A Life Shaped by Movement and Meaning
I picture a child whose first lullabies were the sounds of trains and troop convoys, a baby born as a world remade itself. Danna Schaeffer, born Olivia Danna Wilner on December 26, 1943, in Atlanta, Georgia, began life near a military base where her father served and her mother built a home amid uncertainty. Her childhood unfolded across Los Angeles, Baltimore, and New York City, a nomadic map that taught adaptability and honed empathy. Those moves did not scatter her sense of self. They enriched it. She learned to read rooms as much as books, an early preparation for the roles that would define her adult life as writer, educator, therapist, and advocate.
Higher education gave her a language for what she sensed. She earned an M.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of Oregon, then stepped into the world with confidence and curiosity. The cities of her youth and the classrooms of her early career became her laboratory for understanding people and telling their stories. She wrote short stories, poems, articles, and reviews, always with the clear-eyed tenderness of someone who listens first.
Family Bonds That Held Fast
In 1963, Danna married Benson Schaeffer, a child psychologist. It was a partnership that endured nearly six decades and felt, by all accounts, like rooted trust. Their daughter, Rebecca, arrived on November 6, 1967, in Eugene, Oregon. The family signed cards with BDR, Benson Danna Rebecca, a small ritual that radiates closeness. I imagine their kitchen table covered with maps and books, itineraries tucked beside manuscripts.
They traveled together and made stories of their own. In 1986 they visited Warsaw, Bialystok, Vienna, and Budapest. In 1987 they journeyed to the Amazon, the Rio Negro, and Manaus. Those trips were not escapes. They were fuel, the kind of experiences that turn into scenes, characters, and insights. Danna visited Rebecca on set in Europe and shared in the thrill of a young artist finding her way. These were the bright years, framed by work well loved and the daily warmth of family life.
From Classroom to Stage and Therapy Room
When the family settled in Portland in 1980, Danna deepened her teaching career. She taught English and creative writing at places like Willamette University, Portland Community College, and Portland State University. She mentored with a light hand, the way a good teacher nudges rather than pushes. Her pen kept moving. In 1988 she premiered City Women, an evening of one-act plays set in global capitals. The playwright emerged in full, confident and curious about the voices she could summon.
Danna had a gift for building things with the people she loved. In 1996 she co-founded BookRadio with her brother Adam, an early audio platform dedicated to book reviews and author interviews. She stepped in front of the camera too, acting in the film Birddog in 1999, which shows that risk and reinvention were not just abstractions in her life. Then, seeking a deeper mode of service, she earned an M.A. in counseling psychology from Lewis and Clark College in 2003. For a decade she ran a private practice in downtown Portland, a quiet room where she turned empathy into practical care. In 2013 she closed the practice and shifted fully toward performance and writing, even creating a fortune-teller persona named Madame Olivia, playful and kind, offering encouraging character readings without dogma.
Grief Into Advocacy
On July 18, 1989, Danna’s life was split cleanly in two. Rebecca, 21, a rising actress known for My Sister Sam and other film and television work, was murdered by a stalker at her West Hollywood apartment. The worst call of her life became a lifelong call to action. Danna had not been politically active, but grief became a catalyst. She co-founded Oregonians Against Gun Violence later that year and stood in Washington to lobby for the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1991. The organization grew to hundreds of members. Her voice became one among many in a movement that refused to accept preventable loss as the price of modern life.
Her advocacy did not chase celebrity. It fought for policy and for the dignity of families like hers. I see a mother holding a photograph and a notebook, resolute, choosing the long road of civic work.
You in Midair
Art carried her through what activism could not touch. In 2017, Danna debuted You in Midair, a one-woman show at Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival. She returned to it again in 2018, performing at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The show approached grief the way a good climber approaches a rock face. Slowly. Honestly. With humor, when humor is the only rope left. It was Rebecca’s story told in Danna’s voice, a performance that avoided platitudes and embraced the complexity of loss. It braided family anecdotes with Inherited songs and the hard clarity of memory.
I admire how she invited audiences to sit in the real. No tidy endings. Just the human power to hold pain and beauty at the same time. The show’s planned travel to international stages seemed to mirror Danna’s own life chart, moving outward with the courage to share.
The Wider Circle
Danna’s family circle was large and loving. She was survived by her husband, Benson, and by brothers David Wilner, Justin Wilner, and Adam Wilner. Accounts sometimes mention another brother, Stephen. Her parents, Daniel and Lucile, and her daughter, Rebecca, had preceded her in death. The stories that filter through paint a portrait of a woman who respected the young and admired her friends’ children as if they were her own. She built friendships across generations, the kind that stick because they grow from attention and kindness. If you called her a connoisseur of people, you would not be wrong.
Timeline Highlights
Her path traces a clear arc. Childhood in midcentury American cities. Marriage to Benson in 1963. Rebecca’s birth in 1967. Graduate studies and literary work through the 1970s. A move to Portland in 1980 and the start of a robust teaching career. The premiere of City Women in 1988. In 1989, a devastating loss followed by organized advocacy that drew her to national policy debates. New experiments in media with BookRadio in 1996 and in film with Birddog in 1999. Further training in counseling and a decade of private practice starting in 2003. A creative return to performance in the 2010s, including Madame Olivia in 2013 and the landmark You in Midair in 2017 and 2018. She died on November 6, 2022, in Portland at age 78, due to complications from an aortic valve replacement.
Legacy and Public Presence
Even after her passing, Danna’s public image remains steady and dignified. She did not chase headlines. Mentions of her in recent years often connect to Rebecca’s story, to the changes in anti-stalking laws, and to tributes that remember happier times. She rarely courted the spotlight except when art and advocacy called her to stand in it. Net worth and gossip have no place in her story. Purpose does. Love does. The ground-level work of helping others does.
FAQ
Who was Danna Schaeffer?
Danna Schaeffer was a writer, educator, playwright, therapist, and advocate. Her life blended creative work with counseling and public action, particularly in response to the tragedy of her daughter Rebecca’s murder.
When and where was she born and when did she die?
She was born on December 26, 1943, in Atlanta, Georgia, and died on November 6, 2022, in Portland, Oregon, at age 78, due to complications from an aortic valve replacement.
What were her main careers?
She taught English and creative writing, published literary work, wrote and performed for the stage, practiced counseling psychology in private practice, and led gun violence prevention efforts.
What is You in Midair?
You in Midair is Danna’s one-woman show that recounts Rebecca’s life and death from a mother’s perspective. It blends humor, honesty, and memory to explore grief without sentimentality.
Who were her immediate family members?
Her husband was Benson Schaeffer. Her daughter was the actress Rebecca Schaeffer. She had surviving brothers named David, Justin, and Adam. Her parents were Daniel and Lucile. Some accounts also mention a brother named Stephen.
Did she have any controversies?
No significant controversies or scandals are associated with her. Her public image reflects dignity, creativity, and advocacy.
Did she have a public social media presence?
There is no record of active personal social media. Mentions of her online typically connect to Rebecca’s legacy, gun violence prevention, and tributes.
What drove her advocacy?
The murder of her daughter in 1989 propelled her into public action. She co-founded Oregonians Against Gun Violence and lobbied for reforms, including support for the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
What institutions did she teach at?
She taught at Willamette University, Portland Community College, and Portland State University.
Where did she live?
She lived in several cities during childhood, including Los Angeles, Baltimore, and New York City. As an adult she studied in Eugene and later made a long-term home in Portland, Oregon.
