By Judy Carmack Bross
Andy Austin, Susan Heisler and Anstiss Krueck, irresistible and irreplaceable
Thinking of the forces of personality and determination that make Chicago like no other city, the three women we have recently lost to death—but not to ongoing ripples of change for the good—Andy Austin’s, Anstiss Krueck’s and Susan Heisler’s lives stand as examples of what all cities need and what we were lucky to observe as each carried out their own dazzling destiny. Writers, artists, hands-on volunteers, each quite different but highly intelligent, a quality everyone we spoke with used about them, and the type of savvy that led them to do great things to the delight of others.
We start alphabetically with Andy whom we have written about twice: first about her life as a court room artist for ABC and her book: Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, and Murders in an American Courtroom. These intimate glimpse of defendants like the Chicago Seven radicals, John Wayne Gacy, various mobsters, the Black Panthers and others riveted readers who could only see inside closed courtrooms with Andy’s drawings.
Andy Austin’s Rule 53
“My mother absolutely adored the people she drew in court–everyone from the judge, the jury, the bailiff, and especially the accused. Curiosity about their lives and personalities energized her every moment in the courtroom,” her daughter Sasha Schmitt said.
“She didn’t experience herself as an artist drawing subjects. Instead, she was an investigator of humanity who shared her findings via art.”
The Northwestern Pritzker School of Law houses 3000 sketches of her more than 40 years of trials. Special Collections Librarian said recently that Austin’s work is probably the most requested collection they have.
A Revels composite, with best-selling author Sara Paretsky at the bottom right
Classic Chicago next covered Andy as Director of the extraordinary Revels at the University of Chicago whose cast of characters included deans, professors, often the University President and always the author Sara Paretsky.
In 2005, Andy and her late husband, the beloved professor and humorist Ted Cohen, were invited by well-known Hyde Park volunteer, Jean Meltzer, to take over the productions. Ted played the drums each year and Andy revived the Revels with her zany and intricate plots set in a variety of the University’s most popular sites, such as Botany Pond, the Smart Museum, and Rockefeller Chapel.
“Our scripts often get very complicated because there are 22 people in the play, and everyone always wants a speaking part,” Andy told us then. “Most cast members return yearly due to all the fun, and anyone is welcome to participate. The cast features actors of all ages, and the appeal is universal. My first year of writing the whole script, Don Randel, who was University President at the time, appeared in it and played his flugelhorn. He was magnificent. When he moved to New York, we welcomed President Robert Zimmer with a march in his honor, and we had past University presidents Hanna Gray and Hugo Sonnenschein onstage at the same time representing a medieval court.”
Her good friend Katherine Harvey recalled the Revels and other wonderful times with Andy:
“Andy was part of our life. On Saturday mornings in warm weather when she lived in our building she and I would sunbathe in the yard discussing anything that popped into our heads. We even had a few Christmases with her. Then she married U of C philosophy professor Ted Cohen (who affectionally called her Andrew) and moved to Hyde Park so sunbathing Saturdays with Andy came to an end but our friendship did not. Andy and Ted’s annual Kids’ Party at Christmas was memorable, especially the chicken chili and Ted’s son in law Elmer playing Santa.
“Hyde Park got Andy writing again, this time reviving The Revels, the annual revue involving U of C professors who wrote and performed the show at The Quadrangle Club. She recruited my husband Julian to write songs in her debut show in 2006 and kept him on for the eleven years she wrote the revue. The late, great Shakespeare scholar David Bevington was always an enthusiastic participant as was Sara Paretsky, Andy and Ted’s neighbor and friend, who memorably belted out Mozart’s The Queen of the Night Aria one year to the astonishment of all Andy’s themes were wide ranging; one year it was the Galapagos and then came 2013 and Colombian Exposition mania. Andy jumped right in and wrote The Impossible City, book by Andy, words and music by Julian. They loved their collaborations and during rehearsals I would make notes that she always appreciated.
“After Ted died and Covid came along Andy moved to her house in Maine; she toyed with the idea of renting an apartment near Symphony Center during the winter so she could walk to all the concerts her heart desired but in the end she stayed in Maine with her cat. I miss her and the fun we had.”
Sasha Schmitt added:
“My mother’s standards for life were unrelentingly high. She insisted on being surrounded by beauty, order and cheer. Even during her last months, her house was immaculate. She never failed to place all of her many decorative pillows back on the bed while she was making it.”
Susan Heisler
I don’t think I ever saw Susan Heisler without that lovely smile, even if she was in the middle of a down and dirty volunteer project. Even when she went through very serious illness, she never ceased sharing it with others.
Watching Susan Heisler take on community projects, whether for the Junior League of Chicago, Episcopal Charities, or the Parkways Foundation, you learned the definition of being a hands-on volunteer. Smart, decisive and always willing to dig a little deeper, go that extra mile, doing what sometimes no one else was willing to do.
Susan Heisler and her daughter Sarah used in an article about working mothers who could balance all.
Her daughter Sarah Eberhard recalled many of these occasions where her mother took the whole family along.
“My mother cared so deeply about Chicago and everyone in it. She had a very big heart and truly believed in community. From a very young age she took me to soup kitchens or to work with the mothers and children at the Primo Women’s Center to learn about hands-on service.”
