderly. In the 1970s, she served on the advisory board of DePaul University. Besides her grandson, survivors include two daughters, Joanie Keeshin and Susanne Fein; four other grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in Temple Jeremiah, 937 Happ Rd., Northfield.
