Leona Rabson passed away on July 7, 2020, in Louisville, Colorado, two days shy of her 97th birthday. She was born Lea Gruskin in Syracuse, New York, on July 9, 1923, to Mary and Sam Gruskin, where they owned and operated a neighborhood grocery through two world wars and the Great Depression.
Leona attended public school in Syracuse, graduating from Central High in January, 1942. Most of her male classmates had already enlisted in the armed forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. Not long after graduation, while working for the New York State Fair, she met her future husband, Frederick Rabson, then a student at Syracuse University in the College of Forestry. They married in October, 1942, shortly before he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. Fred spent several months training stateside in radio and navigational communications as well as studying the secret technology of radar to support American fighter aircraft and bombers based in England and France.
Their daughter, Sheila, was born on July 16, 1943. Not long after her birth, Fred was ordered to the port of embarkation, deploying to a combined P-47 and Spitfire base in Southern England. Leona spent the wartime years raising her baby and living with her parents. Fred returned in the fall of 1945, and they quickly set up housekeeping in Brooklyn, New York. Their second daughter, Diane, was born in 1948. Six years later they left Brooklyn to move upstate to Rochester, New York, after Fred got a job at Eastman Kodak as an optometrist in the medical department. Their third daughter, Joyce, was born in 1957.
Leona was a homemaker until she returned to the working world as a resource associate in the library at Brighton High School in 1967. She and Fred both retired in 1983 and moved to Florida.
Leona and Fred had a long and happy marriage. They traveled in Europe and all over the United States, visiting beloved children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They attended classes at Florida Atlantic University, read widely, went out to hear music and watch theatre events, explored their family origins, and most of all, enjoyed their wonderful friendships, many of which dated back to their younger years. In 2002, they celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.
Sadly, two years later, Fred passed away after a short illness. Eventually, Leona made the decision to leave her home in Florida, and she moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 2011, to be near her daughter, Diane, and her family.
Growing up, Leona’s passions were the movies and the popular music of the 1930s and 1940s, which she shared with her many friends in Syracuse, and later with Fred. Her great love, however, was history. Inspired by a high school educator, she often talked about her dream to become a history teacher herself. She adored her parents, but also had a special love for her grandmother, Dora Lessen, who told the stories of the Jewish ancestors in the Russian Empire, as well as those in the large, local immigrant community, whose members often congregated at Gruskin’s Grocery on Oakwood Avenue. Dora anointed Leona her successor as the keeper of the stories, which Leona faithfully recounted throughout her life to all who were interested.
Leona had many good friends in Boulder, was a regular at her daughter’s house concerts, rediscovered her love for Yiddish, and attended Jewish holiday celebrations. She loved spending time with her grandson and his wife and their two daughters in Denver. Before her passing, she had been working on her autobiography, “The Groceryman’s Daughter,” incorporating many of the stories of her grandmother.
Leona was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Frederick; her parents, Sam and Mary Gruskin; her sister, Sylvia Avery, and brother, Harold “Hetzie” Gruskin. She is survived by three daughters, Sheila, Diane and Joyce; six grandsons, Scott, Ted, Ben, Sam, Robert and Max; and five great-grandchildren, Mitchell, Zoe, Chloe, Thora and Lulu.
A traditional Jewish Shiva was held virtually on July 8th and 9th, 2020. Leona and Fred were buried together at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, with military honors.
Donations in Leona’s memory to the American Jewish World Service, www.ajws.org, are most welcome.
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