Irene Marie Sommer Gamble (1915-2010)

My grandmother passed away this morning. We visited Friday and Saturday and had a great time telling her all about our trip CA (us), school (Eli), and FL (mom & dad). She was among the last of a dying breed...the product of finishing school and Columbia...she was simply elegant. I recall her using a swear once in my life, and that to scold a table full of men (dad, Dr. Weaver, Granddaddy and Uncle Milton) who were discussing *very* disgusting things (she said, as I recall, "Damn it, I will not have this language at the dinner table").

When I was very young, she tried to get me to call her "Grandma Reenie". I promptly shortened it to Greenie and that is what she was for the rest of our lives. She, and my grandfather, lived a quite remarkable life. I offer one quick story, as I think it sums things up nicely. They went to Marion, AL 1938-1943...this young Irish immigrant and his new bride from NYC...to be the principal (Granddaddy) and a teacher (Greenie) at Lincoln School. Granddaddy was the last white principle of this famous black school that produced a remarkable number of leaders. Coretta Scott King would write Greenie, many years later, that her later college work "never taught me anything you didn't teach me at Lincoln School" (Greenie taught public speaking/drama classes). [The photo, to the left, shows the 25th reunion of the class of 1943, Granddaddy is at the left, standing directly behind Coretta and Greenie at the far right with the purse.)

Greenie called me Go Bragh...as in Ian Go Bragh (nee Erin Go Bragh). I'll miss a lot of things about my grandmother. I'll especially miss Go Bragh.

My mother crafted a lovely obit. I offer it here for friends and family:

Irene Marie Sommer Gamble

Tenants Harbor – Irene Marie Sommer Gamble, 94, widow of Wilfred Gamble, died on February 21st at Quarry Hill after a long illness.

Born on May 20, 1915, she was the daughter of John Sommer and Marie Haantz Sommer of North Bergen, New Jersey. She was educated at Hoboken Academy, Centenary College for Women in Hackettstown NJ, and New College at Columbia University in New York, where she received a Masters Degree in education, speech and dramatics.

She met her husband, Wilfred Gamble, at Columbia when he tried out for a play she was casting. After their marriage in 1939, she joined him as a teacher at the school where he was principal, the Lincoln School in Marion, Alabama. This was a groundbreaking private school for African American children, with a biracial faculty, run by the Congregational Board of Home Missions. She maintained close contact with both staff members and students throughout her life.

Upon Wilfred’s discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1945, the Gambles moved to Southbury, Connecticut, where they were involved in town, church, and school activities for over thirty-five years. Irene taught fifth grade for many years in nearby Woodbury. Towards the end of her career she became speech therapist for the Woodbury school system.

The Gambles summered in Maine, and in 1980 they moved to Tenants Harbor. They became active members of the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Rockland. Irene was very involved in the PBMC Auxiliary, working on many aspects of the annual Christmas Fair. For several years she ran the ornaments group and organized production of the advent calendars that are still used in so many homes in the midcoast area and beyond. She was an avid reader and was part of the Tenants Harbor book group for many years, where she is remembered for her excellent “book reports.” She kept up to date on anything concerning education and gave the education reports at meetings of the American Association for University Women. She loved crossword puzzles, travel, good conversation, her old houses in Connecticut and Maine, and above all, her family.

She is survived by her daughter and her husband, Patricia and Richard Kahn of Tenants Harbor, with whom she has lived for the past eight years, by her grandson Ian Kahn and his wife Suzanne Hamlin of Portland, Maine, by her granddaughter Gillian Kahn Hargreaves and her husband Andrew Hargreaves of Landing, New Jersey, and by great-grandchildren Aidan Kahn, Elijah Kahn, Oliver Hargreaves, and Madeline Hargreaves. They will always remember her as “Greenie.”

Arrangements are under the direction of Burpee-Strong Funeral Home of Rockland. A memorial service will be held in the Spring. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Penobscot Bay Medical Center, Six Glen Cove Drive, Rockport ME 04856, the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 345 Broadway, Rockland ME 04841, or to the Lincolnite Club, Inc. PO Box 434, Marion, AL 36756.