Obituary of Mildred Ludwig Solomon
Mildred "Millie" Ludwig Solomon, a retired elementary school teacher in the Ellenville Central School District and lifelong area resident passed away peacefully at her Florida home after a brief illness on Monday, April 1, 2019. She was 100 years old, having celebrated grandly with family and friends on her last birthday. The daughter of the late Louis and Witte Meltzer Ludwig, Millie was born on September 29, 1918 in the Bronx, and grew up in Kingston, NY, graduating from Kingston High School in 1936.
An accomplished singer and pianist, Millie enrolled at New Paltz Normal School in the fall of that year and met Morris (Moishe) Solomon, the love of her life, who was a year ahead of her at the College.They married in June 1941 and commenced their life together in Ellenville. Following many travels during the Second World War, as Millie accompanied Moishe to each of his US Air Force assignments -- she worked building B-17s in Alabama for a time -- Millie and Moishe returned to Ellenville to start and raise their family.
Millie was a devoted liberal. She read the New York Times and a local paper each day up to the day of her death. She loved President Obama, marveled at voting in a Democratic primary with both a Jewish and a female candidate, and detested the current incumbent. She was deeply disappointed at the Mueller Report. She engaged everyone -- even total strangers -- in mostly gentle political discussion.
Millie taught young children all her professional life: In Olive Bridge, In Oak Ridge, in Napanoch, at the Pine Grove School, and for thirty years starting in 1954 in Ellenville. She always said about her students -- "I loved them all," and that was simply true.
But most of all Millie was dedicated to her family: her husband, their three children, seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Moishe died in 2010, and from that day until this past Monday morning every day for Millie was about the young and the younger ones.
Her survivors include her children Mark (Deanna Stickler Laurentz) of Ithaca; Ross (and the late Linn Levens) of Newburgh, Jeannie and Bruce Coopersmith of Ellenville; her beloved grandchildren Claire Solomon and Yago Colas of Oberlin, Ohio, Nicole Solomon and Shawn Setaro of Brooklyn, Louisa Solomon and Miller Oberman of Brooklyn, Sarah Peyton and Kyle Peyton of Temecula,California, Michael Coopersmith of Cohoes, Kurt Levens of Borrego Springs, California, and Shane Levens and Annette Trivette of Newburyport, Massachusetts; her adored great grandchildren: Grayson Levens, Atticus Maura Peyton, Rosie Sher Solomon-Oberman, and Juniper Katherine Peyton; together with numerous loving nieces and nephews and all their young ones, and her closest confidante and friend Rose Suffrin.
Millie will be missed. Desperately. But she will be remembered even more. Her humor, her politics, her taste for culture -- high and low. Her unconditioned and unlimited love. And toasts will be drunk to her for a very long time.
A funeral service will take place on Friday, April 5, 2019 at 11:30am at the Joseph N. Garlick Funeral Home/Congregation Anshe Tzadyik, 186 Canal Street, Ellenville, NY 12428 with Rabbi Moshe Frank officiating. Burial will immediately follow at the Ezrath Israel Synagogue Cemetery, Route 209, Wawarsing.
Memorial contributions in Mildred's name may be made to Planned Parenthood or St. Jude's Children’s Hospital.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted to the Joseph N. Garlick Funeral Home - Ellenville; “Honorably Serving the Tri-County Jewish Community for 70 Years” 845-647-7747 or www.josephngarlickfuneralhome.com.
