On Tuesday, April 4, family, friends, and community gathered in the Bone Student Center to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Kass Fleisher. Opening remarks included Dr. Katherine Ellison’s tribute “20 Years: Writing, Teaching, and Serving ISU,” followed by Dr. Joe Amato’s “Already Gone,” a loving testimony to their lives together and to Kass’ feisty, playful, and creative spirit.
Writing an obituary for a cherished friend and generous colleague is never painless. Helen Kassia “Kass” Fleisher, 63, a professor of English at Illinois State University, and core Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program faculty member, passed away on January 6, 2023, at her residence in Normal. She was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 21, 1959, to Norman and Jolene (Wolford) Fleisher. She married Joe Amato of Syracuse, New York, also an English professor at Illinois State, on July 1, 1995. They divorced in 2013 and remained close.
Kass was a graduate of Dickinson College (B.A., 1981), University of North Dakota (M.A., 1989), and Binghamton University (Ph.D., 1993). Prior to pursuing her graduate degrees, she was administrative manager and producer at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and while in graduate school at Binghamton she became a champion country western line dancer.
Her spirit lives on through her published works, which include The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (2004), Accidental Species (2005), The Adventurous (2006), Talking Out of School: Memoir of an Educated Woman (2008), and Dead Woman Hollow (2012). She co-edited a literary collection with Caitlin M. Alvarez. She and Joe Amato wrote a number of award-winning screenplays.
Kass and I were undergraduates together at Dickinson College, but we became close friends when she arrived at Illinois State. Her first words to me were something like, “How can I get more involved in WGSS?” Kass’ brave voice and spirit echoes through her writing and her life’s work. All of her classes became part of the WGSS curriculum. I’ll remember her most for all of her work outside of the classroom. She was a fierce and loving momma bear, who protected, mentored, and supported our students in ways that were above and beyond. She was active in Students Ending Rape Culture (SERC). She regularly spoke at Take Back the Night marches. She volunteered for the YWCA’s Stepping Stones sexual-assault survivors’ program. She spent dozens of hours working with survivors on the Illinois State campus.
