Jeannie was born and raised in East Peoria, IL. She graduated from high school in 1967 from East Peoria High. After graduating, Jeannie moved to the suburbs of Chicago for a year, and then at 19, she came back to the Peoria area where she met her first husband and had two boys, Shane and Matthew.

In 1973 Jeannie went to Stephen’s Beauty Academy and became a cosmetology teacher, a platform artist for Matrix products, and worked in a hair salon in Chillicothe. Later she opened her own hair salon. Now divorced she was a single mother until she met and married Terry Quick. They had one daughter together, Chelsea. Terry and Jeannie have been married for 36 years and have four grandchildren and one more on the way.

In 1998 the couple wanted to find something they could do together, so they decided to join the Optimists Club and got very involved in raising money for the youth of our community.

In 1999 she sold her hair salon and went to work for Three Sister’s Park as the events co-coordinator. While there she and Terry were one of five couples that organized the Spider Hill event. What a great event that is still going on to this day!

After working at Three Sisters, she signed on to be the facilitator for the  Chamber of Commerce, chairing and co-chairing the “Chilifest” as well as other events and serving on many committees. 

In 2003 she became a real estate broker. She hung her license at Jim Maloof Realty for 10 years, and Keller Williams for nine years. She is currently working at Sunflower Realty for almost three years now.

One fall evening in 2009, after an Optimist’s event, Irv and Mary Latta got together for supper with Terry and Jeannie. Irv knowing Jeannie was a Realtor, handed Jeannie a listing sheet of a property he had just listed. It was our own Town Theater. As she looked at the listing sheet she kidded with him and said, “Sure, I have someone tucked in my back pocket that wants to buy a theater!” The more she looked at the listing the more she thought, maybe this could be the next Spider Hill!

So she said to Irv, “Why doesn’t the Optimists Club buy it and run it as a business and give back the money to youth groups in town?” Well, that started it. They took the idea to the membership for a vote, found investors, formed a board of directors, which Jeannie was on for a couple of years, and the rest as they say is history!  What a great idea it proved to be for the entire community!  

While still an active realtor, and involved in the community, in 2018 she started a company called, “Dream Outside the Lines,” Where people

dream, and set goals all with the help of a vision board. She was also a founding member and coach with, “I’ve Decided,” a personal development company.

As a member of the Optimists Club, Jeannie has chaired the Chili Supper and for many years, been involved in the Christmas parade and toy drive. She has been the secretary, a board member, the media person, the vice president, and the president for three terms. The last term as president was in 2020 when she got the award that year for, best pandemic president. “I pray no one else ever gets that award,” she laughed.

Last year she was on the committee to help launch the Chillicothe Hometown Voice, and this year helped co-ordinate the “Home Run Festival” in conjunction with the Brad Wallin Tournament to help raise money for childhood cancer. She also helped bring the Chili Supper back this year by partnering with South School. When asked what was next for her she replied; “Right now we are getting ready for one of our favorite fundraisers, “The Christmas Bonanza.”

If that’s not enough, she is active in her church at Northwoods. Sells ads for the Hometown Voice newspaper and writes the article, “Real Estate Over Coffee.” She is still a Realtor and loves connecting buyers and sellers. Her husband, Terry, her friends, and family keep telling her she needs to slow down, but she says she can’t, “I’M A PEOPLE PERSON AND LOVE PEOPLE!”

Thank you, Jeannie, for making Chillicothe a better place to live!