Charmaine Savage, who championed her hometown in ‘I Am East St. Louis’ magazine, dead at 51

Charmaine Savage, the founder of I Am East St. Louis, The Magazine, died January 13 at the age of 51 due to breast cancer, which she had been battling since her thirties. The Belleville News-Democrat was the first to report the news. 

Savage launched I Am East St. Louis in 2016 with the goal of promoting the best of East St. Louis, her hometown. A recent issue of the magazine featured David Rodgers, the Caleres vice president, on its cover. Other past issues profiled Karla Scott, Saint Louis University’s first black woman who is a full professor in the college of arts and sciences, and Dawn Harper-Nelson, an Olympic gold medalist. 

Savage, who graduated from Lincoln Sr. High School, McKendree College, and Webster University, was also a retired Navy commander. She served in human resources for the military branch for more than 20 years and spent 11 months in Iraq during the Iraq War. She was awarded numerous decorations, including a bronze star. 

In 2016, two months after the launch of I Am East St. Louis, SLM profiled Savage as part of a “people to watch” package. Here’s what we wrote back then: 

Charmaine Savage graduated from Lincoln High School, attended college, and married her high school sweetheart, Lorenzo. The couple traveled the world during her career as a U.S. Navy officer. “But when we left home in 1989, we didn’t leave with the intention of staying gone,” she says. During return visits to St. Louis, she couldn’t resist posting “Home sweet home!” on Facebook. So after retiring, the Savages moved back to East St. Louis. In January, Charmaine founded I AM EStL, a publication that, she says, tells “real stories about real people.” The first issue featured interviews with such East St. Louis natives as U.N. ambassador Donald McHenry, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, and Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks, as well as Remy Joh, a young woman with a disability who’s launched her own holistic business; artist Reginald Petty; and Billie Miller, owner of Billie’s Pastries, a community gathering spot. With the March issue, Savage launched a column to showcase talents of the city’s natives. “They are all around the planet, representing us well,” she says. She’s also gathering a list of East St. Louis natives with Ph.D.s for a forthcoming education issue. “We are still graduating geniuses from School District 189,” she says. And in early July, Savage plans to celebrate the arts issue with an event at the Katherine Dunham Museum.