Memorial service held for Lisa Jean Niebauer

BY POLLY MANN

On Dec. 2 at the AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, a memorial service was held for Lisa Jean Niebauer who died Oct. 29 from cervical cancer.

Present at the ceremony, along with about 100 friends, were four of her five sisters; her son, Christopher Mattheis; her grandson, Cole and her partner and companion for many years, Mindy Oppenheim. Lisa’s name had been added to those of several thousand etched in a large cement circle in the center of the grove—the names of individuals who have died of AIDS plus names of partners and families. One of Lisa’s two brothers, Brian, died of AIDS.

When I first met Lisa in the early ’90s, she had just completed a master’s degree in theology from the College of St. Catherine. She was active in Women Against Military Madness, especially in justice issues, a charter member of the Women’s Political Alliance and president of the Linden Hills Food Cooperative, where she organized a successful capital fundraising campaign. She was part of a Twin Cities group of women who attended the 1992 World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet held in Florida and of another group who attended a peace conference in New York.

She loved to dance and she loved to listen to jazz.
In 1992 she sought the DFL endorsement for the Fifth Congressional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a position that had been held for 14 years by Martin Oval Sabo. When the DFL Convention finally endorsed Sabo at three in the morning, Lisa ran in the DFL primary as an unendorsed Democrat, receiving 30 percent of votes. Central to her campaign was her belief that a female representative could best address issues important to women and children. Her other issue was putting an end to war. Jan Pester of St. Paul, chairperson of that campaign, says, “I have never worked with anyone as formidable as she when it came to getting something done that she considered right and just.”