Remembering and Celebrating Maria Rodriguez

Maria Rodriguez Was an Inspiration to All Who Knew Her

There are some people who have an innate ability to connect with others. It just takes one conversation for them to be a friend. They walk into a room and instantly light up people’s day. They inspire, uplift, and help others strive to be the best they can be.

Maria Rodriguez was one of those people. Her impressive life and career in public service saw her become a loving wife and mother, a leader in Long Grove, a candidate for lieutenant governor and Congress, an author, and a motivational speaker. Along the way, she lit up countless rooms, inspired untold numbers of friends, and served as an example anyone would be proud to live up to.

Maria passed away on Oct. 19, 2021, at age 62 following a battle with cancer. Known as a devoted public servant, motivational speaker, and dedicated wife and mother, she left behind a legacy that reached farther and touched more lives than she could have ever expected.

“Throughout her entire life, she was an inspirational person that just exuded hope, no matter what the circumstance,” said Kathy Jirak, a lifelong friend of Maria’s. “And she wasn’t a foolish optimist. Maria was fearless in so many ways.”

Maria is survived by her husband, Ray; their three children, Leah, Raymond Jr., and Sophia; and grandchildren, Dean and Dylan.

‘She Was All-In’

Long Grove is forever changed because of Maria’s influence. It was during her tenure as village president, from 2005-2013, that Long Grove secured its first grocery store and shopping center in Sunset Foods.

“But for Maria and her tenacity, it would not have happened,” said Village Trustee Bobbie O’Reilly. “It was a tax generator. It kind of goes hand in hand with the downtown of Long Grove. It’s very important to the village. It was a real asset.”

Lori Lyman, a friend of Maria’s since the 1990s and a village trustee from 2013-2017, agreed Sunset Foods was one of Maria’s crowning achievements. She also credited Maria with laying the groundwork for bringing water service into Long Grove’s downtown area and facilitating future economic development, ensuring Maria’s influence will be felt for years to come as the village continues to evolve.

“I don’t think there’s been a harder-working president in Long Grove,” Lyman said. “She was at every festival … if there was an event in downtown Long Grove, she was all-in. Everybody loved her. She really walked the walk.”

Maria was not just village president, however. Her involvement spanned decades. She first began working for the village as its clerk in 1993, a position she stayed in until she was elected village trustee. She served on the village board from 1994-1997 until she returned as president in 2005.  

“Long Grove was her home, and Long Grove was everything to her,” Lyman said. “Being part of the community was important.”

A Unique Type of Leader

Throughout her time as an elected official in the village, Maria embodied dignity and a measured demeanor. She did not hold grudges, and by all accounts, she never spoke ill of political opponents, always taking all views into consideration.

Jeff Braiman, village president of neighboring Buffalo Grove from 2011-2015, witnessed this firsthand. For decades, the relationship between Long Grove and Buffalo Grove was less than cordial, according to Braiman, but that gradually changed as new officials were elected in each. He said Maria among those newer officials who greatly improved relations between the village boards.

“It just tells you the type of person she was,” Braiman said. “She was just more concentrated on the issue, more concentrated on what her intent was and not getting into the dirty part of politics.”

Braiman worked most closely with Maria when they both were on the Illinois Route 53/120 Blue Ribbon Advisory Council in 2012 that oversaw the extension of Route 53 through central Lake County. Braiman recalled at first being unsure about what to think about serving on the council with Maria, because many in Long Grove opposed the project while many in Buffalo Grove were supportive.

Braiman said Maria took a measured approach while the council met, genuinely considering both sides of the issue.

“Maria was outspoken and an advocate for both sides, and very, very interested in trying to come up with viable solutions and inclusions to make it the best possible suggestion,” Braiman said. “She was a really valuable member of that commission and offered a lot of good suggestions. It wouldn’t have been as potent if it wasn’t for her involvement.”

Bringing People Together

Maria’s influence stretched far and wide. She was a well-known networker and top-notch entertainer, frequently throwing elaborate parties such as the annual Lions Club Christmas party. A woman of devout faith, she also was enormously involved in her church, St. Mary Parish, where she served as liturgical coordinator.

