Anna Regan lived gracefully

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Anna Regan, a longtime Knolls Crescent resident, died on March 10, after a short stay at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Allen Pavilion. She was 95.

Ms. Regan was born on June 1, 1917 in Baltimore, Md., and moved to New York with her parents, David and Katie Greenbaum, at an early age. A graduate of Walton High School, she worked in retail until marrying her husband Herbert in the late 1940s.

Her life knew tragedy and profound loss, said her son, Daniel Regan. Her only brother, Harry, died at Pearl Harbor. Her younger sister, Hilda, predeceased her by decades, as did her parents.  Most tragic of all, however, her son said, was the premature death of her husband.

So in 1953, with her husband recently deceased, Ms. Regan moved with her only child, Daniel, who was then 7, to Knolls Crescent, where she lived for 60 years. It was there, her son said, that “she found the extended family which in some respects she otherwise lacked.”  

Forced to return to the workforce, she commuted to the furthest reaches of Manhattan, starting as a Book-of-the-Month Club clerk, making $45 a week. Later, she began working for Retail Clerks International, where she ended a 21-year career in 1983 as an office manager for Local 888.

Mr. Regan said his mother was “independent, strong and strong-willed, in charge of her physical and mental faculties, kind, considerate and ever oriented toward others.” He called her a “hero,” explaining that she “met all the challenges — whatever life threw at her — with grace, love, kindness.”           

Ms. Regan is survived by her son, Daniel Regan, and his wife Judith Mathison of Hyde Park, Vt.; grandchildren, Jonah and Katie Mathison-Regan of Hyde Park, Vt., Jessica Lindgren and her husband Peter of Salt Lake City and Adam Regan of Pittsburgh; and great-grandchildren, Astrid and Mats Lindgren. 

The family asks that contributions in Anna Regan’s memory be made to any organization or cause that the donor holds dear.

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