News

By Steven J. Smith

    HIGHLAND BEACH — Marion Frager made the most of her 95 years, dedicating her life to her husband, her family, her country and her art.
    Born Marion Nathan on Jan. 15, 1920, Mrs. Frager grew up in Roxbury, Mass., where she graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School. She worked as a medical secretary and lab technician. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 and her brother and sister enlisted in the Army and Navy respectively, she saw it as her patriotic duty to get involved in any way she could, so she enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and became a SPAR — an acronym for “Semper Paratus — Always Ready,” the Coast Guard motto.
    In 1942 she and her fellow SPAR inductees traveled to Palm Beach to live and train at the Biltmore Hotel. When her training was completed, she was stationed in a Philadelphia cigar factory that was converted into an infirmary.
    “It was heartbreaking to see the conditions of the servicemen and -women that were brought in there,” Mrs. Frager wrote in a family memoir, provided by her daughter, Sherri Goodstein. “Most of them were badly wounded and then there were the amputees and the basket cases. I worked long hours, almost to the point of exhaustion.”
    Finagling a transfer back to the Boston area, she worked at the Naval Hospital in Chelsea, Mass., as its Coast Guard representative. There she spent her days attending to patients’ needs — feeding them, administering medication and performing lab work.
    “Each Friday night I would take the Jewish patients that were able to leave the hospital back to my home for a Shabbat dinner that my mother lovingly prepared,” she wrote. “I loved helping patients to the point where they could be discharged and learn to live somewhat normal lives. Those that didn’t make it affected me terribly.”
    After the war, she worked at the Veterans Administration’s medical division in Boston. The first woman appointed to hold office by the state of Massachusetts Jewish War Veterans, she met Al Frager during a State Department convention and married him in 1950. Mr. Frager rose to prominence as an executive in the Stop & Shop retail chain. Recognizing his wife’s dedication to medical care, Mr. Frager later dedicated the Marion Frager Nursing Learning Laboratory at Northeastern University in her honor.
    The couple retired to Highland Beach in the 1990s and was active in local organizations such as the Donna Klein Jewish Academy and Jewish War Veterans of the USA. The marriage lasted 62 years until Mr. Frager’s death in 2012. They had four children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
    “She did a lot of volunteer work,” Goodstein said. “She was also an artist. She was very passionate about a certain type of art which she learned in a class she took. It’s the three-dimensional art of cutting paper. She would take pictures, cut them up, then turn them into pictures of other things. She would often incorporate real objects into her art. For example, if she were doing a piece on a man, she would use real hair for his hair. She never tried to sell her works of art. She did it as a hobby and gave them to everyone, even the hospice doctors and nurses who attended to her while she was sick.”
    Goodstein said she would most remember her mother for her sense of humor, her commitment to her family and her generosity.
    “She was very wise and a wonderful storyteller,” she said. “She always put herself out for others. She had such a passion for nursing and the medical field, even though she never became a nurse. But her daughter did, and so did her granddaughter. She was so full of life. She had a wonderful marriage to my father. They raised a great family that was also very devoted to them. They traveled the world together and with us. It’s pretty special to live to the age of 95. She did a lot with her life.”
    Mrs. Frager died on May 24. Services were held at Temple Beth-El mausoleum in Boca Raton. In her memory, the family has asked that contributions be made to the Jewish War Veterans of the USA, 1811 R St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. For more information, visit www.jwv.org.