Beatrice Wagner

On Saturday, April 23, 2016, Mrs. Beatrice Weiner Wagner (Bea), 96, passed away at Maple Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation, in Rochester, Minnesota, attended by her devoted daughter and caregiver Susan Bailey.Mrs. Wagner, nee Beatrice Weiner, was born July 6, 1919 in Baltimore, Maryland, the elder of two daughters of Jewish Russian and Lithuanian immigrants who had immigrated through the Port of Baltimore.Her father Max Weiner had survived the infamous Kishinev pogrom (massacre) in Moldova in 1903.Her maternal grandfather had been a Chasidic Rabbi in Vilnius, Lithuania.America was a haven for Jews, despite the ever-present reality of anti-semitism. Speaking only Yiddish until age 5, she learned English in kindergarten and taught it to her family.She excelled in school, and was accepted into college with a 4-year scholarship, but her family was very poor, and she went to work at a secretarial position for the Federal Government to help support her mother and sister.During World War II, she worked for the WPB (War Production Board).In 1946, she married Herbert Wagner (also a son of immigrant Jewish refugees from Europe), an economist at the US Department of Agriculture, in Washington, D.C., and they had two daughters, Elaine and Susan.They affiliated with Congregation Har Tzeon (Mount Zion) in Silver Spring Maryland, but also wanted to assimilate into American society in every way, to live the American dream.For many years, Bea worked for the National Center for Health Statistics, and received numerous awards for meritorious performance. She was dedicated to her husband, and nursed him during his long (11-year) battle with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and accompanied him on multiple travels inside and outside the U.S.After Herbs death in 1988, Bea moved to Rochester, Minnesota in 1992 to be near her imminent and only grandchild, Ariella, daughter of Susan (nee Wagner) and Kent Bailey.She became a Minnesotan, and had the satisfaction of Ari graduating from high school and college.Aside from family, Beas passions included poetry, art, and travel.Regarding poetry, she loved to read it, hear it, and recite it.She could recite from memory Shakespeare sonnets, as well as The Owl and the Pussycat, and numerous other poems.She loved art, especially the French Impressionists, and was able to visit the home of her favorite artist Claude Monet in Giverny, France during an art trip to Paris with Susan and Kent.She also visited Brussels, Belgium with them.Bea also enjoyed traveling with her daughter Elaine, a chiropractor in Chicago, to the National Parks in the U. S.And she enjoyed re-connecting with her Jewish heritage.She was an active member in the Bnai Israel Synagogue Sisterhood, and was in book clubs of BIS.She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her younger sister Esther.She is survived by her two daughters Elaine (Evanston, Illinois) and Susan (Kent) Bailey of Rochester; a granddaughter Ariella (Ari) (Rochester); brother-in-law Norman Wagner (New York City) and nephew Eric Wagner (New York City).Interment will be at King David Memorial Gardens in Falls Church, Virginia on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 at 3 PM. No flowers, please.