Goldberg, Gloria
GOLDBERG (ROFFMAN), Gloria
Gloria Roffman Goldberg, loving wife, mother, grandmother and teacher, passed Friday October 14, 2022. She was 96.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1926 to immigrant parents, she had an unusual childhood compared to many of her peers. Entering kindergarten, she could only speak Yiddish, and her clothes were handmade by her mother, Martha.
Her father, William, sold dry goods; he also owned a few houses and rented them out. Gloria would go with her father to collect the rent and saw how people less fortunate than her lived.
While her parents never quite fully assimilated, they had a few close friends, and several relatives lived nearby. As a result, friends and family were always important to Gloria.
She had good memories of spending summers at Tybee Island, strolling along the boardwalk with friends and learning how to swim in the Atlantic. She loved the sound of the waves. The hurricanes that rattled the family's summer rental cottage made for exciting tales to tell her grandchildren decades later.
Other summers, she visited relatives in South Georgia and helped them run the family store - with all the perks of fresh pickles from the barrel and ice cream sundaes at the soda fountain. Gloria enjoyed being treated and in turn always enjoyed treating others.
At home, she loved cracking pecans on the front porch with her younger sister, Rose; taking long walks to her beloved piano lessons; and for a brief time, learning to dance.
Across the street from her childhood home was a hospital, and she remembered looking out her window into what appeared to be an operating room, with doctors and nurses treating patients. She saw people's pain.
Down the street was an orphanage, and the orphans became her playmates. She saw loneliness.
She and her sister left home for the University of Georgia in Athens, where Gloria studied education. She became a schoolteacher, an advocate for young voices. She wanted to help children be heard and understood.
Gloria was a bit ahead of her time. Single until 30, she had the opportunity to find herself and enjoy the big city life of Philadelphia and New York, teaching kindergarten and visiting relatives. An early advocate for civil rights, she would sit with Black teachers at the back of the bus.
Returning to the South, she worked for the Atlanta Public Schools and met her husband, Lawrence H. Goldberg, backstage at The Temple's theater group. If you caught her at just the right moment, her personality shined.
She and Larry had two children, Steven and Debra. Gloria took time off from teaching to be a full-time mother. Years later, with energy and determination, she obtained her master's degree in special education at the ripe young age of 58 and continued teaching children with special needs until she retired from the DeKalb County School System at 70.
Accompanying her father to synagogue as a child on Friday nights, Gloria enjoyed the sound of prayers being chanted and insisted upon celebrating life and continuing her family's Judaism. She appreciated kindness and generosity and was an active member of the Congregation Beth Jacob community.
She enjoyed raising her children and being a Bubbie to her four grandchildren.
She was an empathetic person - a good listener when you needed someone to talk to, always there with love, patience, and understanding, inspiring through her common sense and basic wisdom of human nature.
She will be missed, and her deep caring will continue to warm our hearts and homes.
She is survived by her son, Steven Goldberg, his wife, Leah, and their son, Alexander; and her daughter, Debra Sifen, her husband, Reid, and their children, Shaina, Menachem and Meir. Gloria was preceded in death by her parents, her sister and her husband.
The family wishes to thank her caregivers, especially Nardia Reynnard, Yolanda Jeffries, Rawson Grobety and the teams at Agape Hospice and Complete Care at Home, and her dear neighbors Allayne and Joel Brackbill.
Donations can be made in Gloria's memory to Congregation Beth Jacob, Agape Hospice, or the charity of your choice.
A graveside service will be at 12 PM, Sunday, October 16 at Crest Lawn Memorial Park in Atlanta. Arrangements by Dressler's Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999
View the obituary on Legacy.com
Funeral Home Information
Dressler's Jewish Funeral Care
3734 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd.
Atlanta, GA
30341
