Leona Radack's Obituary
Leona Radack, age 93 of Boca Raton, FL, passed away on Saturday, February 10, 2024. She is survived by her loving daughters, Robin (Jack) Henrie, Ellen (Stuart) Kahan, and Susan Steinhauser (David Luke), grandchildren, Sharon Rose Shatil, Jonathan Henrie, Kimberly Slone, and William Kahan, great-grandchildren, Maya Shatil and Sivan Shatil. Leona was preceded in death by her husband , Herbert Radack (Herb), and her sisters, Lucille Langbert and Eleanor Hanig.
Leona kept her sense of humor and love for her family and friends up until the very end. She was happiest when she was with family. She loved her husband, children, and all the rest of her family, and she was most in her element with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Leona had a hysterical sense of humor, amazing artistic ability, a love for music and dance, especially ballet, a passion for gardening, was a life master at bridge, loved embroidery and cross-stitch, enjoyed canasta, Mah Jong, and backgammon, and she was a wiz at card games. Leona was also amazing at word games and loved Scrabble and Perquacky. When she was younger, she played the cello and took ballet lessons, and she occasionally continued the ballet lessons as a young mother. Leona loved stained glass and other glasswork. She was brilliant at science; however, she was never fond of math. Leona was an avid reader and adored the classics. She was proud of having attended Brooklyn College and of her training in speech and language pathology. She was especially proud of having studied psychology under Abraham Maslow. She worked as a speech and language pathologist for Easter Seals early on, and later she helped Herb in his office. They were married in 1952. Herb joined the Navy in 1957 and was promptly sent to the naval air station on Kodiak, Alaska. Leona followed a month later, shlepping a 3 year-old and a toddler by Navy transport plane to Seattle and then by Navy ship to Kodiak, with the children catching German measles on the way. She was definitely a trouper. In Alaska, Leona loved painting ceramics with Ellen and Robin, as well as going fishing for the spring salmon run with Herbert and the kids. She loved telling the story about a party that she and Herb went to at the Admiral's house. Leona found out that they were serving chocolate covered bees, which, although they were considered a delicacy, she knew that Herb would not want to eat. She also knew that thou shalt not insult a superior officer's wife. She solved the problem by saying to Herb, "If you love me, you won't eat any chocolate tonight." He looked at her quizzically and figured that he had no idea why she had said that and that he probably should go along with her request. Leona was a champion for her children when they faced adversity and went to bat for them with more than one teacher. She made it clear that she would always believe her children over the teachers, also making it clear to the children that they had better always be telling the truth. Leona was a lifelong learner and loved the B'nai Brith discussion group that she and Herb belonged to, as well as the Great Discussion and University on Video groups when they lived at Coral Lakes. She was also an avid supporter of Israel, and she made sure that her daughters and grandchildren were life members of Hadassah. Leona enjoyed responsible gambling, and the family enjoyed going on junkets, which Lee and Herb continued even after the children were grown.
Those wishing to honor Leona with a memorial contribution are kindly encouraged to consider a donation to: Hadassah at www.hadassah.org or B'nai Brith International at www.bnaibrith.org
A graveside service will be held at Mount Ararat Cemetery, 1165 Route 109 (NY-109) Lindenhurst, NY 11757, at 10:30am, on Thursday, February 15, 2024.
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