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Anyone out there have any stories they have heard while growing up about her?
I am her grand-daughter and am stumped on this side of the family.
Jersey Journal December 14, 1959
Sarah Howe, Church Worker, Was The Life Of Every Party
by Edward J Sullivan
Her real name was Sarah Colgan Howe. But she went for bingo in a big way, so
at the "Peoples Palace" later the CYO Center at Our Lady of Czestochowa School,
she was "Bingo Sadie", a daughter said. During the intermissions she would
play the piano. Ragtime was her specialty. Or name any of the old songs, she
could play them even though she never too a lesson.
The life of every party, she had a chance to go on stage when she was a girl,
her mother said she was too young. But she never gave up entertaining. During
the Depression era, for instance, it took more than a song & a smile to make
people smile. Sadie did it with tons of coal, clothing & food for the table
for the poor.
At 8:13 PM Thursday night at St Francis Hospital, the heart with the ragtime
beat played itself out. Burial of the little 100 lb frame with the big heart
is to take place today.
During the lean thirties she and her retired policeman husband were raising
seven children of their own, but she often took food off her own table to give
to the poor that found their way to her door.
"If you give to the poor or the Church, God will remember you", she always
said.
She helped build Our Lady of Victories Church by baking cakes & knitting
clothing to be sold for the building fund. During the summers at Ideal Beach,
she worked at bingo games and baked more cakes to help St Catherine’s get
started there.
On Saturday nights at the beach you would find her in the middle of a
singing crowd. Her version of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" was the one they
clamored for.
During the was she hung 3 stars in her window. Sons Tommy & James were
in the Army. Daughter Sally was one of the first Army nurses to land in North
Africa & Anzio. Mary & Eileen worked at defense plants. Margaret and Jane were
at home.
Though most of hr family was called to war, her seven rooms on Clerk Street
were never empty. Tommy, overseas, gave his buddies his mother's address, so
her home became a stop over for Air Corpsmen between over seas flights.
And on Sundays, she had so many boys in the Army or Navy for dinner there
would be no room for us girls, recalled Mrs Eileen Cermak. "The one thing the
boys loved most was to hear Mom sing & play". Until her death, Mrs Howe
continued to receive letters from these "boys" of hers. They always
began "Dear Mom....."
Sarah Colgan was born 64 years ago in St Bridget's Parish, the daughter of
James Colgan, who owned the Grand Street Marble Yards. Many of the monuments
in Holy Name Cemetery are his work, the marble and engraving in St Bridget's
were a labor of love.
Mrs Howe lived most of her life in the Garfield section but a year ago moved
to 146 Manhattan Ave. Since the death of her only brother, Kierin, 27 months
ago, her health had been steadily failing.
Thank you for any help!
Mary Anne
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