JEAN COX CHASE
Dec. 25, 1956-Sept. 24, 2014
Jean Cox Chase, Charlottesville, Va., died Wednesday, Sept. 24, at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.
Funeral Saturday, Oct. 25, 3 p.m. Eureka United Methodist Church, followed by inurnment in Eureka Cemetery.
Jean "Jeannie" was born Dec. 25, 1956, in Chapel Hill to the late John B. Chase Jr. and Jean McAlister Cox Chase.
She was a granddaughter of former North Carolina state representative Nancy Winbon Chase and John B. Chase of Eureka.
She graduated from Hampshire College, Amherst, Mass., and earned a master's degree in early childhood education/child development.
She had a passion for the wellbeing, education and care of your children, and became a relentless advocate for children's rights and early childhood education.
She taught at the University of South Carolina at Beaufort, and was employed in developing children's programming for SECTV in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Later, she was vice president for nationwide children's programming with PBS in Washington, D.C. Jean was dedicated for many years to the work of The Children's Defense Fund and the National Association for the Education of the Young Child.
Trained in videography, she produced documentaries and training curriculums and media for CDF and NAEYC. She was also affiliated with the Center of the Advance Study of Teaching and Learning and with Children, Youth and Family Services in Charlottesville, Va.
Jeanie had a keen, quick humor and intelligence as well as a tender, nurturing softness. She enjoyed good conversation, politics, the arts, music, photography and especially dance.
She appreciated and explored the traditions of many cultures, and enjoyed meeting and getting to know people and their personal stories of struggle and accomplishment.
Jean enjoyed Irish literature and culture, and made numerous trips to Ireland. Mostly, she enjoyed touching the lives of children by listening to them and helping them grow.
Surviving are her sister, Nancy D. Chase of Decatur, Ga.; aunt, Janice Sasser Chase; cousins, Lu Chase Massey and John B. "Johnny" Chase II of Eureka; and maternal cousins, James Cubbage, Richard Cubbage and Jean Cubbage Robbins.
A special thanks to her gentle partner, Jeff Dahlgreen, who devotedly loved and cared for her in the last months of her life, and was at her bedside at the time of her death.
The family requests that memorial contributions be made in Jean's memory to the Lasting Leadership Fund of the National Association for the Education of Young Children at their website, www.naeyc.org/about/legacy/donate, or Children's Defense Fund (CDF.org).
Contributions in Jeanie's memory may also be made to Eureka United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 3240, Eureka, N.C., 27830-3240.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on October 22, 2014 1:54 PM