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Mostly Cloudy Evelyn Wagner Cohen
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She was 80.
Wagner Cohen died on Dec. 27, two days before her 81st birthday, at TideWell Hospice in Sarasota, Fla., where she has been living since she retired in 1988.
Born on Dec. 29, 1925, Wagner Cohen was born in Borough Park, Brooklyn and grew up in Flatbush, where she attended The Yeshiva of Flatbush, a Jewish orthodox school, and Erasmus Hall High School with her sisters, Ronya and Deborah. After graduating from high school, she went on to attend Baruch College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. She graduated with a B.A. in business administration, not only as a member of that program's first graduating class, but also one of only two women admitted into it.
"It was very unique that a woman back then graduated with business degree," said her daughter Norma Wagner. "It was almost unheard of for [a woman] to go into accounting. She was kind of like a trailblazer."
After graduating from college, she married David Wagner on Dec. 13, 1947. The wedding was held as a double wedding with her sister Deborah, who married Irving Eiferman.
Wagner Cohen and her husband moved to Valley Stream in 1950, first living in the Gibson area, then moving to Green Acres in 1955. The couple became very active in the community, joining the Green Acres Civic Association, her husband David as president. Of the many issues they rallied against while part of the civic association, the couple were part of a movement to keep the Concorde aircraft, as well as other supersonic methods of transportation, from coming into Kennedy Airport. "She was very involved," said her daughter, Freda Wagner-Pflaum. "We have pictures of the cinder blocks [of buildings in that neighborhood] going up. Basically, she helped turn the bricks and mortars into a really wonderful, suburban community."
All the while, Wagner Cohen was putting her college degree to use, working as an accountant and bookkeeper, first for Mayer's Catering in New Jersey, then for the Village of Rockville Centre, where she worked her way up to assistant comptroller.
She was also a committed volunteer. She was an officer B'nai B'rith Women and B'nai B'rith youth, a Jewish volunteer service organization. She was also one of the original members of Temple Emmanuel in Lynbrook. "She was really very committed to volunteer in whatever community she lived in," Wagner-Pflaum said.
She added, "She was the prototype of the super mom. She was one of the women in the Sixties who went back to work when the children were in elementary school and did it all. She went back to work, cooked the meals, took care of the kids and did volunteer work. She was involved not only in her children's education, but in the community."
"She held positions of leadership in her organizations in an unassuming, quiet way," said her sister Deborah Eiferman. "Yet I once had experience of going to a breakfast she was chairing... I was so impressed with her ability to speak, to convey her message in a very positive way. In all the years I've known her, I have never heard a negative thought or word about Evelyn and I don't know another person I could say that about."
Throughout the years, though she and her sisters lived in different states, they remained incredibly close, holding yearly, week-long reunions at Eiferman's home in Danbury, Conn. "It was like camp," Eiferman said. "We just had such a wonderful time. It was like reconnecting, even though we connected all the time... Some nights we stayed up giggling until 2 a.m. It was just a wonderful, wonderful week."
She added, "Although geographically, the three of us were separated in our later, adults year, though the physical connection wasn't there, the emotional connection was ongoing."
After her husband died in 1979, Wagner Cohen moved into an apartment in Rockville Centre to be closer to her job. She retired from her position with the village in 1988, so she could move to Sarasota, Fla. to be closer to her daughters and grandchildren. "She really enjoyed working for the village," Wagner-Pflaum said. "She felt that it was almost like a family. These were friends who cared about each other. She had a good relationship with employees and elected officials. She really just decided to retire and... moved to follow her children."
She became very active when she moved to Sarasota. She was an active volunteer with the Sarasota Opera, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Jewish Federation of Sarasota, the Brandeis Women, the Suncoast Equestrian Program, a program for developmentally challenged and autistic children, and the Senior Friendship Center, an outreach and day program for local seniors. "She was very involved, very committed, very loving and caring, an inclusive kind of woman," Wagner-Pflaum said. "I think it was important to her that in her life she made a difference and that difference could have been to the young or old. She just really wanted to make a difference. She was a person really about being in service... Wherever she went, she found an area where she could make a difference."
Eiferman said, "She was very, very focused on not only her family, which was very special to her, but for the immediate world."
"Mom always had a huge work ethic that she passed on to my sister and I, as well as the value of work and the value of giving back to community and to those in need," Wagner said. "There's a huge hole in my heart with her gone, but she gave to a lot of people, to other people. Family came first, but beyond family, she was always there to help whoever needed it. Even as an elderly woman she was a volunteer and always doing good deeds."
Wagner Cohen was also active socially, joining the Prime Timers, a singles group for senior citizens in the Sarasota area. This is where she met her second husband, Norman Cohen, 82, who, ironically, was also a graduate of Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, though the two had never met. The couple got married in 1996.
She also, at 70, had her bat mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony usually held as a teenager, in Sarasota. "When she grew up in a traditional orthodox home, girls were not given the opportunity, only boys were bar mitzvahed," Wagner-Pflaum said. "After she married [Cohen,] he was in a conservative congregation, where girls were bat mitzvahed, which is a contemporary phenomenon. I think it was an extension of life-long learning and her commitment to Judaism... She was finally able to achieve what the boys were able to do."
As well as her daughters, Freda Wagner-Pflaum and Norma Wagner, and her sister Deborah Eiferman, Wagner Cohen is survived by her husband, Norman Cohen; three step-children, Stuart Cohen, Michael Cohen and Marcia Cyr; a step-son-in-law, Kevin Cyr; two grandchildren, Alison and David Wagner-Pflaum; two step-grandchildren, Becky and Ben Cyr; two brothers-in-law, Irving Eiferman and Hill Boss; and a sister-in-law, Leanore Gropen.
