Jack Kirkland Jallings

Madison-Jack Kirkland Jallings, 96, died painlessly and peacefully in his sleep at Capitol Lakes Nursing home on Monday, August 16. Born in Iowa in 1914, Jack was the oldest of four children of Frederick Wilkes Jallings and Lillian Weymouth Kirkland. In 1918 the family moved to Cornell, WI where Jack and his younger brother Charles learned to love the outdoors as Boy Scouts. Born with a cleft palate and lip, and hard of hearing, Jack spent months of his childhood in Chicago living with his grandparents while undergoing many surgeries.  At the age of fourteen he was sent to Madison to board with family friends so that he could work with Dr. Otto, a noted speech therapist, while attending Wisconsin High School where he was active in sports and student government. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1936, the same year he met his wife, Betty Franklin, at a Halloween party at the First Congregational Church. Jack often told the story of meeting a beautiful woman dressed as a gypsy; at the end of the evening, he told his brother Charlie he had met the woman he would marry. They married on August 17, 1940. He then enrolled in a MBA program at Harvard to study business, but his mother-in-law, Bertha Franklin, had begun to politicize him and while working on the docks of Boston he became interested in the plight of the workers. He decided he would rather be part of the labor union movement than corporate America and was a strong supporter of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. An exceptional lip reader, Jack tried to pass the physical exam in order to serve in World War II, but was found out and refused entrance to the armed forces. It was a serious disappointment to him. After the war Jack worked as a labor union organizer in Chicago auto plants and steel mills, but his left wing beliefs made holding a job difficult at that time.  He and Betty moved into the Trumbull Park Housing Development on the far south side in 1949, where they were both involved in the integration of the Chicago public housing system.   Jack ran a sports league for teenagers and, although untrained in law, he made many court appearances as volunteer defense on behalf of project residents, while Betty ran a nursery school, the resident council, and wrote a neighborhood newsletter. They were also involved in the Urban League, the NAACP and in the Beverley Unitarian Church.  By 1954 racial riots and fires at Trumbull Park made life dangerous for a family with three young daughters, and Jack was blacklisted because of his political beliefs, so they moved back to Wisconsin. They lived with Betty's parents, Newton and Bertha Franklin, as did Betty's sister, Ruth, her husband Kemp Franzen and their four children in a house the Franklins had built in Fitchburg. Jack became a Little League Coach and taught woodworking for the Lakeview Larks 4H Club. He was an enthusiastic bowler, card player and golfer as well as a lifelong Badger and Packer fan. Rural life included camping, skiing, and other outdoor pastimes and in 1959, the family spent a month camping across the country to California and back--with all four children and two cousins, Linda and Ann Franzen, in a Chevy station wagon with a tent trailer pulled behind. Jack continued to struggle to find work due to his political beliefs and was employed for some years at Meuer Photoarte where he became an avid photographer, a passion passed down to children and grandchildren.  In 1963, Jack was hired as assistant state archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, a position he was wholeheartedly committed to until his retirement in 1982. Jack then served on both the Fitchburg Town Board and the Dane County Board for many years and was widely respected for his logic and wisdom. He sat on the Fitchburg Library Board and helped edit books on Fitchburg's history. Long time members of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Jack and Betty were then founding members of the Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society. They traveled widely in their later years; they visited India, China, Hong Kong, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Hawaii, Egypt, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Israel, Mexico, Peru and Alaska. They continued to live on the family property in Fitchburg until the fall of 2000, when, after their 60th wedding anniversary, they moved into the Capitol Lakes Retirement Center.  The family is truly grateful to the staff at Capitol Lakes for ten years of care and support. His brother Charles in 1990 and his wife Betty in 2008 predecease Jack. His sister Louise Scheer of Lombard, IL, his sister Elizabeth Johns of Fredericksburg, VA, and his cousin Janet Bennett of Seal Beach, CA survive him, as well as his children : Susan Daniel, Toronto, Canada, Nancy Walsh, Oregon, Rebecca Jallings, Fitchburg and Jonathan Jallings, Fitchburg (Kimberly Anderson).  Jack leaves many grandchildren and great-grandchildren:  Peter Daniel, Toronto (Marcia Thompson, son Alastair) and Jennifer Daniel-Duckering, San Diego, CA (Brent, sons Zachary and Matthew); Kerrie McCabe, Patchague, NY (Andrew, daughters Katie, Kylie and son Liam), Jessica Gomez, Delafield (Brian, daughters Emily and Addison), and Kelly, Marissa, Josh and Eric Walsh, all of Atlanta GA; Stacy Sandler, Madison (Scott Dougald, sons Kyle and Taylor Feldmann), Geoffrey Sandler, Madison (Karen, son Ryan and daughter Jenna), Claire Sandler, South Bend IN (Michael Kramer, daughters Daisy and Fiona), and Lili Sandler, Oberlin OH (Zeb Page, sons Jack and Milo, daughter Esme). He also leaves dear family friends Mary Ruud, her daughter Ramona Ruud, both of Milwaukee (daughter Anya, sons Niko and Roman) and many other relatives, friends and former colleagues throughout the world. An informal celebration of Jack's life will take place Sunday, September 12, 2010 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at the Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society, 2010 Whenona Drive, Madison, WI 53711.
 
Cress Funeral & Cremation Service
3610 Speedway Road, Madison
608-238-3434
www.cressfuneralservice.com