Dene Alexander Sarason

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Dene Alexander Sarason died on May 24 at the age of 97. Dene was born in New York City on June 27, 1919. Dene married Dr. Ernest L. Sarason on December 24, 1942 in New York City. They moved to Syracuse in 1947. Dr. Sarason died in 2006 after 64 years of marriage. Dene was a devoted wife who provided wise counsel to her husband, and a loving and caring mother to their three children. She often said she was most proud of the fact that she knew her three children would remain close after her death.

Dene attended Antioch College and then served as an administrative assistant to the National War Fund during World War II. She returned to college after all her children had begun attending school, graduating from Syracuse University in 1960 at the age of 41. She then took several graduate courses in political science, gerontology and geriatrics.

One of Dene's first volunteer experiences was serving as the vice president of the board of
the first Jewish Community Center’s nursery school. Dene was a member of the Metropolitan Conference on Aging and attended the White House Conference on Aging. She also
served on numerous boards including Camp Fire Girls (President), Planned Parenthood (Executive Committee), Syracuse Jewish Federation (first chairwoman of the Human
Service Committee), United Way (Vice President of Allocations), Central New York Community Foundation, WCNY, Aids Community Resources,and Loretto.

Dene won the Post Standard All-Time Woman of Achievement; and the Hanna G. Solomon Award from the National Council of Jewish Women, Syracuse Section. Dene was especially proud of her contribution of more than 10 gallons of blood to the American Red Cross blood bank.

Dene was known for her honesty,candor,generosity, spirit and humor. She was not afraid to tell the truth and speak her mind.

The family would like to thank the caretaking team of Kay Sampson, Kathryn Clemons, Betty J.
King Harris, Latasha Flagg, Pat Sampson and Dorothy Rowell for their love and care of our mother. Their compassion made our mother’s life more joyful the past few years.

Dene’s family includes her daughter Alexandra Schwartz, her sons Robert Sarason and his
wife Jane Burkhead, and Ernie and his wife Carol, as well as by seven grandchildren- Alexandra, Madeline, Zoe, Abby, Andrew, Ben and James and seven great-grandchildren-
Nicholas, Ben, Teddy, Jack, Phoebe, Oliver and Charlie.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dene’s memory may be made to Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, 1120 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY or The Food Pantry of Temple Concord, 910 Madison Street, Syracuse, NY 13210.

A memorial service will be held at Temple Concord ,910 Madison Street, Syracuse on Tuesday, May 30 at 2 pm. Friends may visit with the family immediately prior to the service on Tuesday from 1PM- 2PM at the temple.
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