In Memoriam

1931 – 2002 Musician Jimmie Lee Robinson, also known as “Lonesome Lee” and “The Lonely Traveller”, was an iconic Chicago blues musician who played his acoustic guitar on Maxwell Street religiously. He was celebrated for his 1950s and 1960s session work and a 1990s comeback marked by his 81-day hunger strike protesting the demolition of … Read More

1940 – 2022 Maxwell Street Market vendor and artist Charlie Joe Henderson became known as the Mayor of Maxwell Street where he and a partner, Earnest Jackson, rented tables to vendors at the Maxwell Street Market every Sunday since 1972. As a very remunerative business serving over 1000 vendors at the Market, this so impressed … Read More

1945 – 2023 Musician Holger W. Wollert, born in Plau-Mecklenburg, East Germany, was the son of Waldemar and Irene Wollert and the brother to Petra Gierut (nee Wollert). He later migrated to the United States where he established roots in Chicago and served over 30 years with the Chicago Transit Authority before retiring to Mountain … Read More

1948 – 2024 Donor Leslie Heaton Evans became a friend to the Maxwell Street Foundation through the proprietor of the Maxwell Mansion in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. She contacted the mansion about the Maxwell portraits that had graced her parents’ stairway wall in the Detroit home where she and her siblings grew up, that had ended … Read More

1932 – 2009 Board member Dr. Bill Adelman was a respected board member of the Maxwell Street Foundation (MSF). Bill was not only Professor of Labor & Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but he was Founding Member/Vice President of the Illinois History Labor Society.  His willingness to share his knowledge about … Read More

1928 – 2010 Board member Jack Jaffe introduced himself to the Maxwell Street Foundation (MSF) at a time when the MSF was endeavoring to have a brick and mortar museum. Jack’s contribution was the coordination of a photographic portfolio composed of Maxwell Street photographs by select Chicago photographers, including himself, that could be sold as … Read More

1945 – 2012 Board member Bill Lavicka was trained as a structural engineer and used those skills to restore and even move old buildings.  On Maxwell Street, he saw potential for each and every building to be restored and preserved, and was very vocal in his opinions to preserve them.  Bill held meetings in one … Read More

1922 – 2014 Board member and Advisory Council member  Norman Schwartz was on the board of directors of the Maxwell Street Foundation (MSF) from 2004 until 2008.  He informally kept notes of all our meetings and projects, and following his resignation from the board, Norman served on the Maxwell Street Foundation Advisory Council until his … Read More

1925 – 2014 Board member Dr. Carolyn Eastwood was introduced to the Maxwell Street Foundation (MSF) through the Chicago Jewish Historical Society, where she sat on its board.  She was invited to present at the 1993 Maxwell Street Market Colloquium at the University of Illinois at Chicago, organized by founding MSF officer Lori Grove and … Read More

1922 – 2015 Honorary Board Member Seymour Persky accepted founding Maxwell Street Foundation member Elliot Zashin’s invitation to be on the board of the Maxwell Street Foundation in 2004, and became an Honorary Member of its Advisory Council in 2012. Seymour grew up near Maxwell Street and was an architectural preservationist. Seymour was a member … Read More