Eileen (Brooks) Frumkin

Eileen Brooks Frumkin, of Boston, MA, formerly of Boynton Beach and Boca Raton, FL, and before that of New City, NY, passed away peacefully on November 23, 2020, at the age of 90, in the presence of her son Peter, and shortly after a final phone call with her other son, Howard.

Eileen was born in Kansas City, MO on December 21, 1929. Her immigrant parents, who had a small business, lost everything in the Great Depression, and they moved with their three daughters across the country to Coxsackie, NY, where family could take them in. As their circumstances improved, they moved to Albany, where Eileen was raised. She studied both literature (her true love) and business and education (reflecting her practical side as a child of the Depression) at Albany State Teachers College (now SUNY Albany). In 1951 she met Barney, a young veteran and newly minted engineer, at a mixer at Albany’s Temple Beth Emeth, and they were married, beginning a happy marriage that would last nearly 70 years until Barney’s death in 2019. The couple moved to Poughkeepsie, NY in 1952, and to Rockland County, NY in 1968. Eileen worked for many years as a teacher at Albertus Magnus High School in Rockland County, where she dedicated herself not only to teaching English and business, but also to coaching drama and mock court. After retiring, Eileen and Barney relocated to Florida, first to a senior community in Boynton Beach, and later to assisted living in Boca Raton. They had over 20 very happy years in Florida. A lifelong lover of children, Eileen enjoyed reading to students at the local elementary school as a volunteer. Eileen and Barney moved to Boston as their health failed, in 2019.

Eileen was a fiercely loving mother to her two sons and their wives, Howard (Joanne Silberner) and Peter (Sharon Grimberg) and was full of love for and pride in her four grandchildren, Gabe, Amara, Moe, and Talia. She was also a loving aunt to the sons of her beloved sisters, Dorothy and Mildred: Michael and Ken Polk, and Lester, Steve, and Chuck Mardiks, and to the daughters of Barney’s sister Shirley: Wendy, Diana, and Lissa. She had a wide circle of friends in Florida, many of them lifelong friends from her life in New York. She will be deeply missed.

Howard and Peter express special gratitude to the aides who cared for her with compassion and kindness during her final years: Kim in Florida, and Lillie in Boston.