Phyllis Goldoff

FUNERAL SERVICES:
Friday, December 20th at 2:30 PM
Graveside at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs

LIVESTREAM:
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OBITUARY:
Phyllis Esther Hurwitz Goldoff (Hebrew name Tzipporah Esther bat Eliyahu v’Freidl) was born and raised in the Dorchester section of Boston, MA in an Orthodox Jewish family where Yiddish was spoken. Her parents each immigrated to the United States from the Poland/Russia/Ukraine “Pale of Settlement” region as teenagers prior to meeting in Boston and getting married. Phyllis was the second of four children, having an older brother Harold (z”l), a younger brother Norman (z”l), and a younger sister Rena. The family lived modestly in a neighborhood where other relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins) lived within walking distance. The Great Depression impacted the family when Phyllis was a very young child and sometimes cornflakes were the only thing on the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Shortly after Rena was born, their mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and passed away less than a year later when Phyllis was nine years old. From the time of the diagnosis until their father remarried a year after their mother’s death, Phyllis shouldered the responsibility for caring for her younger siblings while her father worked to support the family. When Albert Hurwitz (z”l) met and married Alice Sall (z”l), the children gained a warm and loving mother who was a positive influence on their lives and the lives of her grandchildren.

Phyllis attended secretarial school after graduating from high school and worked in clerical positions for a couple of years, prior to getting married. She met her future husband Bernard Jerome (“Jerry”) Goldoff in the fall of 1954 at a B’nai B’rith Young Adults (BBYA) dance in Boston, about a year after he returned from three years of active duty in the Korean War as an Air Force radar operator. They were married in March of 1955, honeymooned in New York City, and remained happily married for 59 ½ years until Jerry’s death in 2014. They remained close friends all their lives with several other couples they knew through BBYA.

Phyllis gave birth to a daughter, Donna, a son Erik, and a daughter, Andrea. When Erik was an infant the family moved from Boston, first to Buffalo, NY, then to Jacksonville, FL, and finally to Atlanta, GA in 1964. Phyllis and Jerry developed and maintained close friendships with other couples they met in Florida and Atlanta. Their friends from Boston, Florida, and Atlanta were “Aunties” and “Uncles” to Donna, Erik, and Andrea. The families and “cousins” shared lifecycle events, Yom Kippur break fasts, and Passover seders for many decades. Phyllis was the last living member of the original Atlanta couples’ friendship group.

Phyllis was a homemaker for the first 25 years or so of marriage. She was active in ORT, Hadassah, her synagogue’s Sisterhood, and on PTA boards. Once Andrea was in middle school, Phyllis worked in clerical/bookkeeping positions for a couple of years until she joined her husband in the 1980s in opening their flower shop, Jerry’s Place. Jerry managed the purchasing and business side of things, while Phyllis was the floral designer. She was artistic and creative, both in the flower shop, and at home, where she had a green thumb and enjoyed painting nature scenes.

After selling the flower shop in the mid-1990s they moved to the Atlanta Jewish Tower (now known as the Balser Tower), where they made many new friends. Phyllis started and led a monthly book club, joined an art therapy group, and attended weekly fitness classes there. At the time of her death, Phyllis was the current Tower resident who had lived there the longest.

A survivor of breast, ovarian, and skin cancer, Phyllis died of “old age” one day after her 90th birthday, when her heart and lungs failed. She leaves behind her grandchildren, Jonathan Goldoff, Emmett and Daniel Dorlester; and great-grandchildren Sanorah and Kori Goldoff in addition to her children and younger sister, and nieces and nephews.