Obituaries
Rose May
Longtime Los Gatan Rose May died at her home on Sept. 13, at the age of 78.
Born Rose Bleckner in Munkacs, Czechoslovakia, a 14-year-old Rose made a hasty exodus from the country when Nazis began occupying Czechoslovakia at the brink of World War II. She made her way across Europe and eventually to the United States. She was aided in Europe by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Her mother, brother and sister perished in the Holocaust.
May worked in the garment industry in New York during the war years and continued to work after her 1946 marriage to newly returned war veteran Albert May. In 1948, toting her one-month-old son Howard, May took a train to San Jose to join her husband, who had come to California earlier to establish a new business, General Appliance.
May was an active member of the Jewish community and the Temple Emanuel Sisterhood and was a life member of Hadassah. She was also an active member of the former Ming Quong home for orphan girls and Eastfield Ming Quong. She was an outspoken supporter of the civil rights movement and advocated for the less fortunate.
Survivors include husband of 54 years Al May; sons and daughters-in-law Howard and Jamie May and Lee and Shelley May; daughter and son-in-law Barbara and Dick Wilber; and grandchildren Joshua, Benjamin, Jeremy, Becky, Max and Eli.
Memorial services have been held.
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
