Mesa, Ariz.—Lois R. Jaffe, 84, passed away on Friday, April 20, 2018, at Santé of Mesa skilled nursing facility.
Born in New York City, Lois grew up in the Bronx and Yonkers, N.Y. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in Yonkers in 1951, then attended Oswego (N.Y.) State College and graduated from New York University in 1956. Lois was married to her loving husband, Morton Jaffe, for 64 years, rearing three daughters in Brooklyn, White Plains, and New City, N.Y., while helping out in her husband’s manufacturing business as a bookkeeper. She also worked as a bookkeeper at a startup company, Technical Support Services Inc., in Ossining, N.Y., which provided computer services for banks.
After a few years as snowbirds between Jamesburg, N.J., and Scottsdale, Lois and Mort built a home in Mesa, where they moved in 1995. During her Arizona years, Lois participated in the 1994 reopening of the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix and volunteered as an usher there and at the Herberger Theater and Mesa Arts Center. She was also a Navigator at Sky Harbor Airport from January 2001 and a docent at the Arizona Science Center. For 20 years, Lois attended quarterly luncheons of the “Lois Club.”
Lois was preceded in death by her parents, Rose G. and Morris S. Roth, and her brothers, Samuel and Edward Roth. Along with her husband of Red Mountain Ranch, survivors include her daughters, Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill (Spencer Gill), Allison Jaffe (Ed Friedman), and Michelle Sherry (Randy), along with nieces and nephews and her many, many friends who will miss her.
A funeral service will be held in New Jersey, as will celebrations of Lois’s life in New Jersey and Arizona. Contributions to Planned Parenthood.