Muriel Slaff

RABBI GOLD:

The reason I called your attention to the photo is because my mother was considered a great beauty. My cousin, whom you will meet, called her "a Marilyn Monroe with brains."

Photo of Muriel Slaff by Bert Husband
The obit I sent to the local papers follows. It's useful, but it doesn't really get into the flavor of my mother. She was, simply, the most exciting person I ever met.

She was a rebel, a deeply chauvenistic jew. Her father was a kohain, her mother was decended from seven generations of rabbis. Her grandfather, Rebbe Israel Hine, was an extremely pious man and a much-beloved elder in Scranton, where he helped found the Ash Street Synagogue. She grew up Orthodox but became Reform when she married my father. She was always more reform-minded anyway. She really felt the bottom line was that Reform was more modern and the sermons were intellectually superior.

She was high-spirited. She drove her own white MG in the Giant's Despair hillclimb, an amateur road race for sports cars in Wilkes-Barre, in 1957. She was the life of any party she attended. She wanted to be admired for her mind, not her beauty. (I don't know how well she succeeded.)

She was extremely close to her mother and father and to her large family of cousins. She was outspoken, bold and loved a good fight. She was a tomboy as a girl. She lived through the depression and although she and my father had periods of prosperity, half the time they were living extravagantly from hand to mouth. She sometimes said there was a good side to being poor because everybody was REAL all the time. She and my father were very social people in their community. She went through a period where she was very involved in "organizations" and was very proud of everything she did. She was listed in the Who's Who books when it meant somethhing. But she declined to be listed in the Social Register.

She was great nurse when you were sick. Her friends found her a great advisor. It was like going to a movie star for advice on how to handle your child or set your table. She collected stray cats and dogs (the big houses we inhabited in a country section, aptly called the "Back Mountain," were always a menagerie.) She took in pregnant Catholic girls who had been thrown out of the house in the mining communities around us. Her hospitality also extended to some of her more troubled students from College Miseracordia. She had a lot of heart and she did it her way.

She and my father were big collectors. She loved glass, he loved silver. We had to sell and divvy up an awful lot of collectables when they were failing. We sold as much as we could to provide the nursing, etc. They had no savings, really. They were too busy surrounding themselves with beautiful things. They had elegantly wonderful taste. If it came from their collection, it was worth more because everybody knew that.

She was an Auntie Mame and she was my stage mother. She was my writing coach. She read a book a day and sent me the best of them. She loved Colette, Somerset Maugham, Louis Lamour and almost everything of quality. She once scolded me severely for writing in a 6th grade English composition that a woman was "expecting." She hated victorianisms and maintained the only acceptable word was "pregnant." I inherited her bok collection. I don't have a house big enough for it. It's in 37 boxes in my brother's storage building. About a third of it is First Editions.

Her first job in New York, before I was born, was in Sussman and Sugar. She wrote blurbs for book jackets. She and my father would party all night with a lot of wonderful friends and sometimes she'd come to work in her evening gown.

When she and my father were first married, they were close to some Jewish executives who got burned in the Red Scare. They were always watchful about witch hunts after that. It was their issue. I think it was her "letter to the world" when she played Mrs. Proctor in "The Crucible" at The Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre. For that role, she made herself very plain and wore a brown wig to disguise her blonde hair. She thought it was her best acting job.

THE "PREPARED" OBIT

Muriel A. Slaff died Thursday, September 7 at 6:15 pm at Riverstreet Manor in Wilkes-Barre, PA, after a long illness. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.

Mrs. Slaff was the wife of the late Lyle Wm. Slaff of Dallas, PA and daughter of Louis and Rose Hine Atlas of Wilkes-Barre. She was born in Scranton on May 31, 1927 and moved to Wilkes-Barre with her parents at age 11. She graduated from Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre in 1944 and earned her B.A. from Penn State in 1947. At Penn State, she was a member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority. She earned an MA in English from University of Scranton in 1967 and subsequently took professional classes in acting at Herbert Berghof Studio in New York.

She was an Assistant Professor of Speech and Drama at College Miseracordia, Dallas PA, from the late '60s until the early '70s and directed student-based children's theater productions there. She was also visiting professor of drama and comparative literature at Wilkes University in the mid-'70s. In business, she was President of P.A.C.E., a producer of educational reading programs and film strips, in the '60s and an executive officer of her family's business, Northeastern News, from 1974 until the onset of her illness.

An activist in many local community-based service organizations, she chaired the Heart Fund of Wyoming Valley in 1960. She was President of the National Council of Jewish Women in the late '50s, during which time she founded The Leisure Lounge, a program for senior citizens. She was also President of the Sisterhood of Temple B'nai B'rith. She was listed in Who's Who among American Women and Who's Who in the East, among others.

As a teenager, she became active in The Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre and was a protege of the late congressman Daniel Flood and his wife, Katherine, who were also active in the organization at the time. She was President of The Little Theatre during the early '60s and during her stewardship, led the organization through two successful seasons and from near-bankruptcy to solvency. As President, she produced the first Amateur production of The Fantastiks only two years after its Off-Broadway debut. She performed numerous principle parts in productions of The Little Theatre and The Wilkes-Barre Drama Guild. Her last theatrical work was directing "Picnic" by William Inge at The Little Theatre in the 1977-78 season.

Survivors are her brother, Irving Atlas, of Scranton, her three sons Jonathan (a New York actor and theatrical press agent), James (a physician living in Gainesville, FL) and Richard (president of Stark Holdings in Wilkes-Barre), and four grandchildren.

Funeral will be noon Sunday, September 10 at Rosenberg Funeral Chapel, 348 South River Street, Wilkes-Barre. Burial will be at 4:00 pm that day at Mt. Eden Jewish Cemetery, Valhalla, NY. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for contributions to be made to The N. E. PA Chapter of The Alzheimer's Association or to Temple B'nai B'rith, Kingston, PA, on behalf of The Slaff Chapel.

Friends may call upon the family September 11 and 12 at the home of Richard Slaff, 34 East Terrace Drive, Dallas PA, either 2-4:00 pm or 7-9:00 pm, and September 13 and 14, at the home of Jonathan Slaff, 55 Perry Street, Apt. #1M, New York City. # # #

DIRECTIONS TO MT. EDEN CEMETERY IN VALHALLA, NY

FROM MANHATTAN (WEST SIDE) Henry Hudson Parkway to Saw Mill Parkway, off East View Exit, right off the ramp, 2.5 miles, cross over the Sprain Brook Parkway, first left onto Broadhurst Avenue, 1 mile, right onto Lakeview Ave., first left onto Commerce Street (cross the highway--Commerce Street continues on other side), one mile on right.

FROM TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE Cross Westchester Expy (287) East, off Exit 4, go left, 3 miles, right onto Lakeview Ave., first left onto Commerce Street (cross the highway--Commerce Street continues on other side), one mile on right.

FROM LONG ISLAND Hutchinson River Parkway North to 287 West, off Exit 4, go left, 3 miles, right onto Lakeview Ave., first left onto Commerce Street (cross the highway--Commerce Street continues on other side), one mile on right.

MT. EDEN CEMETERY, MT. VERNON JEWISH CENTER SECTION, plot no. 2.