Fourth Quarter Report, 2004
on Jay Ruby's Oak Park Research

Katherine and Bob Trezevant

KATHERINE GERVAIS TREZEVANT, 68, longtime Oak Parker, retired educator, dedicated volunteer

Katherine G. Trezevant, a fourth generation Oak Parker and longtime resident, passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, on Dec. 24, 2004. Born in 1936, she was the eldest child of Paul Trapier Gervais and Helena Saxby Gervais. She graduated from Beye School and from Oak Park and River Forest High School, class of 1954. She graduated with Honors in Greek Classics from Swarthmore College and earned her masters degree in Classical Languages and Literature from the University of Chicago, also completing all work for a teachers certificate in secondary education. She then taught in the Classics department at both Rockford College and Beloit College. While at Beloit she recieved a Danforth Foundation Teaching Grant to complete the residency for a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin.

After marrying Robert Trezevant in 1966, she taught for two years at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Their children Warren and Suzanne were born in Bryn Mawr, and she parented at home for eight years. During that time she joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) at Radnor Meeting. At Radnor she was a founding member of Women Among Friends, and she served on the Philadelphia Yearly Meetings Womens Committee. She also was active in the annual Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology. She and her husband attended several sessions of Friends General Conference, where she always participated in the womens center.

Ms. Trezevant and her family returned to live in the family home in Oak Park in 1977. For the next twenty years she taught at the Elgin Academy. In 1992 she was recognized by Illinois Teacher of the Year Program with a Those Who Excel award for her creative curriculum development and excellent teaching of middle and upper school students. During her professional career she was active in the Chicago Classical Club, serving on its executive committee for two years. She was also on committees of the Illinois Classical Conference. She was a member of the American Philological Association and the American Classical League. She was continuing her interest in Classical culture by studying modern Greek and visiting Greece each year with her husband.

Ms. Trezevant was a beloved member of Oak Park Monthly Meeting of Friends. She served as clerk and recording clerk, taught religious education for the children, and led adult study groups. Since 1985, for Illinois Yearly Meeting of Friends, she helped lead the Youth Oversight Committee, which provides religious training for Quaker high schoolers from Illinois and parts of adjoining states. She also was an active participant in the IYMs Womens Group. She delivered the annual Plummer Lecture at IYM in July of 2000.

Her commitment to womens issues and especially womens spirituality led her to become active in Limina, an education group founded in Oak Park in 1984 to explore and validate the lives of women. She was recently co-chair of its executive council and facilitated their twentieth anniversary celebration in October of 2004.

Ms. Trezevant was devoted to the community spirit of Oak Park. She and her husband were members of the Lowell literary group, founded by her great aunt in 1897. Because of her familys multi-generational involvement in Oak Park, the family is being profiled in a current ethnographic study of the village being done by Dr. Jay Ruby of Temple University.

She is survived by her 95-year old mother, Helena Gervais McCullough, and her husband of 38 years, Bob Trezevant, both of Oak Park; her son and daughter-in-law, Warren and Harriet Trezevant, and granddaughter, Tallulah Jane Trezevant, of Oakland, Calif.; and her daughter, Sue, of Oak Park. Other survivors include her brother Paul, and Glynne Gervais of Oak Park; her brother John, and Jane Gervais of York, Pa.; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins, as well as the kind family of Hiram McCullough. She was devoted to them all.

The family requests that donations in her memory be made to the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, 875 Lake St., Oak Park 60301, or the American Friends Service Committee, 637 S. Dearborn St., Chicago 60605. A memorial service will be held at Unity Temple on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2005, at 3 p.m.

The Death of a Subject and Friend

When I decided to do an ethnography of my hometown I realized I was sailing into uncharted waters. But as I had a long term interest in reflexivity, I thought it was an excelllent place to explore that concept in the field. When I decided that I wanted to produce three ethnographic family portraits that dealt with the transformation of Oak Park from the conservative, all white, Republican place I remembered from my childhood into a liberal and successfully intregrated place that not only incorporated blacks but also gays and lesbians. I choose the Taylors as the African American family, Rebekah and Sophie as the lesbian family and Helena, Katherine and Bob as the "DOOPER" family - the Dear Old Oak Parkers. Helena, now 95, came from the center of "old" Oak Park culture and lived through all of the changes I was interested in. Katherine was a year younger than me and grew up like I did. Bob, while a transplanted Texan, has embraced the core values of the village. They seemed an excellent choice.

From the beginning of my involvement with this family I knew my relationship with them would be complicated. Helena is my aunt's close friend. So I came to them in a personal way. In the process of doing the ethnography - observing, participating, and video interviewing, my wife and I became close friends with Katherine and Bob. We spent a lot of time going places and eating in and out. So the problem of reflexivity became how to accomodate my personal feelings about them as people with their role in my ethnography - friend and subject completely interwoven. Since the fall I have been transcribing interviews. I completed those with Bob and am half way through those with Helena. Katherine was next.

Her death was totally sudden and quite unexpected. The thought of listening to her tell me about her life will be emotioinally difficult. On Saturday, January 8th there will be a memorial service for Katherine at Oak Park's famous Unity Temple. Bob asked me if I wanted to film, I declined. There are times when you must stop being the ethnographer and just be a full participant. This is one of those times.

As always I welcome your comments, criticisms and suggestions. Email me at ruby@acsworld.com