Marj Abrams had a way with words.

The longtime Streeterville resident loved lingo, was a “stickler” for language and could be quite eloquent in her speech. But she wasn’t afraid to dish out a little good-natured ribbing either.

“With a twinkle in her eye, she’d be calling some women ‘broads,’” recalled Rosalie Harris, her former next door neighbor and a past president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents. “She was quite formal and grammatically correct, and her idioms, she used so well. I think that’s what people remember.”

Abrams, renowned as the “Grande Dame” of Streeterville, died July 4 at age 85 from complications of chronic illness at her niece Jill LaVant’s home in Orland Park.

The words used to describe Abrams reflect a multi-faceted and distinct life. Friends and colleagues are remembering her as a world traveler and as lover of parties. A woman with big glasses and a social butterfly. She was a people person and a friend to many. Abrams served on SOAR’s board of directors for years and edited the group’s newsletter.

Abrams wore many hats, and those who knew her said she wore them well. The same could be said of her vast assortment of wigs.

“They were part of her personality,” said Betty Eaton, a former SOAR president and 20-year friend of Abrams. “When I first met her, her hair was always perfect.

“I used to admire it,” Eaton said. “Then one time she whispered, ‘I wear a wig all the time.’”

“She had a wonderful sense of humor,” recalled Eaton, who met Abrams in 1990 when Abrams called the SOAR office out of the blue to volunteer as editor for the group’s newly-formed newsletter. “She had wide interests, and she was on top of what was going on in the world and in the community. She made a big contribution to the community.”

Abrams was born in Green Bay and moved to Chicago in the late 1950s to join Alan Edelson Public Relations. Shortly thereafter, she opened her own agency, Marj Abrams Public Relations, becoming one of the first women-owned public relations agencies in the city, marking her as pioneer in the field.

The firm landed clients such as Scandi-navian Airlines, Sheraton Hotels and Alper Richman Furs.

Abrams helped lure the film industry to Chicago. She handled publicity for the Montreal Expo in 1967 and Pope John Paul II’s 1979 visit here. In 2000, former 42nd Ward Ald. Burt Natarus presented Abrams, also an award-winning travel writer, with a city council resolution citing her accomplishments and expressing appreciation for her many contributions to Chicago.

Yet Abrams never forgot where she was from, particularly when it came to football. In the midst of seas of Bears fans, she remained a devout Green Bay Packers partisan, openly flaunting her team loyalty and holding big parties during Packers versus Bears games. She’d don her Packers sweatshirt and cap and proudly boast how in the 1920s, her father, Isadore Abrams, and her uncle, Nate Abrams, had played for the team.

Abrams could enthusiastically discuss football and most everything else.

“Marj and I would occasionally meet for lunch at different restaurants in the Streeterville area. I so looked forward to these. Nothing was off the table, and our time together was not governed by rules of political correctness,” said Ralph Weber, vice president of community relations for Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “We discussed everything — national politics, local Streeterville topics — I never had enough good gossip to satisfy her — her family ties with and fondness for the Green Bay Packers, and everything else.

“At the start, it was a good opportunity for me to give her hospital news, which was important for the SOAR newsletter when she was its talented editor,” Weber said. “When she left that role, the lunches continued because I needed my ‘fix of Marj.’”

Abrams friends say that wherever Abrams is today, one thing is certain: There’s bound to be a big bash.

“It’s a cliché to say that ‘they broke the pattern’ when someone dies, but there was no one like Marj,” Harris said. “She was the life of the party … and wherever she is now, the party’s just beginning.”

Contributions in Abram’s memory can be sent to Prevent Child Abuse America, Attention: Giving, 228 S. Wabash Ave., 10th floor, Chicago, 60604.

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By Aman
Posted: 02/09/2011 4:25 PM

Marj must be celebrating with her father and uncle, and also with Curly and Vince. GO PACK GO

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By Marc Schulman from Streeterville
Posted: 07/24/2010 8:07 AM

Marj brought great style to Streeterville and the Magnificent Mile. She was a great customer of our restaurant, Eli's the Place for Steak, and always had a smile and a story to share. Her work for the newsletter for SOAR was one of the best ways that the stories of our neighborhood were told. She will be missed!

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By Heather Refetoff from Hyde Park
Posted: 07/15/2010 1:08 PM

I first Marj when I arrived in Chicago in 1969, when she worked for the Sheraton Chicago Hotel. Over the years I encountered her often through different groups of people - she seemed to know everyone. I then was included in her parties and what wonderful parties they were. In recent years I\'d pick her up for lunch together or with one or two mutual friends. The last time I saw her was when she came to my apartment for a \"girls\" lunch of laughter and fun. She was always lots of fun.

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By Georgia I. Hesse from San Francisco, CA
Posted: 07/15/2010 11:58 AM

Marj was a wag and a rapscallion. When she entered a room (or a hotel suite or a shipboard cabin), the party began. She craved attention, particularly from men, and she attracted it. I met Marj on a balcony of the Nile Hilton in Cairo and we traveled together in Australia, Italy, along the Norwegian coast, among the Greek islands, to Tunisia and Hong Kong. The world, like life, was her banquet and she partook of it with gusto. Whether dinner was peanuts or pate, with her it became a feast.

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By Jill LaVant from Orland Park, Illinois
Posted: 07/15/2010 7:41 AM

The multi-talented woman to whom you so articulately refer was my dear auntie who passed away in my home. Thank you for a wonderfully written and sensitive article. She also had a very tender side and I want people to know that had it not been for her support and love, I might not be here today. She was an extraordinarily brave woman who truly believed, "if you can reach it, stretch." I miss her so but am thankful she is no longer suffering. Thank you all who contributed to this piece.