But it was in her interpersonal relationships that she truly shone. It did not take long for those who met her to become her friend, and she would quickly find ways to bring out the best in people.

“You met her and you felt like you’d known her all your life,” O’Reilly said. “She was just such a sparkling person. I had this feeling about her from the very beginning, that I know and love this person.”

Lyman, a landscape architect, first met Maria in the early 1990s when Maria hired Lyman for landscaping. A few years later, in 1994, Lyman bought property near Maria and the two reconnected.

Almost instantly—years before Lyman even moved into her new home, in 2000—Maria got Lyman involved in the community. In 1996, Maria recruited Lyman for a beautification project at Kildeer Countryside Elementary School. In 2002, just two years after Lyman moved to Long Grove, Maria encouraged Lyman to join the village’s Architectural Review Board, which she ended up serving on until 2008. And it was Maria who urged Lyman to run for village board.

“Four years before we moved here, Maria had me involved in the schools,” Lyman said. “She saw people’s strength. Maria had such a huge network because she was so highly liked and revered, and she just had this wonderful personality to seek out people, bring their strengths, and put them to good work in the community.”

Getting Women Involved

Maria tried to take her talents to Washington, D.C., and Springfield, running for Congress in 2010 and lieutenant governor in 2014. She retired from politics after the 2014 campaign, but she used her experiences to inspire a new generation of women leaders.

After leaving politics, Maria rededicated herself to getting others involved in their community. In 2016, she founded The Leader Is You, an organization meant to inspire women to run for office. She used the organization to launch a career in public speaking. In 2018, she released her first book, “Run Jane Run…We Need You in Office!: Why Women Are a Natural for Politics and How to Get More of Them Elected.”

“Maria felt that women have talents that are somewhat different from men, that it can be such a great balance in a male-dominated environment,” Jirak said. “If you were a mom and you could manage the life of multiple individuals in your home with grace and developing your children to be thoughtful, kind citizens, then you had what it takes to be a leader in politics. She wanted to encourage and embolden women to give it a go.”

Jirak said Maria had been passionate about encouraging women to enter politics for almost two decades before her book finally released. Jirak recalled Maria first raising the idea of a book while the two were on vacation in Florida in the early 2000s. The idea kept coming up for years until Maria finally released “Run Jane Run.”

“I remember just the passion she had for getting that done—it never waned. It was always there,” Jirak said. “And I think of that as the passion she had for life and serving people. It just burned in her.”

Like Lyman, Jirak became a leader after being inspired by Maria. When Jirak moved to North Carolina, she decided to run a local program called Moving On After Moving In, which offers support to women after relocations.

Perhaps most surprising about Maria’s accomplishments is that she achieved them all—politics, inspirational speaking, leadership—despite being terrified of public speaking, Jirak said. She did it not out of blind ambition or ego, but as a genuine way to serve others because it is what she felt she needed to do, Jirak said.

“There are people that are just not afraid of anything because they’re super confident,” Jirak said. “I don’t think Maria was that way. I think she just pushed herself hard to try despite being afraid.”

A Life of Adventure

Though Maria’s life was cut short by her illness, she filled her time with unique experiences and adventures. Beyond her political career, she was an accomplished runner with a marathon under her belt, a shepherd to a pack of alpacas, and a beekeeper.

Almost invariably, Maria embarked on her adventures because of sudden callings, not because of long-brewing plans. For example, what started as a hobby with alpacas grew into a business, with Maria and her husband selling the animals or shearing them and providing fur to co-ops.

That sense of adventure and openness is what runs through virtually every memory Maria’s friends and colleagues recall about her. From her involvement in local and state politics to her dedication to her friends and family, everything came from a genuine, organic place.

“She had no idea her life would lead her to politics, writing a book, doing a marathon,” Lyman said. “She didn’t set goals like ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ It was just an evolution of who she was and how popular she became in such a heartfelt and unassuming way.”

Those who loved Maria, while dismayed that she was taken so soon, take comfort in knowing she lives on through the countless people she was acquainted with. Her funeral, attended by a massive crowd, was a testament to that.

“Her light did not go out,” Jirak said. “It just got passed. It got shared.”