Obituary of Barbara Hall
Barbara Hall, 91, passed away on November 3, 2024 in Libertyville Illinois with her family by her side.
Born and raised in the small town of Mukwonago, Wisconsin in the 1930s, Barbara’s early experiences shaped her world view. A tight-knit, large family together with strong community ties established for her the value of human connections. Exposure to family small businesses and family farming taught an indelible work ethic and flexibility in confronting life’s challenges.
Barbara would delight in pointing out that she was born at home, in a room on the third floor of the family-owned Mukwonago Hotel, an historic structure that exists to this day. Her childhood included fishing on Phantom Lake, swimming in the local millpond, and working at the family gas station and saddlery. Barbara was proud of her strong family ties in rural Wisconsin and stalwart network of relations who have gathered for a family reunion every July for nearly a century.
In 1951, she graduated from Mukwonago High School and attended University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology in 1955. During her years at Madison she worked at the Memorial Union Craft Shop where she met anthropology graduate student Robert (Bob) L. Hall when he came to use the photography darkroom.
After graduation, Barbara moved to Chicago to attend graduate school at the University of Chicago, and later worked as a resident advocate for the Chicago Housing Authority in the Trumbull Park Homes. Returning to Wisconsin she served as the District Director of the Badger Council of Girl Scouts.
Barbara married Bob in 1958; the young couple lived in Wisconsin and South Dakota before establishing a permanent home in Libertyville, where they raised their four daughters.
In raising Jane, Kathryn, Martha, and Susan, Barbara taught through example, whether it was making homemade jams, sewing Halloween costumes and outfits for her girls, cooking over a camp stove, or using her own body to hold up the family tent in a ferocious South Dakota thunderstorm as Bob tightened the guy lines outside.
Starting in 1978 Barbara worked as a teacher aide in the CORE classrooms at Libertyville High School until 1985 when she was hired as Coordinator for the Lake County Literacy Program at the College of Lake County. As coordinator she recruited and trained hundreds of volunteers who were paired with adult literacy students for one-on-one tutoring, as well as organizing community outreach and workplace literacy initiatives.
An advocate for safe bicycling, Barbara was an active member of the SPOKESgroup in the 1980s. The SPOKESgroup initiated bike path development in Lake County, which included the start of the North Shore Bike Path. She also helped with community bicycle safety programs.
During their 53 years together Barbara and Bob formed an unmatched team, supporting each other in their many shared professional and personal interests: Doing archaeological surveys, organizing University of Illinois Chicago (UICC) archaeological field schools with four daughters in tow, or traveling across the North American continent (and some of Europe) in pursuit of genealogical, anthropological, and other interests reflective of their shared traits of curiosity and love of learning.
After Bob’s passing in 2012, Barbara continued to travel with her children and grandchildren. These adventures included three cross-country rail journeys to the west coast on Amtrak. In 2018, she fulfilled a bucket list goal by hiking on the Camino de Santiago in Spain – at the age of 85!
An avid reader and library supporter, Barbara loved to wake up early to get a start on her newspapers, which she always began by tearing out all the parts she didn't want to read. And no better day could be spent than one puttering about the yard, making sure that all of her plants and trees were living up to her expectations for them. Her gardens were filled with native plants and trees that each have a family story to tell.
Barbara is survived by her three sisters Marilyn Craig, Kathryn Naukkari, and Vivian Norton; her daughters Jane (Paul) Taylor, Kathryn (Brett Sergay) Hall, Martha (Peter) Hansen, and Susan Hall; four grandchildren: Emma, Abigail (Abby), Susan, and Ian; her Aunt Beula (Bernau) Leake; and dozens of cousins, nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Robert L. Hall; parents Wilbur and Dorothy Mohr; and brothers-in-law Ray Craig, Bob Naukkari, and John Norton.
The family would like to thank the Green Oaks Senior Living staff and the North Shore Oncology Hematology Associates staff and especially Dr David Slivnik and Dr Amber Seba, for their exceptional and dedicated care these past two and a half years.
A celebration of life will be held in February 2025 details to be shared later. The McMurrough Funeral Chapel (libertyvillefuneralhome.com) is assisting the family with arrangements. If wished, memorials may be directed to Cook Memorial Public Library (cooklib.org) or the Mukwonago Historical Society’s Red Brick Museum (mukwonagohistoricalsociety.org).