A Celebration of Life for

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1 A Celebration of Life for Ginger R. Wilson Born into Time Born into Eternity January 17, 1967 December 28, 2015 THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016 VISITATION: 11:00 AM HOMEGOING SERVICE: 12:00 AM TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST 400 West 95th Street Chicago, Illinois The Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, III, Senior Pastor The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Pastor Emeritus The Reverend Carmin A. Frederick, Officiating Minister

2 Ginger s Life Story Ginger R. Wilson, was the first of two daughters born to John E. and Velma J. Wilson in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from The University of Chicago Lab School, Ginger received a BA in Political Science and American Studies from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She earned a dual MBA/JD degree from the University of Michigan, and, following in her father s footsteps, Ginger was also a Certified Public Accountant. Ginger was the Founder and Managing Principal of legalquest LLC--the first legal staffing firm founded by an African-American woman in the nation. Prior to founding legalquest, she spent eight years with the nation s largest legal staffing firm and served as the Executive Director for its Chicago Office. Ginger began her professional career as a Tax Consultant with Coopers Lybrand LLP, where she counseled individuals and non-profits. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Ginger was actively involved in a variety of civic and community organizations. She served as a board member for Scholarship Chicago, Maria s House Women s Shelter, and the Institute of Women Today. She was an active member of the Cabrini Connection where she mentored and tutored young women in the Cabrini Housing Complex. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and active member in the alumnae associations of The University of Chicago Lab School and Wellesley College. Ginger was currently serving her third year as President of the Windy City (IL) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated. One of her proudest achievements with the Links was establishing a collaboration between Mayo Clinic and the Links, Incorporated to address health care disparities among minority populations which includes critical research, educational outreach and programs to prepare and encourage minorities to choose medical and health careers. In addition to her professional and community involvements Ginger was a competitive tennis player, an incredible golfer, an avid game player, an exceptional photographer, a world traveler (visiting all continents except Antarctica), and, along with three of her friends, a published author (The BAP Handbook: A Guide to the Back American Princess). With all of these achievements and accomplishments, Ginger s most important commitments were to her family and friends who describe her as fierce, welcoming, tenacious and caring. She was a woman of great integrity who was a role model for sincerity, determination and selflessness.

3 After battling serious health challenges for over 15 years, Ginger passed away peacefully on December 28, 2015 and in her dying she taught us how to live with dignity, strength, and honor. She will be dearly missed by her mother, Velma and her sister, Kelly; her aunts Thelma Merchant, Selma and Edna Brown; her uncles Reuben (Yasmeen) and Edwin Brown; her cousins Marion and Christopher Rauls, Patrice Wilson, Arthur Wilson, Frank (Therese) and Michael (Vanessa) Merchant, Omari and Megan Brown, Spencer, Joseph and Sarah Merchant, Joy Lallemand, Stanford (Amy) Johnson, and Roneida (Sherman) Martin and Linda Garcia Merchant; a host of other relatives, colleagues and friends. Ginger First, she was my cousin. Is my cousin. Will always be my cousin. Divorce and death don t separate people from history. Time creates distance from the acute pain of loss, but only that distance from how life once was and is no more. A life, from a long while ago, that once included daily, weekly sometimes hourly conversation, grounding us both in the whirlwind that was Life as a Brown Woman. Ginger was my anchor. A sane voice in a public world of humor, brilliance, love, activism, money, class, culture and excitement. Ginger was my friend, a little sister, she and Kelly and like my little brother Michael, happy, healthy twenty-somethings that traveled in a life-long pack. To love them all was to love them in the middle of bunches of school friends and family, where you could always find them laughing about something. I met them all one Christmas day so many years ago, at the big family gathering at Thelma s house. I was nervous even more so when I walked in to meet what I am sure was a million people. Ginger was quiet, polite and like everyone else, said hello and little else. I later found out why everyone in the family said hello and little else. Frank, my date and future husband, had gone through a series of uniquely interesting romantic choices and I didn t seem to fit in any of these aforementioned categories. I was quite normal, employed, attractive, and intelligent, with home training I had arrived with a gift for the hostess. The family wasn t quite sure what to make of any of this. They liked me, but while they figured something had to be amiss (about me) they also didn t want to scare me off. I turned out to be a keeper. What I discovered that Christmas at my first Brown/Merchant/Wilson gathering was how normal they all were. A family with a legacy of scholars, doctors, lawyers, and accountants would not be the jaded, materialistic, class-conscious sorts I had known people of color and means to be. They were a great, big, noisy, extended family that sang Christmas carols and played games after dinner, welcoming any and all to the party. Ginger was always one of the politely quiet ones. She had a role, they all did, as conveyors of the dream, responsible to the legacy they carried as grandchildren of Joe Brown. Joe Brown, poet, educator and lifelong friend of Richard Wright. Joe Brown that would bring children in to the world that would make history in their own right. Children that would keep the family together, hold sacred the family name and history, passing down to the next generation, smarts and spunk. The grandchildren were a single unit even though they had their own sets of parents. Family gatherings

