Le Anne Schreiber (1945 – 2019)
COPAKE—Le Anne Schreiber died Friday, May 31, 2019.
She was born August 4, 1945, in Evanston, IL. Her father, Newton, worked in the photography division of Life magazine, and her mother, Beatrice, was a homemaker.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Rice University in Houston and a master’s in English from Stanford University on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. She then accepted a Harvard Prize Fellowship for five more years of postgraduate study at Harvard, where she was planning for a career teaching English literature, when she decided that journalism might be a more exciting pursuit.
She was hired by Time magazine. Starting in 1974, she originally covered international politics, but due to a writer’s strike in the sports department, she was sent to cover the Montreal Olympics. Once there, she wrote three cover stories for Time in three weeks. And she’d never written a sports story before.
That began a meteoric rise in sports journalism. She was hired by womenSports magazine as the editor-in-chief two months after the Olympics and joined The New York Times a year and a half later in 1978 becoming the first woman to run a major American daily newspaper’s sports section.
After leaving the sports section in September 1980, Ms. Schreiber spent nearly four years as deputy editor of The Times Book Review. Although several women have been deputy sports editors at The Times since her departure, none have held the top job.
After leaving The Times in 1984, she moved to Ancram where she renovated an old Victorian house, took up fly fishing, helped to co-found a theater company at the Ancram Opera House, and wrote her first memoir, “Midstream.” It is a dual account of her mother’s death and Ms. Schreiber’s life in Ancram. Also while living in Ancram and then Copake, she wrote many freelance articles for magazines as disparate as Discover and O. Two articles she wrote for Glamour magazine about abortion won a National Magazine Award in 1992. Her second memoir, “Light Years,” was published in 1996. A book of reflective essays, it was written after her parents and brother, Michael, had died, all of cancer.
Ms. Schreiber taught English at the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and in 2007, she returned to sports for two years as ESPN’s ombudswoman. For the past four years she was a volunteer teacher of English in the ELS Program at Grace Episcopal Church in Millbrook. She was also a member of the Grace Outreach Advisory Board.
Ms. Schreiber had no immediate family members. A Memorial Service will be held in the Ancram/Copake area later in the summer at a date yet to be decided. Arrangements are under the direction of the Scott D. Conklin Funeral Home, 37 Park Avenue, Millerton. To send an online condolence visit www.conklinfuneralhome.com
Cheryl A. Schaefer (1945 – 2019)
LAKELAND, FL—Beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Cheryl Ann Schaefer, 74, passed away May 31, 2019 at Lakeland Regional Hospital.
The daughter of the late Esther and Earl Simmons of Chatham, she graduated in 1964 from Chatham High School, and later attended Mohawk Valley Community College.
The last two decades of her professional life entailed extensive work with sexual assault survivors and advocating for crime victims. This included one-on-one counseling, court appearances, obtaining federal funding and assisting in the implementation of many social justice programs.
Over the years Mrs. Schaefer received numerous awards from the Department of Justice and the FBI for her work as a driving force in the creation of the Capital District Anti-Stalking Task Force, one of the nation’s leading expert forces on the crime of stalking, as well as co-authoring some of the first New York State Anti-Stalking Legislation. Crime victim advocacy was dear to her heart and over her long life and many accomplishments she felt this was the most important work she did.
She lived the past 15 years retired in Lakeland, FL.
She is survived by: her husband, Lloyd Schaefer; her six, children, Susan Poole, Lynda Sardo, Warren Schaefer, TJ Schaefer, Robert Schaefer and Jessica Watrous, and her 13 grandchildren, Leanne, Aaron, Joshua, Sarah, RJ, Emily, Matt, Joseph, Victoria, Haley, Ashley, Andrew, Robert and Lilyan, as well as seven great grandchildren. She will also be deeply missed by her sister, Beth Dollard and best friend, Shirley Hughes
Calling hours for family and friends will be held at Wenk Funeral Home, 21 Payn Avenue, in Chatham, June 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. Funeral services will be held at funeral home Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m. Interment will be in the Ghent Union Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, send donations to a local animal shelter. For online condolences visit wenkfuneralhome.com
