Atty. Charlotte Bleistein 1915 - 2017

[Rick Kisséll]

Charlotte Bleistein is gone. A widely respected and beloved pioneer for decades in feminism, peace, workers' rights, and social and economic justice and a long-time member of the Public Enterprise Committee and friend of Frank P. Zeidler and his family, Charlotte, aged 102 and planning her annual end-of-summer party at her Greendale home for early October, died at her home on September 16, 2017.

She had just returned from two events she for years enjoyed -- Fighting Bob Fest and Ted Uribe's monthly dinner to raise funds to help injured and retired Milwaukee-area workers. She might well have not wanted it any other way. Charlotte's daughter, Charlene Roufas, noted that Charlotte had been determined to continue living at home -- the home she built in the early 1950s -- and in that, happily, had succeeded.

Charlotte, in truth, succeeded in just about everything she did. Born in 1915 in St. Louis, Missouri, Charlotte earned both her bachelor's and her law degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, where, in 1939, she also became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In the early 1940s, she became the first female staff attorney hired by the then-still-new National Labor Relations Board, where she was able to put her lifelong commitment to workers' rights to work. She served in NLRB posts in several cities, including Washington, D.C., and New York City, before she came to the Milwaukee area.

As a single parent with a young daughter as well as a solo law practice -- at a time when few, if any, private law firms hired women in any capacity but secretaries -- Charlotte built her own home in the then-relatively-new planned community of Greendale, Wisconsin, in the early 1950s. For nearly 60 years afterward, she continued to practice law in the Milwaukee area, focusing mainly on "people" law, including such areas as wills and estate planning.

But Charlotte also made her mark as a community activist for social and economic justice. A lifelong Socialist who often proudly recounted how her grandfather was among those elected to citywide office in Milwaukee's Socialist Party "sweep" of local elections in 1910, she also keenly remembered attending the public wake held for Victor L. Berger at Milwaukee's City Hall in 1929. By the 1950s and 1960s, she was well known in the Milwaukee area and elsewhere for her progressive activism, which ultimately took shape in such organizations as the Socialist Party, PEC, the West Suburban Milwaukee chapter of the National Organization for Women, and the United Nations Association -- Greater Milwaukee. She remained active in these and other organizations for life -- faithfully attending the monthly meetings of PEC (where she served as its secretary for several years) and UNA-GM right up to her last few days -- and knew and kept in touch with dozens of fellow activists and friends from throughout the Milwaukee area and Wisconsin. Charlotte, who regularly (albeit with periodic frustration with computers' quirks) used her home computer to keep in touch with her many friends and causes, often corresponded by email with many relatives and friends in Germany, where her family originated, in fluent German.

Charlotte, who often noted that she was the only nonmusician in a musical family, nonetheless knew, loved, and supported good music, especially classical music. Her father was a respected director of two major men's choral groups in St. Louis; her mother's background included a childhood friend who was one of Franz Liszt's pupils; and her brother and his wife were both respected classical musicians. (Her brother's vintage Bechstein piano, imported from Germany complete with a pair of attached sconces for candles, graced her living room for many years.) One of Charlotte's fondest childhood memories concerned the day that her father brought a guest home to dinner with her family -- Siegfried Wagner, the son of world-famed composer Richard Wagner. Siegfried Wagner, Charlotte noted, thoroughly enjoyed the special cake her mother made for the occasion. Charlotte was for many years a subscriber to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, frequently attending MSO concerts and MRT productions with a committed group of friends who also loved music and theater.

Keeping our "past in our present" alive was also one of Charlotte's favorite causes. As an attorney, she helped many Milwaukee-area residents prepare their wills and distribute their estates -- including that of Milwaukee television pioneer, fashion maven (many Milwaukeeans will never forget her hats!), and local activist Gretchen Colnik. Charlotte convinced Colnik, her client and the daughter of Milwaukee-based but world-famous wrought-iron artisan Cyril Colnik, to leave her father's priceless collection of his work to the City of Milwaukee. Thanks largely to Charlotte, Cyril Colnik's work -- including the stunning "Masterpiece" wrought-iron sampler he created for and for which he won recognition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago -- rather than being scattered after his daughter's death, can be enjoyed by us all at Milwaukee's Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum.

Only a major traffic accident in 2011 could stop her, then 96 years old, from practicing law, driving on her own, and from maintaining her home completely on her own. Charlotte, whose minivan was "totaled" in the collision, herself suffered major injuries that, as many of her friends knew and noted among themselves, were such that many people in their 70s and 80s would not have survived. They as well as she said she "pulled through" largely because of her strong lifelong constitution, her well-known commitment to natural foods and sound nutrition, and her positive attitude toward life and its obstacles. After several months of healing at Golden Living Center in Greendale, Charlotte herself stopped practicing law and driving on her own, but, with some help, continued to maintain her own home. Her dinners for friends and her annual back-yard end-of-summer parties, the latter always attended by dozens from her amazingly diverse group of friends, were local legends, as was her spanakopita (Greek spinach pie).

In January 2015, Charlotte's 100th-birthday celebration, held at the church just down her block, drew hundreds of friends. She didn't bring any spanakopita -- indeed, she frequently admonished everyone she knew was invited, "No gifts!" -- but she didn't have to. Her being there, her sharing her wisdom, caring, and passion for social justice and the common good, was more than enough of a gift to us all -- not just on that day but throughout her long life.

Charlotte, you're a hard act to follow, but each of us can at least try. We miss you and, as we have for so many years, we love you. And we'll make sure your legacy lives, not just in spirit, but through our own living your ideals and sharing your efforts.

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