Sophia M. Isaacs of Southampton died at her home on January 24. She was 86. Born on March 15, 1928, to Gertrude and Henry DeVigne in New York City, she grew up on 98th Street and Central Park West. She often spoke of her cherished memories of playing and strolling in Central Park, as well as good times spent with her close-knit “98th Street Gang”—families who looked after one another throughout the Great Depression. Her African and French ancestry took root in Alabama in the early 1800s.
Ms. Isaacs was a graduate of Julia Richman High School in New York. She met her husband, Alban Isaacs, during a World War II victory celebration. They married three years later on July 3, 1948. She was a volunteer typist for the teaching staff of nuns at Our Lady of Loretto in Brooklyn, the grade school her three children attended. In the early 1960s she worked with James Farmer and the New York City chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). During the late 1960s and early 1970s, she worked with Arthur Levitt, the New York State comptroller, as a stenographer/typist.
Throughout their courtship and marriage of 54 years, Ms. Isaacs and her husband appreciated the natural beauty of Southampton and visited regularly. In 1976 they made Southampton their home, at which time Ms. Isaacs began working with Albert Cavagnaro and later with Michael D. O’Donohoe, Suffolk County commissioners of jurors.
During her working and retirement years in Southampton, survivors said, she was a loving and supportive spouse, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, with a gentle, kind, light-hearted and generous spirit.
Her husband and a son, Anthony, predeceased her. She is survived by two daughters, Paula Isaacs Thompson and Nadine Isaacs Bailey; a son-in-law, John Bailey; two grandchildren, Nadjia and Alban Bailey; a granddaughter-in-law, Elizabeth Garduno Bailey; and two great-grandchildren, Catherine and John Bailey.
The family will receive friends on Friday, January 30, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Poland Church in Southampton. Interment will follow at Sacred Hearts Cemetery.
on Jan 27, 2015