Jean Vazzana, Awesome Wife, Mom And Grandma, Dies At 71

PALOS HILLS, IL — Jean Vazzana expressed her love by cooking massive amounts of food for her family and dispensing sage advice to students at Moraine Valley Community College. Jean passed away Feb. 24 after a brave battle with multiple myeloma. She was 71.

She was born Jean Marie Hawkins to Ann and Roger Hawkins. Jean was married to the love of her life, Frank Vazzana, for 50 years. Together they raised five children in Palos Hills, Frank (SueAnn), Greg (Hannah), Chris (Nicole), Kim (Levi), and Jeff (Jeff). They were also blessed with 10 grandchildren: Ada, Huxley, Nicholas, Freddy, Gabriella, Austin, Ever, James, Leela, and Camryn Jean.

Jean loved being a devoted wife, mother and grandmother above all else. She enjoyed cooking vast amounts of delicious food, reading, and visiting the beach in St. Joseph, Michigan. Jean was formerly an academic adviser at Moraine Valley Community College. There wasn’t a dog or cat anywhere that could resist Jean’s charms. She enjoyed shopping for loved ones, baking with her grandchildren, and going to movies and restaurants with her beloved husband.

Her children contributed their own random memories of their unflappable mother, collected by her youngest child Jeff:

“When we were kids, mom brought pasta sauce all the way from Chicago to Florida... and then we accidentally burned it on the stove.”

“There was the time when she was cutting a birthday cake, and it ended up falling on her chest somehow. She plopped it right back on the plate and kept cutting.”

“Mom taught me how to write with suntan lotion on my back. Too bad I spelled 'spring break' wrong- ‘sring break.’”

“Mom told me to do something with that ‘wreck’ of a first car I bought for $75. So I went to the Saxon’s wallpaper store on 95th street in Oak Lawn and decided to wallpaper my car. Mom taught me how to wallpaper that day. I drove that ‘paisley-mobile’ for years”

“Mom loved puppies, and she loved holding puppies. She’d go to the pet store just to look at them when she was feeling down. She would even call around and see if they had Westies (her favorite dog) to go see them.”

“Mom showed her love by cooking. You know you did something right when she would show up at your door with trays upon trays of food. At family parties, she’d make enough for a small army, and then everyone would take home tons of leftovers. It got to the point that everyone who came would show up with Tupperware to take stuff home with them. Now that she’s gone, our fridges have never been emptier.”

Jean is also survived by her siblings, Roger, Jerry, Mike, and Carol.

Visitation will be held the Friday, March 8 from 4 to 9 p.m. at Hills Funeral Home, 10201 S. Roberts Road, Palos Hills. A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 9, at Sacred Heart Church, 8245 W. 111th St., Palos Hills.

In lieu of flowers (as well as family sensitives and flower allergies), her family asks that donations be made in Jean’s memory to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

Cremation rites have already been accorded. Jean loved beaches, and she especially loved going to St. Joseph, Mich. to watch the waves and sunset. Her children plan to spread some of her ashes there this summer. Online condolences may be left on the funeral home’s guestbook.