Marlena Gershowitz, a Southampton resident who was a donor to the Montauk Playhouse Community Foundation and the Montauk Medical Center, died at home on Sept. 26. The cause was lung cancer. She was 79.
Ms. Gershowitz died on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness, according to her family.
She was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 10, 1942, to Herman and Jeanne Lederman. Education was a core value instilled in her upbringing, and after graduating from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., she joined the teaching profession as an elementary school teacher in the New York City public school system, in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens.
She met Sam Gershowitz, who was starting a scrap metal recycling business known as Gershow Recycling and opened its first location in Central Islip, in the spring of 1966 at the Manhattan club Mister Laffs. They dated throughout the summer, going to clubs in the city and driving to Montauk, where Mr. Gershowitz enjoyed fishing.
They were engaged in the fall of 1966 and married on New Year’s Day 1967, remaining together for more than 50 years. “As an avid fisherman, I have made a lot of big catches, but never a bigger catch than my Marlena,” said Mr. Gershowitz, who owns Sam’s Star Island Yacht Club and Marina in Montauk.
The couple moved to Jericho, and Ms. Gershowitz gave birth to twin boys, Kevin and Elliot, in December 1967. She focused on raising her children from that point. The couple bought a house in Dix Hills in 1968, and their daughter, Pamela, was born in 1972. The family later moved to East Islip, and then to Southampton.
Ms. Gershowitz was her husband’s constant companion, voice, and adviser. “She was a teacher, a sounding board, a life ring, a referee, and a mentor,” said Elliot Gershowitz, who lives in Melville. “Mom would always say, ‘The family must stick together.’ “
“My mother was an architect — an architect of the family,” said Kevin Gershowitz, also of Melville. “She guided all my important decisions, and all my good qualities came from her.”
“Not only was she my mother, but she was my adviser and my best friend,” said her daughter, Pamela Abrams of Dix Hills. “As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine. I cannot imagine a life without her.”
She put her teaching skills to use, for her children and for the next generation, and often babysat for her grandchildren and attended their school functions and graduations.
Ms. Gershowitz was active in her community and devoted to philanthropic works. She was a member and volunteer with the Chabad of Southampton Jewish Center. In 2012, she and her husband were honored by the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation at its Diamond in the Rough Gala.
Later in life, she pursued her passion for interior design, decorating her family’s residences and her husband’s yacht, the Marlena. She found joy in helping her children decorate their own residences, and their spouses welcomed her expertise and advice. She organized family vacations, and meticulously planned dinners for Mother’s Days, Father’s Days, birthdays, and Jewish holidays. She maintained childhood friendships for more than 70 years.
In addition to her husband of 55 years and their three children, Ms. Gershowitz is survived by 13 grandchildren. They are Jared, Emily, Max, Rachel, and Jackie Gershowitz, all of Melville; Alexander Gershowitz of Patchogue; Mallorie Gershowitz of Farmingdale; Jessica, Andrew, Gabriella, and Laurence Abrams, all of Dix Hills, and Hannah and Emma Sutkin, both of Melville. A brother, Ted Lederman of East Hampton, also survives, as do two daughters-in-law, a son-in-law, a sister-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.
Services were held at Gutterman’s Funeral Home in Woodbury on Sept. 30, followed by burial at Wellwood Cemetery in West Babylon.
