Rosemary Flance, longtime volunteer

BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus

Rosemary Flance, longtime volunteer for Jewish and general community organizations, died Sept. 10 after a long illness. She was 96 and was a longtime resident of Creve Coeur. Mrs. Flance was the widow of Dr. Israel Jerome Flance, a prominent St. Louis physician and community activist, who died in April.

Rosemary Weisels Flance was born in St. Louis on Sept. 13, 1914. She was proud of her family’s long history in St. Louis, having told the St. Louis Jewish Light several years ago, “I have deep roots in the St. Louis Jewish community. Both my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Weisels, and my maternal grandfather, Frank Block, were born in St. Louis. The Blocks were among the first Jewish families to settle in the area just west of the Mississippi, from the 1820s through the 1830s.”

Mrs. Flance shared her knowledge of local St. Louis Jewish history by serving as chair of the Jewish Historical Committee, the predecessor to the Jewish Historical Society, and the St. Louis Jewish Archives Commission. Mrs. Flance served as a member of the St. Louis Bicentennial Commission in 1964. She also served on the Women’s Division Board of the Missouri Historical Society.

Along with her late husband, Mrs. Flance was active with the Jewish Federation of St. Louis and its annual campaign, and was a former vice president of the Federation’s Women’s Division. In addition, Mrs. Flance served on the boards of numerous other organizations, including as president of The Pioneers, one of the oldest established local cultural and book groups; the American Jewish Committee, St. Louis Region; the Scholarshop Foundation; Opera Theatre of St. Louis; the National Council of Jewish Women, St. Louis Section; the St. Louis Chapter of Hadassah, the Jewish Hospital Auxiliary; the Women’s Association of the Saint Louis Symphony Society, and the St. Louis Council on World Affairs. She and her husband were also longtime members of Temple Israel and later of Congregation Shaare Emeth.

Funeral services were held Sunday, Sept. 12 at Congregation Shaare Emeth.

Burial was private at New Mt. Sinai Cemetery.

Survivors include a son, Stephen Flance, of Santa Fe, N.M.; a daughter, Patty Flance Croughan (Jack) of St. Louis, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.