A life worth living and worth celebrating, full of love, full of kindness, full of friendship, full of gentle humor, ended peacefully Sunday, May 22, for Leona Glazer of Wilder, Vt., who died at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Lebanon, N.H., after a brief illness.
Leona was born on March 12, 1930, in Revere, Mass., the fourth of five children of the late Harry and Anna (Rauch) Freedman. Her childhood was poor, but she and her siblings never knew it because they grew up on Revere Beach, which was then an enormous amusement park open to the public. The beach was also where she met her future husband, Arthur, who would often enlist her to hold his glasses while he went swimming.
After graduating from Revere High School, she worked her way through Salem State College, graduating with a degree in education and then teaching in the Revere public schools.
Leona and Arthur married in 1953, moved to Sharon and, two years later, welcomed their first child, Howard, followed by Jaclyn in 1957 and Fred in 1965.
In 1970, the Glazers moved to Swampscott, and Leona began a 39-year career as a Hebrew teacher at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, where multiple generations of area families would pass through her classroom. After retirement, she worked into her 80s as a receptionist at an assisted living facility. She always said she enjoyed being around "the elderly," though never recognizing that she was among them.
In 2015, she and Arthur moved to Quail Hollow in West Lebanon, N.H., where, as she had throughout her life, she made countless friends. She loved them, and her family, unconditionally.
Leona is survived by her three loving children, Howard Glazer of Hartland, Vt., Jaclyn Glazer of Lynn, Mass., and Fredric Glazer of Wilder, Vt.; a brother, Irwin Freedman of Falmouth, Mass.; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. Besides her parents, she was predeceased by two sisters and a brother.
Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at Sudilkov Cemetery, 232 Fuller St., Everett, Mass., under the direction of Torf Funeral Service, Chelsea, Mass.