SUN CITY – Josephine Cosman, a Sun City resident, passed away on Sunday, May 6 at Sherman Hospital in Elgin. Cosman was 91 years old.
Born in Paw Paw Michigan on September 14, 1920, Cosman moved with her parents Burton and Ruby Smith to rural Itasca, where they started a farm. It was there that Cosman met her husband Elmer, and the two were married on November 26, 1942.
The Cosmans later moved to Dundee Township, in an area that is now at the intersection of County Line and Randall Road. At that time, the area was still undeveloped, and Randall Road was merely a one-and-a-half-lane gravel-and-dirt road. Cosman’s daughter, Mary Lou Harp, remembered getting stuck in the road while moving in.
Though they lived in – as Elmer put it – the boondocks, the family needed little more than each other’s company.
“We’ve always been a very close-knit family, and I guess raised on a farm, you always worked together, you did things together,” Harp said.
Harp remembered several family vacations and trips together. It was this close-knit bonding that would bring the family together once again.
Cosman moved to Del Webb in 2000, and Harp followed her to the community not long after. Harp said her mother enjoyed playing card games like Hand and Foot with other residents.
Cosman’s best-known legacy in Huntley is the Cosman Cultural Center, constructed in 2003. As part of the Huntley Park District, the center is a house for the performing arts, with a theater that can seat 288 people. A music and performing arts enthusiast, Cosman made the donation for the center’s construction in an effort to give the arts a place to thrive in Huntley.
Thom Palmer, the Park District’s executive director, said it was always a pleasure letting Cosman know of the center’s upcoming events and enjoyed bringing her vision to life.
Harp remembers her mother as a strong woman who loved nothing more than spending time with her family.
Cosman is survived by her daughter Mary, son Bruce, brother Robert, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
