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Julie Baranauskas, 72, retired educator

Julie Baranauskas, 72, a Philadelphia educator and community activist in the city's Penn-Knox section, died at home Sept. 12, of heart failure.

Julie Baranauskas
Julie BaranauskasRead more

Julie Baranauskas, 72, a Philadelphia educator and community activist in the city's Penn-Knox section, died at home Sept. 12, of heart failure.

Mrs. Baranauskas taught high school English in the School District of Philadelphia for 22 years, starting in 1988. She passed on her love of works by authors ranging from William Shakespeare to Toni Morrison.

At various times, Mrs. Baranauskas was assigned to Simon Gratz High School, Martin Luther King High School, Benjamin Franklin High School, Franklin Learning Center, and Universal Audenried Charter High School.

Her son, Liam, remembered her ability to manage a classroom, even at the risk of having her car keyed. She shrugged off such incidents as proof that she was having an effect in the classroom.

Before retiring in 2010, she joined the district's office of administration, where she worked for 10 years as a coach training young, green teachers.

After retiring, she turned her attention to volunteer civic work in Germantown. In 2014, she became chair of the Penn-Knox Neighborhood Association, a group devoted to preservation and promotion of the neighborhood bounded by Germantown, Maplewood, and Wayne Avenues, and Hansberry Street.

"She loved her neighborhood, and honestly, could be a total pain toward people and bureaucracies she saw as destructive forces to what she often called 'a jewel in the city,' " her son said.

In 2011, Mrs. Baranauskas railed against a neighbor on Knox Street whose unsealed, blighted property allowed wild animals to enter. "If you're here in the morning or evening, you'll have squirrels and raccoons wave to you," she lightly told the Daily News.

Throughout the neighborhood, she was known as a 12th Democratic Ward committeewoman, a voracious reader, purveyor of books online, and the owner of Callie, an enormous Akita she could be seen walking on the city's streets.

She also kept cats and enjoyed gardening, according to her Facebook page.

Born in Philadelphia, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. She completed a master's degree in education from Cheney University of Pennsylvania in 2000. She lived in South Philadelphia before moving to the Penn-Knox section in the mid-1990s.

When word circulated that she had died, her son said, there was an outpouring of online support and sympathy from members of the groups she had led.

Besides her son, Liam, she is survived by daughters Morgan Davis and Erin Davis; two grandchildren; and her former husband, Derek Davis, whom she divorced in the 1970s.

Liam's father, Charles Bordin, also survives.

A private service was held on Sept. 17.

Donations may be made to the Penn-Knox Neighborhood Association at www.pennknox.com/dues-or-donate.

bcook@phillynews.com610-313-8102