Carolyn Glass embodied school spirit for nearly 40 years at Glenbrook South High School, where generations of students knew her as “Mama.”
She joined the school’s staff in middle age and worked into her early 80s, but she always displayed the energy of an eager freshman when she grabbed a microphone to lead students in her trademark cheer.
“Wash ’em in the river!” the diminutive Mrs. Glass would yell. “Hang ’em on the line!”
Still a regular at the Glenview school’s sporting events in retirement, Mrs. Glass, 87, died of natural causes Saturday, April 3, in hospice care at NorthShore University HealthSystem Skokie Hospital, said her grandson Ari Glass. She was a resident of Vernon Hills.
Hired as a paraprofessional in 1968, six years after Glenbrook South opened, Mrs. Glass did a bit of everything over the years, keeping an eye on students in the hallways, cafeteria and study halls.
She became the Pep Club adviser early on and acquired her nickname at a pep rally when a principal told students, “Rock ‘n’ roll has Mama Cass, Glenbrook South has Mama Glass.”
The students took to calling her Mama, and Mrs. Glass lived up to it, fussing over them and becoming a trusted confidante to many. Her grandson remembers staying at her home and hearing the phone ring at all hours of the day and night.
“They would come to her before they’d go to their parents,” he said.
She could also be a strict disciplinarian. Principal Brian Wegley recalled a sporting event where she dressed down a student who yelled something a little rougher than “Wash ’em in the river.”
” ‘We do not do that here,’ ” she sharply told the boy, Wegley said. “He looked at her and said, ‘I’m sorry, Mama,’ and sat down.”
“She just commanded your love and respect and admiration,” Wegley said.
She sold doughnuts and milk in the mornings and school apparel from a cubbyhole in a lunchroom, with profits going to the Pep Club. She was also in charge of the Usher’s Club, wrangling tuxedos from a local shop so her ushers looked like professionals at theater productions, then taking everyone out for pizza after the show’s final performance.
Her annual appearance in the student variety show was an eagerly awaited highlight.
At sporting events, she stood in front of the cheerleaders to urge greater participation from those in the stands.
“She didn’t mind showing up the cheerleaders, and the cheerleaders would follow her lead,” said Hector Carabez, who coaches soccer and is on the special education staff at Glenbrook South. “The kids would never follow the cheerleaders. They’d follow her.”
A native of Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood, Mrs. Glass’ father, Sam Koppel, was a city official and powerful Democratic precinct captain in the West Side’s 24th Ward. She graduated from Marshall High School and married Jack Glass, who promptly left to serve in World War II.
In the 1950s, she coordinated North Side efforts for the Mothers March on Polio and was president of the regional PTA, taking on school officials over issues like crowded schools, said her son Michael. The family later moved to the north suburbs, and she started working at Glenbrook South.
Mrs. Glass retired reluctantly, but she couldn’t stay away from the school’s sporting events. Her final football game was the team’s opener last fall. She was getting around with a walker but still stood up to rouse fans she felt were sitting on their hands.
The Titans lost in overtime, and she griped the whole way home, Carabez said.
“She would always blame the losses on the referees, because she thought the kids were great,” Carabez said.
Mrs. Glass’ husband died in 2005.
Other surviving family members include a daughter, Kathye Balmes; a sister, Iris Halperin; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Services are set for 10 a.m. Thursday at Weinstein Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette.
