Eleanor Austin "Nonne" Guilbert

Eleanor A. Guilbert, 100, died May 22, 2024, at Eastcastle Place in Milwaukee. Born in Battle Creek, Michigan, she graduated from the University of Michigan. She then moved to Chicago, where she began her long career in advertising and Public Relations, when she joined an ad agency as a copywriter. Several years later, she met her future husband, Bob Guilbert, while attending a master’s class he was teaching at Northwestern University. After their marriage, they traveled to Manila, Mexico City and finally New York and Connecticut as her husband’s career with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency took them far and wide. Returning to her husband’s home state of Wisconsin, Eleanor was named director of communications for the international headquarters of the School Sisters of St. Francis, a position she enjoyed until her retirement in 1991. Bob Guilbert died in 1990, and Eleanor then reconnected with Dale Johnson, Ph.D. Dale and his wife were best friends of Eleanor and Bob going back to the Chicago days. They married in 1994 and lived happily in Milwaukee and Ten Mile Lake, Minnesota until Dale’s death in 1998.

Always active in community activities, Eleanor and her friend Barb Hanson consistently volunteered at Milwaukee Achiever Literacy Services, Community Baptist Church gift shop, as well as the Milwaukee County Jail Ministry started by their friend Anne Luber. A final chapter of her life was as an author of short stories. She had been writing stories for years, but in her last decade began to work on new stories, and revising old ones, with the help of her Milwaukee editor Elizabeth Vogt, and she and Elizabeth had successfully placed stories in recent years with several publications.

She is survived by her sons Rob (Jim Farmer) of Brown Deer and Jonathan of Guam; stepson Guy of Los Angeles; older sister Helen of Washington, DC; younger sister Ethel of Ft. Collins, CO; sister-in-law Mona of Mequon; and dozens of friends and family members.

A Memorial Service will be held at on July 29, 2024 11:00 AM at North Shore Congregational Church, 7330 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Fox Point, WI. Internment at Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek will be private.

Donations to North Shore Congregational Church, the School Sisters of St. Francis, Eastcastle Place or any charitable organization are appreciated.