Rayna F. Levine was eighty-eight years old when she died from complications related to Alzheimer’s Disease on on September 10, 2026. She will be forever missed by her family and those who knew her well.
Born in Chicago to Bertha and Jack Freeman, Rayna graduated from Senn High School then earned a degree in Education from the University of Chicago. It was there she met Daniel Levine during her first week at U of C in 1956, a meeting that shaped both their lives. Rayna and Dan married in 1958 and spent the next 57 years together raising a family, making contributions to the field of education, and traveling the world until his death in 2016.
She earned her first degree in Education from the University of Chicago in 1960 and started her career as a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools system. After she and Dan moved to Kansas City in 1964, she spent a summer in Mississippi with Project Head Start teaching children to read before starting at Bingham Junior High School in KC. She continued a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, obtaining a Master’s in Public Administration from UMKC in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Kansas in 1988.
A talented educator and leader, from 1976-1989, Rayna served on the Kansas Advisory Committee on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She was a member of the Bi-State Committee on Education that explored voluntary methods to desegregate the KCMO school district. She served as the Coordinator of School Activities then Director of Admissions at Notre Dame de Sion grade school.
In 1986, Rayna became the Principal of William Volker Applied Learning Magnet School. Under her leadership, Volker was named one of Missouri’s 15 Gold Star schools, as well as one of the 142 best elementary schools in the in the country by Redbook magazine. While she left Volker for a few years to become the Director of Elementary Schools with the District, she could not resist the urge to return in 1995, to focus on working directly with children and teachers. Volker was recognized as a Blue-Ribbon school by the U.S. Department of Education 1996. As only one example of her work and leadership, seventeen of her Volker students received a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place ranking in the Greater Kansas City Engineering and Science Fair in 1996. She remained Principal at Volker until retiring in 1998.
From the outset, Rayna and Dan took to the road. A highlight was 1971-72, when they spent a year living and working in Athens, Greece, driving more than 18,000 miles visiting seventeen countries on weekends and vacations in their turquoise Volvo station wagon. In Athens, she also developed a passion for cooking, expanding her repertoire to include European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern dishes. Rayna and Dan later lived in Porto, Portugal in 1981, further deepening their love of travel.
Starting with her time in Greece and over the following years, Rayna became an expert cook to the point The Kansas City Times published a story about her culinary skills and including some of her favorite creations. “Rayna’s Recipes”, a compilation made for her family of her favorite dishes, many with a history, is a treasured, dog-eared family possession. The turquoise Volvo was also a treasured possession, returning to the U.S. with her in 1972. She only stopped driving the Volvo, with its manual choke, in the late 80’s when she could no longer find leaded fuel, otherwise she probably would have driven it forever.
After retiring, Rayna and Dan continued to travel, eventually visiting more than 30 countries over 5 continents, making new friends, shuttling between Omaha and Olathe, and enjoying their time together. She also spent much of her time in retirement working on family genealogy and spoiling her granddaughters with pancakes, French silk pie, presents, and advice.
Rayna is survived by her sister Josie; children Jennifer (Kathryn) and Bruce (Megan); her granddaughters Anna and Isabel; her two sisters-in-law; and other family members. Her family wishes to express their gratitude to the people at Three Oaks Hospice and at Encore Memory Care in Bolingbrook, Illinois, for the care, patience, and comfort they provided Rayna over her difficult final months. To anyone who encountered Rayna or who is so inclined, her family suggests donations to an Alzheimer’s care or research group in the hope that future generations can be spared the heartbreaking and pernicious effects of the condition.
In the words of her beloved Doc Martin, “That should be it for the moment.”
