Elsbeth Anna Loeppert, 85 of Chicago, passed away Tuesday November 12, 2024. She was born Thursday September 28, 1939 in Milwaukee Wisconsin, on the eve of the 2nd World War. She was a bright and energetic little girl, brought up as part of an enlightened, religious and cultured family which fit more-or-less awkwardly into the Midwestern town and country around them. Her father, Theodre Arthur Loeppert, was a Methodist minister and a professor of religion at a nearby university, and her mother, Esther Zebelle Loeppert, nee Walters, had been a high school English teacher for several years before their marriage.

    Elsbeth went to a junior college in Evanston and then to Northwestern University where she earned an M.A. in English. She taught successfully at Valparaiso University for more than six years and served as a dormitory head before developing a mental condition, later diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia.  She suffered from it for the rest of her long life. But she had an indomitable will to survive, which carried her through the rest of her lonely, often homeless and ghost-ridden existence. She fought a long and unwinnable war; still, she kept her dignity to the end.

    She is survived by her brother, Theodore W. Loeppert of Evanston. Private interment in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Arrangements entrusted to Evanston Funeral & Cremation, Roland F. Weis director. Info 847 866-8843, condolence and guestbook at evanstonfuneral.com