Sonya (Sarah) Jacobs Scherer (January 23, 1907 — August 7, 1994)
Nathan Schere (December 31, 1912 — February 15, 2007)
The youngest and only American born of Zalmen (Solomon) Jacobs and Zelda (grand-daughter of Zysia) from Piotrków, Poland/Russia; she grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City – the Cinderella of the family of 3 (Frances & Max). At 15 she was sent out to work to help support the family and learned to smoke. She worked as a typist for the Parent Teacher Association till she was 26 and married Nathan Scherer – 5/4/1933 – after a 6 week courtship. He was 21 and a disenfranchised Economics student at CCNY (City College of New York). She remembered seeing the American debut of Ravel’s Bolero at Carnegie Hall with Zalmen (who also admired Enrico Caruso, a tenor) and guiding FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and his wife Eleanor around the PTA offices when he was governor of New York. Sonia and Nate enjoyed modern dance lessons with Martha Graham and camping on Lake George (Big Burnt Island) during summer breaks. They also went to the 1939 New York World’s Fair where they signed a 100 year time capsule. (In 1924 Sonya and Frances danced at Madison Square Garden to the poetry of Langston Hughes (“Go Down Death”) at a campaign rally for Robert M. La Follette (who lost the presidential election)).
Their only child, Paul, was born 6/10/1941 in French Hospital on 34th Street in Manhattan while they lived in Teaneck New Jersey. During WWII (World War II) Nate - who had a draft classification of 4F due to 3 incomplete vertebrae - worked at Picatinny Arsenal training workers. After the war he got a job in training for the Division of Employment Security, NJ Department of Labor and they moved to Trenton. Sonia’s parents had moved to a farm called Green Gables in Toms River New Jersey in 1933 with Frances and her husband Harry Leber where they raised their two boys Boris (Alexander) and Eric. Zelda died of heart disease in 1939 – returning on a bus from visiting Mac in a TB sanitarium in New York. Zalmen died of a heart attack in 1942 when Paul was 10 months old; Harry and Frances continued to work on the farm raising chickens for eggs. Boris joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 but his unit arrived at their base in the Pacific Theatre just as the Japanese surrendered in August, 1945. He took a degree in ceramics at Rutgers on the GI Bill. Eric studied music at Antioch College (where he married Jennifer Cook) and at the Mannes School of Music in New York City (Baroque harpsichord, piano, guitar, recorders).
Sonia remained close to Frances and Mac (who lived in the Bronx New York with his wife Paula and children Robin (Robert) and Nancy) – with family visits on the farm almost once a month till 1954 when Harry died of heart disease and the farm was sold. Mac died of heart disease in 1958 when Nancy was 16 and Robert switched his major at CCNY from Physics to Political Science.
Sonia was the kindest of her siblings and loved music – exposing Paul from age 2 to classical radio at WQXR NY, 78 Victrola records of Mozart and Marion Anderson singing Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody; Danny Kaye, and Burl Ives folk songs. She lived with multiple ethnic and racial friendships, spoke Yiddish and kept strong Jewish ethnic cultural customs. Paul was the apple of her eye – supporting his joining the choir at Parkway elementary school, the PTA, and becoming den parents with Nate when Paul joined the cub scouts at 7. She went back to work as a secretary when Paul went to Ewing High School and typed his prize winning paper on the Lenape Indians for the Trenton Historical Society. She did and admired all kinds of hand work – knitting sweaters, sewing dresses and weaving – and was a wonderful cook and canned apple sauce every year.
She and Nate worked at planning family gatherings with his 5 siblings – especially families of Henry, Rae, and Joe (where Rae (Rachel) was Sonia’s best friend). While Joe was working on finishing his Ph.D. in Economics, Sonia provided a home for Joe’s wife Beth and children – Eddie and Rachel – for two years in our house.
When they retired, Sonia and Nate traveled together with Elder Hostels to Israel, Mexico, Machu Picchu, and Hawaii. And when Paul married Sherry in 1965, Sonia doted on her grand-children – Jonathan born 2/18/1974, Ethan 8/7/1979 and Susannah 4/1/1983.
Sonia died in Mercer Hospital, Trenton of Congestive Heart Failure and Diabetes on 8/7/1994 at 87.
Sonia is terribly missed.
— Paul Scherer