Business & Tech

Jewelry Store Founder, Oldest SXU Grad, Dies at 87

Bess Friedheim of Homewood will be remembered at a memorial service on Sunday.

Bess Friedheim, of Homewood, the oldest graduate of St. Xavier University and founder of an Orland Park jewelry store, has died.

She died Nov. 12. Mrs. Friedheim was 87. She earned her SXU degree in 2006, 65 years after graduating from high school.

“She had an inspiring effect on people,” her son, Jay Friedheim, 62, told Sun-Times Media. “She encouraged me all my life to try and do things, even if it didn’t seem as if it was all that possible. Just try. You can never fail unless you don’t try.”

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She and her husband Phillip had three children — Steve, Jay and Wendy. Mrs. Friedheim opened Bess Friedheim Jewelry at the Flossmoor Train Station in 1972. Today, the store is on 151st Street in Orland Park.

A memorial service will take place at the B’nai Yehuda Beth Sholom in Homewood at 3 p.m. Sunday. A reception will follow.

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