Elaine H. Bovenkerk

Elaine H. Bovenkerk, age 95, passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on Monday, October 30 after a brief illness.  Matteson resident and previous longtime Park Forest resident, formerly of Chicago Ridge and Chicago's Roseland neighborhood. Graduated from Fenger High School and attended the University of Chicago on a two-year scholarship.

Homemaker and perpetual volunteer since 1949, Mrs. Bovenkerk was active in community, school, and church during her lifetime. In the 1960s and 1970s she was a member of Chicago Episcopal Church Women where she worked toward the ordination of women. She and her husband were co-presidents of the local chapter of the American Field Service in the 1970s, working with host families for international exchange students from Finland, Ecuador, Denmark, and Sweden, and serving as a host family themselves for one year for an exchange student from Australia. In the 1970s she returned to college and completed her bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Social Work at Governors' State University. She served as the Director of the South Suburban YWCA in Park Forest in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mrs. Bovenkerk and her husband enjoyed traveling, and visited England, Ireland, France, Egypt, Israel, Canada, and Australia, as well as every US state except five in the Pacific Northwest. She was an avid reader and a lifelong crafter with interests in ceramics, crochet, knitting, sewing, quilting, basketweaving, and cardmaking, and was very active in her church's crafting community, serving as President of St. John's Episcopal Church Women from 1992-1997 at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Flossmoor. Later in life, Mrs. Bovenkerk developed an interest in genealogy and traced her heritage through 19th century Swedish and Norwegian immigrants as well as 17th century English settlers in Boston, including an ancestor on the Mayflower. Throughout her life, Mrs. Bovenkerk was a member of many clubs and societies including The Garden Club of Park Forest, American Field Service, League of Women Voters, Linnea Society of the South Suburbs, and South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society.

Mrs. Bovenkerk is survived by her daughters Debra Levesque of Matteson, Janet Bovenkerk (Patrick Helsel) of Park Forest, and Nancy Carpenter (George) of McCordsville, Indiana, along with a sister, Marilyn Herrndobler of Crestwood, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband of 49 years, Arthur C. Bovenkerk Jr., a sister, Dolores Hatfield, and her parents, John Hockinson and Isabel Holyoke Hockinson.

A memorial Visitation will be held Friday, November 10, 2023, at Tews-Ryan Funeral Home, 18230 Dixie Highway, Homewood, IL, from 3:00 p.m. until the time of the memorial service at 7:00 p.m. Interment, Mt. Greenwood Cemetery.