Lolita Anastasia Stein

Service : Friday, October 10th at 2:30 pm
Service Location: Memorial Service
Shalom Memorial Funeral Home
1700 West Rand Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Interment:
Randhill Park Cemetery
1700 W. Rand Road
Arlington Heights

Visitation

Maggiano’s
307 Hawthorne Center
Vernon Hills, Illinois 60061

Following the service until 8 PM

Contributions
Barrington Area Tennis Association
To support children’s tennis education
http://www.barringtontennis.com

Lolita “Lita” A. Stein passed away peacefully on September 5, 2025. She was born in Chicago in September, 1929, the youngest of three siblings of Martha and George. She grew up on the North side of Chicago and graduated from Sullivan High School, where she was President of her sorority. When her first-choice Rollins College said they didn’t have enough housing for her, she attended Barry College, a small all-girls Catholic school in Miami, rather than delay starting college. The following year, she enrolled at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, from where she graduated in 1951. She earned a degree in English and was part of the leadership of her Pi Beta Phi sorority chapter. After graduation, she returned to Chicago and worked answering letters from readers at Time-Life, Inc. One reader wrote asking if he could trade a pair of new leather shoes for a subscription to Life Magazine. My mom paid his subscription out of her own pocket and her soon-to-be husband received a new pair of shoes that day. Early in the 1950s, she met the love of her life, Arnie Stein, while with friends at the beach in Chicago. Arnie was a friend of her older brother, Donnie. They married on one of the hottest days of the summer in 1955. She lost her beloved husband of 67 years in 2023. They moved to Wilmette, Illinois after having their second child, where she learned how to drive from Arnie. After 7 years, they moved to Northfield where they raised all three of their children. She loved entertaining family and friends. After raising her family, she became a longtime resident of Lake Barrington. Throughout her life, she loved to travel to her home in Clearwater, Florida with her family. Lita was an avid tennis player and belonged to the Glenview Tennis Club, Northbrook Tennis, Highland Park Country Club, Bannockburn Club, and Ravinia Green Country Club. During summers in Florida, she played tennis and swam at Indian Rocks Tennis Club and Innisbrook. She also loved traveling throughout the world, including to Europe, Great Britain, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Canada, Israel, Egypt, and Asia. She and Arnie traveled well into their 80s. Lita had a remarkable gift for storytelling: about her travels, her children and grandchildren, and anything else she found interesting. She will be dearly missed, lovingly remembered and forever celebrated by her family and friends. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and aunt. She is survived by her children, Nicholis (Mary) Stein, Andrea (John) Culbertson, and Diana Stein along with her grandchildren, Claire, Spencer, and Andrew Culbertson, and loved Beau (Colleen) and Joshua (Celestia) Nielsen and their families. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Barrington Area Tennis Association to support children’s tennis education in the community. A memorial service will be held at Shalom Memorial, 1700 West Rand Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 (847-255-3520), on Friday, October 10, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. Inurnment following at Randhill Park Cemetery. For a link to view a livestream of the service, visit www.shalommemorial.org.