Florence Jennie Aliber Lipsky

She was born in Keene Oct. 29, 1910, the youngest of six children of Aaron and Ida (Cohen) Aliber.

She contributed to the city of her birth as a student, mother, businesswoman and volunteer. She took an active part in many organizations that reflected her interests including furthering education and increasing wider participation in civic affairs.

Mrs. Lipsky started 1st grade in Keene at age 5 and skipped the 5th grade at Wheelock Elementary School. She graduated from Keene High School in 1927 at the age of 16, where she was the editor of the school's yearbook, received a letter in women's varsity basketball, and delivered the honor essay at graduation. She graduated from Simmons College in Boston in 1931 at the age of 20 with a Bachelor of Science degree, and was her college class secretary for many years.

In 1938, she married the late Rubin Lipsky, who was an attorney. Before their retirement, they owned a ladies' clothing store in Keene, The Vogue, which she managed.

During World War II, while her husband was in the army, Mrs. Lipsky was a volunteer with the Red Cross Motor Corps in Keene. When her children were in elementary school, she was president of the Wheelock School PTA, at the elementary school she had attended as a child.

She was a charter member and budget chairman of the League of Women Voters in Keene. She was a past president of the Keene branch of the American Association of University Women where she had been a member since the 1940s and continued to attend its annual meetings even after she reached age 100.

For many years, Mrs. Lipsky was treasurer of the Cheshire Hospital (now Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene) Ladies Auxiliary gift shop.

For over 20 years, she was treasurer of the Ladies Aid Society of Congregation Ahavas Achim, the synagogue that her father, Aaron Aliber, helped found in Keene in 1916 as a charter member.

Mrs. Lipsky was the first woman in Keene to be a member of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and was its first woman chairman in Keene. She was also the first woman incorporator of the Cheshire County Savings Bank (now TD Bank) and on its advertising advisory committee.

She and her husband were longtime members of the Keene Country Club and, after their retirement, members during the winter months of the Baypoint Country Club in Panama City Beach, Fla.

Mrs. Lipsky's contributions to her community were recognized a number of times during her lifetime. She was noted in a Keene Sentinel editorial published on Dec. 30, 2000, as a "former local miss Chautauqua" and "As a girl in the 1920s, she had taken part in Chautauqua events here, learning about culture in the company of others and once even stepping into the limelight herself, costumed appropriately as a tent." In 2009, Mrs. Lipsky was one of the statewide recipients of the Shem Tov award from the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire to honor her many years of volunteer service to Congregation Ahavas Achim.

The Keene Sentinel chose her in 2013 as one of the women it honored in its first publication of "Extraordinary Women" for her contributions to the community.

Survivors include her son, former mayor of the city of Keene, Aaron A. Lipsky, of Keene, and her daughter, Dorothy S. Saks and her husband, Nelson, of Alexandria, Va.; daughter-in-law, Naomi Lipsky of Johnston, R.I.; four granddaughters, Dr. Emily Doherty and her husband, Robert, of Daleville, Va., Dr. Raven Molloy and her husband, David, of Falls Church, Va., Dr. Jennifer Saks of Seattle, and Hannah Lipsky of San Jose, Calif.; four great-grandsons, Alex and Edward Doherty of Daleville, Va., and Jonah and Duncan Molloy of Falls Church, Va.; and numerous nephews, nieces, cousins, and their children and grandchildren, who kept in touch with her.

Her husband of 64 years, Rubin Lipsky, died in 2002. Her son, the late Dr. James J. Lipsky, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., also died in 2002.

Funeral services will be held Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Congregation Ahavas Achim, 84 Hastings Ave., Keene. Burial will follow immediately afterward at Monadnock View Cemetery on Park Avenue, Keene. Fletcher Funeral Home of Keene is in charge of arrangements (www.fletcherfuneralhome.com).

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Mrs. Lipsky's memory to Congregation Ahavas Achim or to the Florence Aliber Lipsky Book Fund at the Keene Public Library, in care of the Trustees of the Keene Public Library, 60 Winter St., Keene 03431.