In her obituary, her husband George wrote:
“Susan loved life, adored her family and friends and remained active and curious all of her life. She continually read books, followed the news, current events and politics, and frequently voiced differing political opinions in discussions with her husband. She was decent and caring, had strong moral principles, was adventuresome and always enthusiastic about doing something new and interesting. Perhaps most importantly, she was a warm, caring and loving person who lived a very good and happy life and enriched the lives of her family and so many of those around her.
“Susan was committed and loyal to her many friends, frequently gathering them together from various parts of her life so that each of them might become friends with one another. She got her Life Master designation in bridge, having great fun and playing with some of those dear friends who happened to be wonderful bridge players. She continued her volunteer efforts in Chicago with the Board of Episcopal Charities, St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church, the Board of the Parkways Foundation, the Chicago Humanities Festival and served on the Women’s Board and chaired a Gala for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”
Her close friend Mary Struthers told us:
I will be forever grateful to Susan as she was one of the first women to reach out to me when we moved here as empty nesters 30 years ago. What a delightful friend full of energy, drive, experience and love of life, friends and family. I marveled at how much she packed in each day and still could entertain at night whether it be our Book Club or some major Chicago Fundraiser that she chaired. In our Book Club she was the smartest, most well read, and always willing to be our leader. And when she had health challenges, instead of isolating herself, she brought us all closer together. What a model of an extraordinary woman with a life well lived.”
To Sarah Eberhard, one of her mother’s strongest characteristics was bringing people together. “The more the merrier was her philosophy. Hers was an open-door philosophy,” Sarah said.
“She always looked for the good in people. She never forgot a name and had a wonderful memory. She had a quiet, easy way of making people feel welcome.”
Susan Heisler loving a sunny Venetian day
Anstiss Krueck
My late husband John Bross and Anstiss had their first dance together at age 12 at the Dublin Yacht Club in New Hampshire. Anstiss always said she felt so grateful because she was quite lanky then and John stepped up. It was actually that John was fascinated by Anstiss all their lives, a friendship that grew stronger and stronger. Being the daughter of a glamorous Southern belle and a Harvard Classics Professor, Anstiss was a fascinating hybrid John said. As students at Radcliffe and Harvard, they saw one another often as well as in Chicago where Anstiss married Ronald Krueck, a founding partner at Krueck & Sexton Architects, in 1992.
Her close friend Biba Roesch captured their days together, celebrating Chicago as a center for art and architecture:
“Harry Weese, Bud Goldberg. Helmut Jahn were always at parties such as when the Rookery was saved from demolition. There was always dancing, celebrating preservation but also modern art. We were right in the middle of it. We once got all dressed up for a dinner with Nelson Algren and he came in blue jean overalls and the conversation was up for grabs.
“And we loved the Arts Club and its founder Rue Shaw. I remember once in the 1970s that Anstiss wore purple hot pants to an event. Rue just raised one eyebrow. Anstiss was a very talented writer, freelancing for the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune in the 1970s and 1980s and we couldn’t wait to read her next book review.
“Anstiss was a free spirit, glamorous and very intellectual. I was always in awe of her. But she was very loving as well, very close to her sisters. She would invite me and my little granddaughter Nuala over for tea and make her feel so special.”
Anstiss was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and became a Trustee Emerita in 2021. Her involvement with the museum spanned nearly five decades, including 45 years on the Woman’s Board and 44 years on the Committee of Photography and Media.
Matthew S Witkovsky, Richard and Ellen Sandor Chair and Curator of Photography and Media Vice President for Strategic Art Initiatives at the Art Institute of Chicago, described Anstiss as “erudite, original, and lively.”
“To date the Art Institute has some 120 works either purchased with funds from Anstiss and Ron Krueck, or donated from their home. Half of these works reside in Photography and Media. At the meeting, I showed a slide of this magnificent print by Eugène Atget — a rare image that includes a person, a waiter or maitre d’, appropriately mysterious behind the hand-flowed glass windowpane —which Anstiss generously proposed to buy in the same year that her health began to falter, leading her to resign as chair. It was only after the purchase that Anstiss revealed that she had researched Atget and written a short essay on his work for a 1981 exhibition at Edwynn Houk’s gallery, then in Chicago. An essay that she had written, in other words, the same year she joined this Committee.”
Anstiss Krueck
We were so lucky to speak to her daughter Ascha Krueck:
“What did I find particularly wonderful about my mom?
“She was present in the truest sense—attentive, gracious, and fully engaged. My mother possessed an extraordinary capacity for connection, marked by deep empathy, genuine care, and an intuitive understanding of others. Her manner of expression was singular: sharp-witted, eloquent, and imbued with wisdom.
“My mom’s sense of style was nothing short of remarkable. She chose to dress in fabrics of striking beauty, with an elegance and confidence that made her presence unforgettable. Wherever she went, she brought with her a vitality—a luminous energy—that enlivened every room and left a lasting impression on all who encountered her.”
Anstiss Krueck, far right, with Deborah and Helmut Jahn, Madeline Halpern and her husband, Ron Krueck, at a Facets Gala. Anstiss was an active leader on the Facets board
Our feelings of loss, gratitude and awe are definitely times three as we well remember Andy, Susan and Anatiss.
