Jacquelyn M. Forslund

Jacquelyn Mary Forslund, 91, of Punta Gorda, Florida, passed away July 23, 2016 at Tidewell Hospice House of Arcadia. She was born September 14, 1924 in Chicago, IL and moved to Punta Gorda in 1997 with her beloved husband of 60 years Raymond Forslund (d. 2010) from Lincolnshire, IL where they lived for 40 years. Jacquelyn graduated from Rockford College in Rockford, IL at the end of World War II having spent those years as a USO volunteer and student. After receiving her degree in speech therapy, Jackie was the district speech therapist in Dixon, IL for two years before returning home to work at her father's business, Blackstone Printing Company. While attending printing classes at night, she met Ray in one of her classes and they married in 1950. She was active in the Rogers Park Women's Club and an avid and accomplished bridge player all of her adult life. While raising Catherine, Jackie became active as an election judge in Lincolnshire, IL and in the local Parent-Teacher Association for Half Day School and helped open Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Prairie View, IL from which her daughter would graduate a decade later. She achieved her personal best in golf (102) and became a gifted seamstress who took classes in fashion design at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Committed to student foreign exchange programs and busy with the local garden club, Jackie's role as a founding member of the Midas Touch Investment Club in 1958 was something that brought her great joy and skill with investing family funds. In the 1970s, Jackie decided to try her hand at real estate and went on to earn almost every certification that was available at the time as a broker and residential specialist for over 25 years. She helped countless individuals, couples, and families buy and/or sell their homes in the greater Lincolnshire/Deerfield/North Shore area of the Chicago suburbs. Her level of community involvement was recognized when the Rotary Club of Deerfield, IL named her a Paul Harris Fellow. Through all this, the game of bridge was a constant companion. When Jackie retired to Florida, she became a regular player with the Port Charlotte Cultural Center duplicate bridge group, and after a few years became the Club's director. She managed it for close to a decade with grace, aplomb, and a marvelous sense of humorin a word, with style. She always championed a well-played game of duplicate bridge. Jackie was a bright, optimistic, caring, and helpful woman with a flair for fashion and interior design, a good eye, a ready laugh, sparkling blue eyes, who made those around her feel better wherever she went. She will be well remembered by their daughter Catherine (B. Roy Roncal) Forslund, Ph. D. of Rockford, IL and niece Ann Heinze of Cape Coral, FL and her many friends. There will be a gathering from 2-4pm, Saturday, September 10, 2016 at Gables West Lobby at South Port Square, 23033 Westchester Blvd, Port Charlotte, FL 33980. Arrangements are by Larry Taylor Funeral and Cremation Services, Punta Gorda.