Jeanne Marie Lilienthal | January 22, 1949  –  September 8, 2024

Jeanne Marie Lilienthal (75) of Wyandotte, Michigan, passed away Sunday, September 8th, 2024, after a brief illness surrounded by family. She was preceded in death by her parents William J. Lilienthal Sr. and Mary Rose (Dionne) Lilienthal. Jeanne, an aunt, niece, cousin and friend to so many. Jeanne was a remarkable woman in so many ways and has impacted so many lives. A 1967 Graduate of St. Patrick’s High School, she went on to Aquinas College and then Michigan State University. Jeanne graduated from Michigan State University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and was a true “SPARTY”.

After graduation she worked with under privileged children in Detroit as an in-house counselor at the Children’s Center.

Her life was one of community service and generosity. She never stopped advocating for Women’s rights and helping underprivileged children. As the eldest of four sisters, she will especially be remembered for encouraging independence, adventure and especially service to those in need and always seeing the best in people and loving them for who they are without judgement.

Jeanne followed in her Fathers (William) and Grandfathers (Martin) footsteps by becoming a police officer. Jeanne was hired by the Detroit Police Department in October of 1973. She was one of the first women hired specifically to help integrate females into a broader role in the Police Department. Jeanne retired from the Detroit Police Department as a Sergeant in 2003 after a thirty (30) year career. After retiring from the Detroit Police Department Jeanne was hired by the Detroit Public School as an Attendance Officer retiring again in 2014 after twelve years.

In 1978 Jeanne purchased an ocean side eight room boarding house and six apartments located in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, called “The Elizabeth”. “The Elizabeth” provides seasonal housing for thirty-three International Students from Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Africa, Turkey, India, Hungary, and Moldova who work and travel in the USA on summer visas. Another dream of Jeanne’s was to have a house full of kids, “The Elizabeth” summer beach house accomplished her dream.

Jeanne has two children, daughter Kyle from Colombia, South America and son Kevin from Honduras, Central America. She adopted the children as a single parent and is very proud of the fact that she was the “first ever” to arrange a short leave of absence from the Detroit Police Department for the purpose of adoption before such “family leaves” became common.

Jeanne loved a number of things in her life, most of all she loved her family, her children Kyle and Kevin, grandchildren and great grandchildren, sons-in-law Ed and Mike and all of her nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. She also loved helping others, mostly children, which led her to Camp Cavell in Lexington, Michigan, where she volunteered for over thirty (30) years. Jeanne’s passion for Camp Cavell was second to none. Jeanne had a passion for fishing, taught fly fishing, enjoyed yearly fishing trips to

Key West Florida, and enjoyed supplying all her great nieces and nephews with tackle boxes, fishing reels, and flies for fishing. She enjoyed the water, kayaking, the ocean and Lake Pawtuckaway in New Hampshire. She was an exceptional writer and enjoyed writing children’s books for her family.

She has always given back to the community and has been raising money to send kids to summer camp for more than 30 years. Jeanne believed in Camp Cavell and as a volunteer at Camp Cavell she led the campaign to purchase the kayaks and equipment to take women and children on kayak trips. She loved river kayaking and wanted to share the experience with others. Jeanne also served as a volunteer instructor for the camps kayaking and fishing programs. Her hope was for all kids to have the same opportunities to enjoy swimming, horseback riding, tree climbing and her biggest passion, fishing.

In the past four years, Jeanne raised more than $160,000 and sent more than 500 children to Camp Cavell. She also spearheaded almost all of the Camp Cavell Conservatory fundraising campaigns and raised over $350,000 over the years for the camp. She has always given her own donation to get each campaign rolling. She has also found hundreds of donations in goods and services.

Jeanne spent her free time with her grandchildren often kayaking, swimming, fishing and traveling. As a personal project, four years ago she began making and giving fleece blankets to people in her life that “make a difference”. To date, Jeanne has given away over 350 blankets to family, friends and the IHM convent in Monroe.

Jeanne would say “ I TRUST TO THE MEMORIES YOU ARE BUILDING FOR YOURSELVES IN YOUR LIFE. LIVE EACH DAY LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW. MAKE LIFE AN ADVENTURE, YOU BETTER BELIEVE I’LL BE WATCHING”

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to ;
Camp Cavell Conservancy
3335 Lakeshore Rd.
Lexington, Mi. 48450

https://campcavell.org/donate

IHM Sisters
610 West Elm Avenue
Monroe, Mi. 48162-7909

Donate

Jeanne is survived by:

Her daughter Kyle, (Ed) Szczepanik, of New Hampshire and son, Kevin (Mike) Lilienthal, of Chicago.

Siblings: Bill (Betty) Lilienthal, Michael Lilienthal and David (Lois) Lilienthal Mary (Tom) Hefferan, Linda (Steve) LaBane, Karen Douglas.

She is also survived by many grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews, Dearest Aunt Marion Scott and many cousins, and dearest friend Jill Laidlaw