Jean Lundergan, 58, a longtime 5th-grade teacher at Lowell Elementary School in Chicago and a familiar face among Near North Side civic groups, died of a heart attack Friday, Feb. 2, in her North Side home. With her late husband, Mrs. Lundergan was a world traveler, bringing suitcases full of Chicago-themed items for trade abroad and returning home with cultural artifacts from the places they visited. The imports, in turn, became items for classroom study: papyrus from Egypt, coffee beans from Costa Rica, and jewelry boxes from Russia lay atop a table in her class. In the evenings and on weekends, Mrs. Lundergan was a volunteer for the Lyric Opera, Misericordia and the Democratic Party. She served on the board of the Illinois Club for Catholic Women and helped provide scholarships to opera students through the Fine Arts Society. “She was extremely talkative. Her eyes would sparkle at every new topic, every new book, every new play. Anything dealing with arts, or theater or film, she was there,” said her sister, Mary Ann Folino. “There was just a love of learning and knowing and experiencing. Anything new fascinated her.” Raised in the Old Town neighborhood, the former Jean Durpetti graduated from Holy Name Cathedral High School in 1959. She was the vice president of her graduating class and later was active in the Young Democrats, working to help elect John F. Kennedy in 1960. She married rookie firefighter Robert F. Lundergan in 1965, and the couple raised their three children on the North Side, as Mr. Lundergan worked his way up to battalion chief. Mrs. Lundergan returned to school in the 1970s, and earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English literature from Northeastern Illinois University. She taught for 10 years at Medill Elementary School on the South Side, which has since closed. She taught at Lowell since the late-1980s. Her husband died in 1999. In addition to her sister, Mrs. Lundergan is survived by two daughters, Heather and Amber; a son, Christopher; and two brothers, Anthony and Sonny Durpetti. Mass will be said at 6 p.m. Thursday in St. Michael Catholic Church, 1633 N. Cleveland Ave., Chicago.
