Phyllis Rose Wise Leon

Phyllis Leon was a highly intelligent, emancipated human being born decades before society encouraged women to make use of their gifts. Fortunately, her parents - Gertrude Warsaw Wise and Sidney Seymour Wise - provided a home life in Chicago that supported Phyllis’s notable academic attainments. These included early graduation from Von Steuben High School and enrollment in the University of Chicago. She graduated with a PhB in English and ultimately earned an MA in American Literature from the University of Arizona. In the mid-1940s, becoming a schoolteacher was one of the few options open to well-educated women; and Phyllis worked for two years at a Jewish elementary school in Chicago. Later in life, after Phyllis had built two successful careers in her beloved Tucson - first as a high school English teacher at Flowing Wells High School, eventually becoming chair of the department; and then as a real estate broker and branch manager for Roy Long Realty - she identified wholly as a retired English teacher. She had left the field of English education under unfortunate circumstances when the school district overlooked her credentials and classroom skills and promoted someone whose only advantage was being a man. Phyllis had a knack for treating her nieces and nephews as fully-fledged adults from their early childhoods when few other adults would. In fact, she was an intrinsic part of her families’ lives as both an intellectual model and citizen activist. Her translucent complexion and red finger- and toenail polish are also an integral part of their memories. She was a big thinker and an irreverent wit. Phyllis is survived by her two sons, Alan David Davidon and Gregory Wise Leon and their wives. She outlived her two younger sisters, Barbara Ann Wise Kusin and Marianne Brunst Iverson. Marianne’s husband Dennis Iverson survives her as well. She is also survived by many loving grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Arrangements entrusted to Chicagoland Cremation Options of Schiller Park, Illinois.