Family came first for Lawrence resident Sondra Schrag, 91

In real estate it is said that the three most critical things are location, location and location. For Sondra Schrag, the most important thing was family, family and family.

Schrag, a Lawrence resident for more than 60 years, died on April 9, the first day of Passover this year. She was 91.

Born Sondra Elaine Singer on May 15, 1928 in Brooklyn, she graduated Erasmus Hall High School and attained a college degree, a less than typical achievement for women of her generation. Singer spent a summer semester at upstate Cornell University and another at the University of Wisconsin. She earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University.   

A birthday party became a wedding in 1948, when six day days before Singer turned 20, she married Daniel Schrag at the Waldorf-Astoria. “The pictures reflect a storybook tale, the likes of which I hadn’t seen until the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, though it lasted significantly longer than that of the royals — 68 years!,” her son Bill wrote in an email.

The newlyweds moved from Brooklyn to an apartment in Lawrence in 1955. Four years later, they moved a few blocks away to 2 Berkley Place in Lawrence, which became the family home for nearly 60 years. Bill reminisced that “within a very short radius” of his parents and then siblings Myra, the oldest, and Barry, the youngest, were many of his mother’s aunts, uncles and cousins and her parents and brother. “The three most important things in Sondra’s life were family, family and family,” Bill stated.

Community involvement also played a huge role in the couple’s life as they were active members of Congregation Beth Sholom, also in Lawrence, and were among the founders of the Hillel School that was in Lawrence as well. In 1978, Hillel merged with the Long Island Institute of Long Island to be become the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway. Sondra also served on various Sisterhood committees at Beth Sholom and served as president of the Hillel School’s PTA.

After her children moved out of the family home, Sondra returned to school and earned a master’s in library science. “It was a natural choice for her because she loved to read, she loved libraries and she enjoyed helping others,” Barry said, adding that for several years, she worked in the Lawrence School District in the classroom and in the library. 

An adventuresome person, according to her sons, Sondra became an ad hoc travel adviser for her family and friends planning many trips ranging from local to global. “She researched her trips extensively and kept detailed notes of wherever she went,” Barry said. “Her children and grandchildren have referred to some of those notes when planning vacations of their own. One of Sondra’s friends recently said that Sondra was her go-to person for travel ideas before Travel Advisor became available online.”

Bill said that his mother was a “people person and a great conversationalist.” “She loved to read, attend theater and classes; but what she really loved was to discuss current events with a wide spectrum of people,” he said.

Her devotion to family did not waiver as Barry said Sondra was a “devoted caregiver” to his father who died in 2016. He was 93. She then moved into to the Nautilus Hotel in Atlantic Beach.  The family home was sold in 2018.

“For the last two years of her life, Sondra comported herself with the same regal stature and elegance that characterized her life for almost 90 years prior to her demise,” Bill said. “Sondra was a woman of substance, strength and determination.”

Also predeceased by her daughter, Myra, in 2004, Sondra is survived by a loving family, including five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, as well as many friends and admirers.