Olga Sutphen Leafgreen, 92
SHEFFIELD — Olga Ellen Sutphen Leafgreen, 92, formerly of Park Lane, died Thursday night, June 26, 2008, at Noble Horizons Retirement Community in Salisbury, Conn., where she had resided since December 1999.
Born in New York City on Aug. 28, 1915, daughter of Joseph and Ella Zollner Specht, she attended schools in Cranford, N.J., and was a 1932 graduate of Cranford High School. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in music education from New Jersey College for Women, now Douglass College, Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, N.J., in 1936 and her master's in music education from Teacher's College at Columbia University in New York in 1944.
Mrs. Leafgreen taught music in New Jersey for 20 years. She was supervisor of elementary music and director of vocal music at Cranford High School and was placement director with faculty status at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. She moved to Sheffield in 1964 and she taught third grade at the former Sheffield Center School for more than seven years.
She was an active member of her community and of Old Parish Church, where she sang in the choir and was volunteer director of the junior choir for a number of years. She was also a trustee of the church and helped organize church luncheons, activities and the annual Antique School, sponsored by the church.
Throughout her life she always remained interested in music. She enjoyed attending concerts, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in Lenox. She also enjoyed the theater and was a participant in the Berkshire Choral Festival, as well as reading, needlepoint, bridge, swimming and walking.
Her first husband, Earle Sutphen, whom she married in 1964, was killed in an automobile accident shortly after their fifth wedding anniversary in 1969.
Her husband, Martin Leafgreen, whom she married in 1973, died in 1988. The couple had enjoyed traveling and spending summers in Sheffield and winters in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
She was also predeceased by her sister, Ellen S. Langer.
Mrs. Leafgreen leaves her cousins, Janet Leenhots and Barbara Leenhots Towne, and her niece Nancy Baker Emery.
FUNERAL NOTICE — Funeral services for Olga Sutphen Leafgreen will be conducted on Tuesday, July 1, at 11 a.m. from Old Parish Church in Sheffield by the Rev. Jill Graham, pastor. Burial will follow in Sheffield Center Cemetery.
There will be no calling hours.
Those who desire may make donations in her memory to the Noble Horizons Holiday Fund through Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230. Remembrances, memories and reflections may be sent to the family through www.finnertyandstevens.com.