Obituaries Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, January 19, 2012
Patsy A. Herzog
Patsy A. Herzog, a Berne native and mother of four, died on Dec. 20, 2011 in Nokomis, Fla., where she had moved four decades ago. She was 75.
She was born on July 3, 1937 in Albany County. Raised in the Hilltowns, she lived on Cole Hill with her mother, Margaret Markel McDuffy, and attended the Berne-Knox schools.
She was married to Richard Herzog for 57 years, their marriage ending only with his death. He had served in the United States Army. They raised their family, of two sons and two daughters, on Warners Lake Road. “It was beautiful,” said her daughter, Stacey Herzog.
Mrs. Herzog was a life member of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary, Eagles, and Eastern Star. She was a Lutheran.
Once she had settled in Florida, one of her favorite activities was going to the beach, said her daughter. “And she loved her antiques,” added Ms. Herzog. “Most of all though, she loved her two dogs.” Mrs. Herzog had two Pomeranians — Oscar and Little Bit — who went with her everywhere.
“When she met my dad, she had a red convertible Mustang, back in the day,” said Ms. Herzog. “A few years ago, she bought a new one. She loved to put her dogs in the car and take them for rides.”
Mrs. Herzog also liked to spend time with her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and her great-great-grandchild, said Ms. Herzog.
“She mellowed with age,” said her daughter.
Patsy A. Herzog is survived by her children, Cynthia Motteler and her husband, Carl, of North Port, Fla., Stacey Herzog of South Venice, Fla., James Herzog and his wife, Elise, of Altamont, and Christopher Herzog of Nokomis, Fla.; six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
She is also survived by her sister, Helen Clark, and her husband, Bill, of Rotterdam; and her brothers, Bruce Markel and his wife, Gail, of Connecticut, and Clarence Markel and his wife, Martha, of Florida.
Her husband of 57 years, Richard, died before her as did her granddaughter, Melissa Herzog.
A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21, at the North Jetty in Venice, Fla.
Memorial contribution may be made to Susan G. Komen for the Cure Research.
— Melissa Hale-Spencer
Vera Farkas
WESTERLO – Vera Mae Lockwood Farkas was a quiet church organist who always had a smile for everyone.
“That’s something that was said over and over at her funeral,” said her daughter, Susan Telfer. “The pastor said that was his cue. She’d finish doing her thing on the organ, and she’d lean over and smile, and that was his cue to speak.”
Mrs. Farkas died on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012. She was 85.
Born on May 15, 1926, in Westerlo, she was daughter of the late Clifford and Bessie Mae Hannay Lockwood. Mrs. Farkas was a graduate of Greenville High School, and was a lifelong resident of Westerlo. She worked as a secretary at the former Stanton Insurance Agency, and was the bookkeeper for her husband’s business. In later years, she was a homemaker who enjoyed music, traveling, sewing, crocheting, and baking.
“All of my cousins will remember her chocolate drop cookies,” her daughter said. “She made these chocolate cookies where, instead of being rolled into flat cookies, she just dropped them off the spoon, and you ended up with these round cookies, and she’d put a bit of frosting on them. She never went to anything without making them.”
Mrs. Farkas was a longtime member of the Hiawatha Grange and the Moody Bible Institute Guild at the First Baptist Church of Westerlo, where she was an organist for 60 years.
Her husband of more than 60 years, Joseph Farkas Jr., served in the United States Air Force, which allowed the couple to travel, both within the United States, and abroad. He was stationed in Puerto Rico, said Mrs. Telfer.
“They traveled all the way across the country many times,” Mrs. Telfer said of her parents, “from New York to Washington State.”
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Mrs. Farkas is survived by her daughter, Susan E. Telfer and her husband, Joseph, of Westerlo; her niece, Martha Laurene Murgia and her husband, Hank; her sister-in-law, Irene Molnar Bodi; and several other nieces, nephews, and cousins, with special mention of Roland Tozer, and his wife, Janet.
Her husband of nearly 63 years, Joseph Farkas Jr., died on April 25, 2011. Her brother, Lauren Lockwood, also died before her.
Friends called at the A.J. Cunningham Funeral Home in Greenville last Sunday, and a funeral service was held last Monday at the funeral home. Condolences may be left at ajcunninghamfh.com.
A spring burial will be in Westerlo Rural Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Missionary Fund at First Baptist Church of Westerlo, Post Office Box 130, or to the Westerlo Rescue Squad, Post Office Box 12, both in Westerlo, NY 12193.
— Zach Simeone
Florence Rabbin
Florence Rabbin, a loving wife and mother with a passion for musicals, died peacefully on Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. She was 96.
Florence “Flo” (Siegel) Rabbin, was born in the Bronx, the first of three children, to the late Rae (Ackerman) and Israel (Willie) Siegel, on June 4, 1915.
Following a happy childhood on the hilly streets of the Bronx, she graduated from high school with the designation as the one who would “Most Likely Succeed on Broadway,” wrote her family in a tribute.
Unfortunately, they wrote, the Great Depression hit hard, and she instead went to work as a bookkeeper in midtown Manhattan.
For decades, her family rented a room each summer at Rockaway Beach, and it was there, on the boardwalk, that she met her future husband who would become the loving father of her children, Jack Rabbin, of East New York in Brooklyn.
The romance between the two continued for years, though they lived over an hour apart by subway.
The couple married on Oct. 22, 1938, and moved into an attic apartment in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where Mr. Rabbin opened his Podiatric Medicine practice.
In 1950, they bought a single-family home nearby, where they raised their two sons, Carl, born in 1950, and Robert, born in 1957.
The family wrote that Mrs. Rabbin was “not only a devoted mother and wife, but also a true force within her own right.”
By the mid-1960s, she had become the president of a non-profit known as “The Big E for Epilepsy.” By brokering Broadway show tickets and short vacation packages among “hundreds” of her closest friends, she helped the organization donate many thousands of dollars to New York City hospitals and funded research to help find a cure for epilepsy.
Her husband only half-jokingly referred to Mrs. Rabbin as “the mayor of Flatbush,” wrote her family.
She and Mr. Rabbin had a subscription to Metropolitan Opera, and she saw virtually every show to hit Broadway for over 30 years.
In 1988, Mrs. Rabbin and her husband retired to Florida to live near her brother, Morty, and her sister, Claire. After 15 years in Florida, she decided she needed to be closer to her children, which brought her first to Kingsway in Schenectady, and then to the Eddy-Ford Nursing Home in Cohoes, where she “enjoyed her last years being, as usual, the life of the party,” her family wrote.
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Mrs. Rabbin is survived by her children and their families, Carl and Toby Rabbin, of Olney, Md., and Robert and Linda Rabbin, of Altamont, and their respective children. She is also survived by her sister, Claire Scafa.
Her husband, Jack Rabbin, died before her, as did her brother, Morty, and most of her friends.
The funeral will be held at noon today, Jan. 19, at the Levine Memorial Chapel, 649 Washington Ave., Albany. After the burial at Prospect Hill Cemetery, the family will be sitting shiva at 137 Main St., Altamont, until Sunday.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Activities Department at the Eddy Village Green at 421 Columbia St., Cohoes, NY 12047.