Funeral Services were held at Gutterman's Funeral Home in Woodbury. She was buried in Mount Ararat Cemetery in East Farmingdale.
Wagner Cohen died on Dec. 27, two days before her 81st birthday, at TideWell Hospice in Sarasota, Fla., where she has been living since she retired in 1988.
Born on Dec. 29, 1925, Wagner Cohen was born in Borough Park, Brooklyn and grew up in Flatbush, where she attended The Yeshiva of Flatbush, a Jewish orthodox school, and Erasmus Hall High School with her sisters, Ronya and Deborah. After graduating from high school, she went on to attend Baruch College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. She graduated with a B.A. in business administration, not only as a member of that program's first graduating class, but also one of only two women admitted into it.
"It was very unique that a woman back then graduated with business degree," said her daughter Norma Wagner. "It was almost unheard of for [a woman] to go into accounting. She was kind of like a trailblazer."
After graduating from college, she married David Wagner on Dec. 13, 1947. The wedding was held as a double wedding with her sister Deborah, who married Irving Eiferman.
All the while, Wagner Cohen was putting her college degree to use, working as an accountant and bookkeeper, first for Mayer's Catering in New Jersey, then for the Village of Rockville Centre, where she worked her way up to assistant comptroller.
She was also a committed volunteer. She was an officer B'nai B'rith Women and B'nai B'rith youth, a Jewish volunteer service organization. She was also one of the original members of Temple Emmanuel in Lynbrook. "She was really very committed to volunteer in whatever community she lived in," Wagner-Pflaum said.
She added, "She was the prototype of the super mom. She was one of the women in the Sixties who went back to work when the children were in elementary school and did it all. She went back to work, cooked the meals, took care of the kids and did volunteer work. She was involved not only in her children's education, but in the community."
"She held positions of leadership in her organizations in an unassuming, quiet way," said her sister Deborah Eiferman. "Yet I once had experience of going to a breakfast she was chairing... I was so impressed with her ability to speak, to convey her message in a very positive way. In all the years I've known her, I have never heard a negative thought or word about Evelyn and I don't know another person I could say that about."
Throughout the years, though she and her sisters lived in different states, they remained incredibly close, holding yearly, week-long reunions at Eiferman's home in Danbury, Conn. "It was like camp," Eiferman said. "We just had such a wonderful time. It was like reconnecting, even though we connected all the time... Some nights we stayed up giggling until 2 a.m. It was just a wonderful, wonderful week."
She added, "Although geographically, the three of us were separated in our later, adults year, though the physical connection wasn't there, the emotional connection was ongoing."
After her husband died in 1979, Wagner Cohen moved into an apartment in Rockville Centre to be closer to her job. She retired from her position with the village in 1988, so she could move to Sarasota, Fla. to be closer to her daughters and grandchildren. "She really enjoyed working for the village," Wagner-Pflaum said. "She felt that it was almost like a family. These were friends who cared about each other. She had a good relationship with employees and elected officials. She really just decided to retire and... moved to follow her children."
She became very active when she moved to Sarasota. She was an active volunteer with the Sarasota Opera, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Jewish Federation of Sarasota, the Brandeis Women, the Suncoast Equestrian Program, a program for developmentally challenged and autistic children, and the Senior Friendship Center, an outreach and day program for local seniors. "She was very involved, very committed, very loving and caring, an inclusive kind of woman," Wagner-Pflaum said. "I think it was important to her that in her life she made a difference and that difference could have been to the young or old. She just really wanted to make a difference. She was a person really about being in service... Wherever she went, she found an area where she could make a difference."
Eiferman said, "She was very, very focused on not only her family, which was very special to her, but for the immediate world."
"Mom always had a huge work ethic that she passed on to my sister and I, as well as the value of work and the value of giving back to community and to those in need," Wagner said. "There's a huge hole in my heart with her gone, but she gave to a lot of people, to other people. Family came first, but beyond family, she was always there to help whoever needed it. Even as an elderly woman she was a volunteer and always doing good deeds."
Wagner Cohen was also active socially, joining the Prime Timers, a singles group for senior citizens in the Sarasota area. This is where she met her second husband, Norman Cohen, 82, who, ironically, was also a graduate of Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, though the two had never met. The couple got married in 1996.
She also, at 70, had her bat mitzvah, a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony usually held as a teenager, in Sarasota. "When she grew up in a traditional orthodox home, girls were not given the opportunity, only boys were bar mitzvahed," Wagner-Pflaum said. "After she married [Cohen,] he was in a conservative congregation, where girls were bat mitzvahed, which is a contemporary phenomenon. I think it was an extension of life-long learning and her commitment to Judaism... She was finally able to achieve what the boys were able to do."
As well as her daughters, Freda Wagner-Pflaum and Norma Wagner, and her sister Deborah Eiferman, Wagner Cohen is survived by her husband, Norman Cohen; three step-children, Stuart Cohen, Michael Cohen and Marcia Cyr; a step-son-in-law, Kevin Cyr; two grandchildren, Alison and David Wagner-Pflaum; two step-grandchildren, Becky and Ben Cyr; two brothers-in-law, Irving Eiferman and Hill Boss; and a sister-in-law, Leanore Gropen.
Funeral Services were held at Gutterman's Funeral Home in Woodbury. She was buried in Mount Ararat Cemetery in East Farmingdale.
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