Born in Salem, MA, she was the daughter of the late Joseph and Rose (Stern) Galler. She spent her early years in Salem, then moved to Dorchester in 1939 when her beloved father passed away. She graduated from Dorchester High School for girls in 1942 and attended Northeastern University as an English Major.
Emma enlisted and served in the US Naval WAVES during World War II, working on Terminal Island in San Pedro California, and later for an Admiral in Washington DC. Terminal Island was the first stop for sailors returning from the horrors of war in the Pacific, and she witnessed first-hand the effects of the brutal battle they suffered. She told stories of how her small group of women would have to disguise themselves with hats and glasses to be able to pass unbothered on and around the Naval base.
After her faithful service to our country, she met and married Morris Alpert with whom she shared three children and 66 years of marriage before his passing in 2015.
While raising her family in Needham, she worked as an Executive Secretary for the Medical Director at Boston College for 29 years, retiring in 1999.
Emma was a lifelong health and exercise enthusiast. She enjoyed horseback riding, tennis, yoga, walking, and fitness classes well into her 80’s and 90’s. In her retirement, she volunteered at the Needham Senior Center, helping with Meals on Wheels and Blood Pressure Clinics. She also worked as a reader for schoolchildren learning English as a second language. She spent countless hours participating in lifelong learning classes and activities at the JCC in Newton, and had many fun trips to Foxwoods with her friends where she loved playing the slot machines. She was also a Bingo champion in her later years at Allerton House in Hingham, where she proudly won many a full card of bingo.
She also enjoyed traveling and was able to make a pilgrimage to Israel in her late 70’s and considered that the trip of a lifetime. She was a voracious reader and enjoyed poetry, literature and music. She was a consummate gardener, and worked tirelessly in her yard year after year, and continued to grow potted plants and flowers even after moving to an apartment. She loved watching and feeding birds and fighting with squirrels in her birdfeeders - despite her various inventions and devices for keeping them out. She also loved awaiting the return of the hummingbirds to her feeders every spring, and seeing them leave to go south every fall.
Of all her interests, the one she loved most was to focus on her family. She had many wonderful memories of happy times with the family and enjoying her grandchildren as they grew. She faithfully corresponded with old and new friends for years and years, writing long letters and sharing photographs.
Emma was the loving mother of Jane Feit and her husband Michael; Mark Alpert and his wife Karen; and Joel Alpert and his wife Kristin. Cherished grandmother of seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. In addition to her late husband Morris, she was predeceased by her beloved grandson, Curt Alpert and her sister, Lillian Alberts.
Funeral Services with military honors will be private.
Contributions in Emma’s memory may be made to Seasons Hospice or the charity of one’s choice.
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