Marlene Mendelsohn
Funeral Service: June 17, 2025 3:00 PM
Funeral Home: Gutterman’s Woodbury Chapel
8000 Jericho Turnpike,
Woodbury, NY 11797
Notes:
Memorial Service
Marlene Jaeger Mendelsohn of Old Bethpage, NY, died peacefully at her home on Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at the age of 94. She is survived by her five children, Andrew (Virginia Shea), Daniel (Stephen Simcock; Lily Knezevich), Matthew (Maya Vastardis), Eric (Froilan Vicente), and Jennifer (Greg Abel), and her grandchildren: Ben, Tasha, Peter, Thomas, Alexandra, Anderson, Macy, Ethan and Alec. She also leaves behind a host of lifelong dear friends she considered to be family. She was predeceased by her parents, Abraham and Gertrude (née Cushman) Jaeger, and her beloved husband of 58 years, Jay Mendelsohn.
Born and raised in the Bronx and a proud 1952 graduate of Hunter College, Marlene had a long career as a beloved preschool and kindergarten teacher, first in Queens and later in the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District. In the early 1980s, she found her voice as an activist; she was a founding member and later the treasurer of RAGE (Residents Against Garbage Expansion,) a grassroots environmental advocacy group that successfully forced the shutdown of the most polluted toxic waste site in New York state. As she later wrote, at a time when men were traditionally the leaders and power brokers, she was especially proud, as a woman, to be “in the fray.” The daughter of an immigrant who lived the American dream, she remained passionately committed to the values of liberal democracy to her final days.
Witty, charming, extroverted, and theatrical, Marlene had terrific good looks and great style; she made herself noticed wherever she went and put her unconventional stamp on everything she did. She never missed a birthday call or the chance to share a favorite joke (often more than once). Her love of Marlene Dietrich, Billie Holliday, Bette Davis, British period dramas and Outlander were legendary. So too were her organizational skills and her impeccably spotless home with its trove of carefully curated blue and white tchotchkes. Above all, her narrative élan and outrageous sense of humor will be remembered long into the future by anyone who knew her.
The family wishes to express its profound gratitude to Marlene’s team of exceptionally devoted caregivers over the past three years: Lisa and Charmaine Hamilton, Carlene Clark, Pamela Brown, and Janina Daszykowski.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, June 17 at 3 p.m. at Gutterman’s in Woodbury with the family receiving guests from 2 p.m. Reception to follow. Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be sent to the Planned Parenthood Federation, P.O. Box 97166 Washington, DC 20090-7166 or made online via their website: https://www.weareplannedparenthood.org