Jo Minow Remembers the Monogramed Pajamas

The Chicago civic leader Josephine Baskin Minow--known as Jo--grew up in the city's North Side Lakeview neighborhood. She didn't have much pocket money as an adolescent, but she- like her father, autodidact and bibliophile Salem Baskin, of advertising and men's clothing fame--did have savvy. 

 One day, in the late 1930s, she said, "I spied a pair of pink satin pajamas with navy blue trim at Carson's. They were on sale, and I just had to have them. So, I carefully selected a pair my size and then charged them to my parents' account… but not before having them monogrammed for free, making them non-returnable. It was that 'for free' that got me. Talk about chutzpah . I was twelve years old." 

 Minow shared this nugget with Chicago booster Neal Samors, author, co--author, and publisher of 30-plus books about the Windy City. His latest is Memories of Growing Up in Chicago: Recalling Life During the 20th Century . His reminiscences, along with those of 50-some other Chicagoans, make up this Studs Terkel-like, first-person paean to the city's distinct neighborhoods.





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Josephine Baskin Minow 1926-2022

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This is a tribute page for our wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother. Josephine Minow, civic leader who focused on social justice and history, dies at 95 By BOB GOLDSBOROUGH CHICAGO TRIBUNE | FEB 27, 2022 AT 4:37 PM Josephine Baskin Minow was a civic leader with a keen interest in social justice and Chicago and Jewish history. Minow was the past president of the Juvenile Protective Agency, which provides services for abused and neglected children, and a member of the Jane Addams Juvenile Court Foundation. She also wrote three children’s books and was responsible for two exhibits celebrating Jewish history in Chicago at the Chicago History Museum, where she had served on the board for 30 years. “Jo Minow loved the Chicago History Museum since she first visited as a child,” said Gary Johnson, the museum’s president emeritus. “As a trustee … she shared with the Chicago History Museum the best practices she saw in the many other organizations she was involved with.” Minow, 95, died of na...
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