Anita Telleen Wait, a native of Cambridge, died Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010, at her home in Evanston. She was 84. Memorial services were held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Evanston. A reception followed at the church.
Memorials my be given to Augustana College (Telleen Family Scholarship Fund) or to a favorite charity.
The Scott Funeral Home, Wilmette, is assisting the family.
Vina Anita Telleen was born March 16, 1925, a daughter of Leonard E. and Vina Elm Telleen, Cambridge. She attended Cambridge schools and was graduated from Augustana College, Rock Island, in 1947. In college she was Vi-Queen of the 1946 Augustana homecoming and a member of the Augustana Choir, the editorial staff of the Augustana Observer and Kappa Epsilon sorority.
Following graduation she spent two years in Washington, D.C., working for the Library of Congress. Then for six years she was employed in the foreign service of the U.S. State Department, first in Salzburg, Austria, and also in Copenhagen, Denmark.
After returning from overseas, she started a career in teaching and earned a master of arts degree in childhood education from Northwestern University, Evanston. Her first teaching position was at an elementary school in North Chicago. She taught there for eight years, followed by 12 years at a school in Skokie.
She married Ward H. Wait on Dec. 21, 1971, in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. They were longtime residents of Evanston. He died Aug. 29, 2008.
Surviving are a sister, Margaret Houghton, Bethel Park, Ill.; a brother Frank Telleen, Rock Island; four nieces, Carol Reed, Nancy Califf, Jane Urban and Mary Boster; eight nephews, Robert, David, Michael, William, John D., and Thomas Telleen, and James and Richard Houghton, and several grandnieces and grandnephews.
In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by three brothers, Kenneth L., Leonard W., and John M. Telleen, and a nephew, Philip Telleen.
