Anna B. Kirschbaum joined a PTA chorus at her son’s elementary school 45 years ago and in recent weeks still was performing in and around Des Plaines. “My mom was always active,” said her son, Chuck. Mrs. Kirschbaum, 85, died of heart failure Sunday, Dec. 21, in Holy Family Hospital, Des Plaines. Born in Chicago, she was an honors student in high school but never graduated. “She wanted to be a teacher, but her stepfather didn’t think girls should have an education,” her son said. After 10th grade she went to work in a laundry and in 1940 she got married and started a family, living one block from Wrigley Field. She joined the PTA chorus at her son’s elementary school, which led to her forming a trio with two friends. The trio sang for 25 years, performing dozens of volunteer shows during the holiday season, her son said. She did clerical work at Bankers Life Insurance Co. in the late 1960s and early 1970s to help send her children to college, and for five years until 1976 ran a laundry owned by her son in the city. She moved to Des Plaines 19 years ago to be closer to family, teaching a grandson how to play guitar and continuing to play guitar herself and sing with local groups. Other survivors include a daughter, Charlene Goodman; two sisters, Dolly Nolan and Micky Balousek; and three grandchildren. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in G.L. Hills Funeral Home, 745 Graceland Ave., Des Plaines.
