Jean Sue Johnson Libkind

PHILIDELPHIA, PA - Jean Sue Johnson Libkind, retired publishing executive and literary agent, and a founder of Eastern State Penitentiary Park in Philadelphia, died Oct. 17, 2015 at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse, Philadelphia. Mrs. Libkind, 71, had resided in Philadelphia since 1984. Mrs. Libkind, born in Racine, Wisconsin, operated a literary agency in Philadelphia, The Bookschlepper, representing university and academic publishers in the management of subsidiary rights. Her agency work and previous positions in publishing made her a frequent attendee of international book fairs in Frankfurt, London and Jerusalem, among other cities. Before starting her own agency she was Director of Publishing Operations for the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, and before that a marketing manager for the University of Pennsylvania Press, the University of Georgia Press, and the University of Wisconsin Press. She had also served as managing director of Worldwide Books, a museum catalog distributor in Ithaca, New York. Her professional affiliations included Women in Scholarly Publishing, of which she was a founding member, the Philadelphia Publishers Group, Women in Communications, and the Madison Press Club. She was among the founders and later president of Friends of Eastern State Penitentiary Park, which improved the neglected property outside the walls of the historic prison in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood. While a resident of Madison, Wisconsin, she was president of seven after school day care centers. She was a member of the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Athens, Georgia, and was until her recent illness active with the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, including its women’s book club. After graduation from Park High School in Racine she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1966 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which she attended on a scholarship from Western Printing of Racine, the publishers of Golden Books, where her father was a staff artist. She also attended summer school at the University of Oslo, Norway. While at the University of Wisconsin she was managing editor of the student newspaper, the Daily Cardinal. She also served as a board member of the Daily Cardinal Alumni Association. Her first marriage to David Spradling ended in divorce. She was preceded in death by her son, Eric David Spradling, her father, John B. Johnson, her mother, Jean Barr Johnson, and step-mother, Loretta Richards Johnson. She is survived by her husband, Robert L. Libkind, as well as aunts and cousins in Wisconsin, Alaska and Norway. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the American Heart Association. A memorial service will be held at Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church, 625 College Avenue, Racine, WI, on Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 11 a.m. Jean will be laid to rest at Graceland Cemetery. There will be a visitation at the church from 10 a.m. until time of service.

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Jean Sue Johnson Libkind

April 4, 1944 - October 17, 2015