4 would find Ginger s mother, Velma yelling for Frank-Michael-Kelly-Ginger until one of them answered. Vacations, holidays, birthdays, any and all social gatherings included the kids and their friends. Ginger was a sister-cousin part Wilson, part Merchant, part Brown. Michael and Frank were as much brothers as they were first cousins to Kelly and Ginger. When we decided to get married, it was Ginger and Kelly who were bridesmaids and Michael, best man. It was Ginger I told first, that Frank and I were splitting up. All she said was, no matter what, you re still family. Ginger lived strong, fearless and driven, with a plan, usually executed after much research and from a detailed map. She was the tiniest of the four oldest grandchildren a physical trait that supported the fact that she always was a little girl inside. Like Willy Wonka, she built a world of comfort and happy that suited her, never forgetting that she was the source of her manufactured and fantastic world. Ginger was in charge of Ginger, She had an inherited ability to remember names, faces and occupations of people she had met once. She could follow more than one conversation at a time and carry on a spirited discourse while eavesdropping. All behaviors learned at the feet of her mother, Velma and aunts, Thelma, Selma and Edna. I realized what we admired about each other we both worked hard, had plans and knew we would accomplish them. We both had strong, smart, and strategic mothers with social justice at their core, political activism in their blood, and an expectation of their daughters to move that agenda forward in some way. Ginger was much more comfortable in that role while I took a long time to come around to it. Ginger, The Brown-Wilson-Merchant consortium understood their responsibility to social justice, raising children gracious to all, and regularly advocating for the betterment of people. But she s gone, in a way that was as quick as she could work a room, shake your hand, look in your eyes as she listened to what you had to say, before she would leave to get to the next thing on her schedule. She would store away that moment, relying on that perfect memory, seeing you days, weeks, even years later, picking up where you left off. Ginger was love and support, encouraging every friend she had to make a film, write a book, start a business, or move on with your life. But Ginger was sick, for a very long time. Something else we shared a strength to keep going, through the pain, the inconvenience, the advocacy for better care, for any care, for good insurance, for quality mental health through the hardest times, but mostly for privacy about illness after all, life went on whether sickness made a day harder or not. I like to think this was what we had most in common how hard we fought to get through a challenging day. Today we don t share the fight even though Ginger pushed as hard and for as long as she could. Today I can only remember the pain in her eyes, the calm in her voice. The cancer was winning, but she was still fighting, still hanging on to dignity and charm and grace. In the end, she chose, as she did all of her life to create the world she wanted. In the end, Ginger sang of Willie Wonka and his Pure Imagination, creating tomorrow and forever as she loved and imagined it. Linda Garcia Merchant, Cousin

7 Homegoing Service The Reverend Carmin A. Frederick, Officiating Processional The Links Memorial Service Omega Omega Service Call to Worship Invocation Pastoral Staff Windy City (IL) Chapter of the Links Incorporated Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Pastoral Staff Hymn of Consolation This Little Light of Mine Congregational Song The Holy Scripture The Old Testament Psalm 23: 1-6 KJV Deacon Michael Knighten Fellowship Baptist Church The New Testament II Timothy 4: 7-8 NIV Deacon Richard Sewell Trinity United Church of Christ Ministry of Music Ms. Alexandria DuBuclet, Soloist Tributes Friends Friend Family Remarks Dawn Brown Patrice Grier Stacy Cole Courtney Jones Michael Merchant The Reverend Henry Hardy, Pastor Emeritus Cosmopolitan Community Church Resolutions Acknowledgements Obituary Ministry of Music Words of Comfort Pastoral Staff To be read silently Mr. Eric Thomas The Reverend Carmin A. Frederick Benediction Closing Hymn & Recessional Soon and Very Soon The Closing Prayer INTERMENT OAK WOODS CEMETERY, 1035 E. 67 th Street, Chicago, IL

8 Pallbearers Nick Black Vincent Higgins Anthony Laurent Michael Merchant Jeffrey Smallwood Jeremy Wade Acknowledgements The family wishes to thank all of you who have joined them in lifting up the life and memory of Ginger R. Wilson. Each act of kindness will be acknowledged by the family at a later date. Repast Immediately Following Interment South Loop Hotel 11 West 26th Street Chicago, Illinois The family requests that memorial gifts in Ginger s name be designated to Women s Health research at Mayo Clinic Gifts may be sent to Mayo Clinic Department of Development 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN Or You may give online at Unity Funeral Parlors, Inc S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, (773) Norman J. Williams President Funeral Director Brenda L. Thacker Funeral Director

Deacon Willie fames Colquitt

A Celebration of JCife for Deacon Willie fames Colquitt March 20, 1939 - February 29, 2008 / Friday, March 7, 2008 3:00 P.M. Tabernacle Baptist Church 1223 Laney Walker Church Augusta, GA 30901 Reverend