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16 Comments

  1. cara mayrick
    September 18, 2012 @ 3:44 pm

    How beautiful!

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  2. Mary Ann Johnson
    September 19, 2012 @ 2:25 am

    Rochelle,
    What a beautiful tribute to a beautiful woman. After Toto died the years were not kind to Sara. What spirit she had to remain in her studio after all that had happened. And you too, to continue to go there when others stayed away.
    As an artist and lover of anything art related, ex new Yorker and Greenwich Village hippie wanna be during the sixties (but wasn’t allowed to!) your tribute touched me in many ways.
    But, your poem at the end brought tears to my eyes. I can’t imagine how many tears you shed while writing it. Thank you for sharing your personal memories.
    Mary Ann

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    • Rochelle
      September 19, 2012 @ 9:48 am

      Dear Mary Ann, Thank you so much for reading the tribute and especially for your comment. It helps me write to know that I have an audience. Thank you again. Rochelle

      Reply

  3. Judith Eisner
    September 20, 2012 @ 1:30 pm

    Dear Rochelle,

    The story was very moving for me. I knew Sara in her younger to not quite older years when she was still vibrant and Rockaway was still a lovely place in which to live. Sara befriended me as well and we would sit and talk about life and growing up. I needed a wiser, older friend. I remember Toto so well and adored him. His spirit and joie de vivre was absolutely infectious. I loved his paintings, with a true European flavor for their settings.

    I moved far away from Rockaway and for many reasons was not able to keep in touch but I still love the memories of Sara and her beauty. She was a guest at my wedding (my first marriage) and was positively gorgeous to look at, she far outshown the bride!

    Thank you for the lovely memories and the wonderful tribute.
    If would like to write to me my email address is: pmpkinj@verizon.net In my retirement I am a writer and editor now and do a lot of freelance work. My maiden name was Judith Shulman, Class of ’62.

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    • Rochelle
      September 20, 2012 @ 7:12 pm

      Thank you so much for writing, Judith. I was hoping that once this was in cyberspace students who knew Sara would come forth and they have. She deerves to be part of the present because she was such a gift. Do you edit for some publication or is it freelance? Best, Rochelle

      Reply

  4. Gladys Weinberg post
    September 20, 2012 @ 8:57 pm

    THE THREE BEAUTIFUL WEINBERG GIRLS ALL TOOK ART LESSONS WITH SARA..SHE MADE ALL OUR PAINTINGS LOOK BETTER WHEN SHE PLACED A brush STROKE ON OUE CANVAS..SUDDENLY THE PAINTINGS WERE ALIVE..OUR PARENTS WERE CLOSE FRIENDS. OF SARA AND TOTO, AND WE ALL ENJOYED TOTO’s cooking , his talent and artistic persona…..Sara’s talent and loveliness. Sara did my portrait when I was thirteen, long red braids, and skillfully capturing my teenage personality.. I also have a portrait of my mother, done by Toto..as well as a large water color, by Sara of the Jamaica Bay…was thrilled to hear her honored by you…She was extremely talented and lived a bohemian life with Toto and could have been a heroine in a novel by Henry James…she deserved a happier ending …she is well remembered by all of us, and it was wonderful to read your tribute…which brought tears and happy memories….Thank you for your kindness to her,..Gladys Weinberg Post.

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  5. Gladys Weinberg post
    September 20, 2012 @ 9:01 pm

    I would love to share further memories with you…my email is golfskater @aol.com

    Reply

    • Rochelle
      September 20, 2012 @ 9:12 pm

      Oh, please share the memories. I will post them. All of the comments come to me. So happy to have those memories. Other people want them, too. I heard from Judith Schulman who knew and loved Pinky. For some reason, Just write them here and, with your permission, I’ll post them on my blog. Best, Rochelle

      Reply

  6. Richard Herbst
    September 21, 2012 @ 3:09 pm

    Pinky was one of my mom’s best friends. They had known each other from the late ’30s. My mom, Anne Herbst, became a painter/sculptor but never forgot the friend of her youth. Sara and Toto were a kind of New Deal institution that entered a Far Rockaway time warp.
    I studied with her when I was ten or eleven but had no patience for oils. It remained for acrylics to get me to take up a brush again.
    I was saddened to hear of her later years.

    Reply

    • Rochelle
      September 21, 2012 @ 3:20 pm

      Thank you so much for your response, Richard. How exciting Pinky still had a friend from the 30’s. I am hearing from so many people who are giving me their memories to enjoy. It is like family history to me. Did your mother show in galleries? I’m going to look up her name as well. Thank you again. Sincerely, Rochelle

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    • Rochelle
      September 21, 2012 @ 3:25 pm

      Richeard, I just read about your mother and got so much out of it, thinking of her connection to Pinky as well. Glad you wrote it! Best, Rochelle

      Reply

    • Philip Herbst
      October 24, 2012 @ 8:40 pm

      Though I was only four or five when I knew Pinky and Toto, a child knows good people. Pinky came over to our house one day and taught us a great trick which I still practice to this day: you can dip your finger in rubbing alcohol and light it [for just a few seconds] because, as Pinky explained, alcohol burns at about 140 degrees and won’t burn your finger if you’re quick. And no, I have nothing better to do.

      Reply

      • Rochelle
        October 25, 2012 @ 1:25 am

        What a hilarious story! And Sara, who never went to college, knew the science behind your trick. Thank you so much for telling me about it. Best, Rochelle

        Reply

  7. Sharon Messina
    February 4, 2020 @ 8:22 pm

    Hello Rochelle,
    I did not know Sara well. I met her once or twice when I was little. I only know from her work that I would have loved her had I known her better. She was actually my great-aunt, as Toto` was my grandmother’s brother. I know my grandmother and Sara traveled to Italy together, and my grandmother and mother loved Sara. I am happy that she has a place in people’s hearts, and a little place in this world.
    thank you,
    Sharon

    Reply

  8. Robert Marcus
    March 31, 2020 @ 7:57 pm

    At midcentury (yup seventy years back) I schlepped up the long stairway to Sara Pinkus’s art studio. I agree she was terrific and I still have my paintings from those many years ago. She was warm and encouraging. Toto was a delight and I marveled at a beautiful painting he did of a young gorgeous Elizabeth Taylor. Far Rockaway was a great place with the ambiance of small town America; my father took me to a farm off Central Avenue where Wavecrest Gardens was later built to ride his friend’s donkey. We moved away in 1952 and I’ve lived in many places, now on a mountaintop in North Carolina. Thank you Rochelle for honoring Sara and y’all stay safe and well amidst the chronovinrus.

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    • Rochelle
      May 2, 2020 @ 6:25 am

      So glad you have wonderful memories of Far Rockaway and Sarah’s studio. Best, Rochelle

      Reply

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