Shirley K Levy

Shirley Kase Levy, 101, died peacefully on March 14, 2024, in Juno Beach, Florida. Sherry (as she was known to her friends and family) was born on March 21, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. Desperate to get out of Brooklyn and looking for adventure, she dropped out of Hunter College at the age of 20 to work as an aircraft communicator for the Civil Aeronautics Administration, being assigned to the communications station at the airport in Utica, New York, where she learned how to record weather observations and transmit them by Morse code. Upon turning 21 – and just months after the U.S. entered World War II – Sherry walked into an Army recruiting office in Manhattan on a whim, and although she had no real intention of joining the Army, she was pegged as a “rare bird” due to the skills she learned as an aircraft communicator. Before she knew it, she was a private in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, which later became the Women’s Army Corps, or WACs. She was stationed at various bases around the country, including an extended assignment to the Army airbase in Alliance, Nebraska. She then volunteered for overseas service hoping to be sent to Paris, but instead was shipped off in the Fall of 1944 to the frigid, desolate outpost of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, where she served until the end of the war.

After being discharged, Sherry finished her degree at Hunter College and worked at various department stores in New York and Washington, DC, and became a senior buyer at Macy’s in Manhattan. In March 1961, Sherry married the love of her life, Alex, and they settled down and raised their family in Bloomfield, CT. She was active in many community organizations, including serving as an alternate on the Bloomfield Planning & Zoning Commission, and she was a proud member of the Bloomfield Democratic Town Committee. Always restless and looking for new challenges, she went back to school in her 50s and received a Master’s degree in interior design from UConn. She loved being an interior designer and worked for many years at Bottaro-Skolnick in Springfield, MA. After she and Alex retired to Florida, Sherry remained very active traveling, doing crossword puzzles, beating all comers at Scrabble and Words With Friends (which she played online even at 100 years old), and spending time with family.

Sherry is survived by her two children, Jane (William) Hamilton, of Carlisle, MA, and Richard (Bonnie) Levy, of Cheshire, CT, three adoring grandchildren: Madeline and Andrew Levy and Maya Hamilton, and her brother Harvey (Arlene) Kase of Crystal, MN. She was predeceased by her husband Alex, her brother Lawrence Kase, and her sister Sonia Berke.

Funeral Services followed by internment will be on Monday, March 18, 2024, at 9:30 AM at IJ Morris of Star of David Cemetery in Palm Beach Gardens.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the American Heart Association, Habitat for Humanity, or your favorite charity.