Annette Zimmerman, wife, mother, grandmother, 40-plus year Great Neck resident and active Temple Emanuel member, died on Monday, March 30.
Annette only put her foot down with her husband Mortimer twice in their 67 years of marriage. The first was in 1964. As parents of two young boys, Robert and John, the family considered moving from Massachusetts to Great Neck. While the home was expensive, Annette, along with her sister and brother-in-law persuaded Mort to buy. They lived and raised their children in that house on 5 Vista Dr. for more than 40 years until their second argument: when Annette this time convinced Mort to move to an apartment on Middle Neck Road.
Annette Furman was born July 5, 1925, in St. Louis, Missouri. Along with her sister, Ruth, she worked at her fathers’ women’s clothing store during her youth. She attended and graduated Lincoln High School, with a special award for a paper she embodied throughout her entire life: peace.
Soon after World War II, Annette was set up on a blind date with Mort. After their wedding, they lived Brooklyn, New Jersey and Massachusetts before Great Neck.
Throughout Great Neck, Annette was known for her random acts of kindness, dedication to the neighborhood and impeccable style. She worked as an assistant buyer with A&S and was an active member of Temple Emanuel, where served as president of the Sisterhood in the mid-1980s.
Her love and commitment to her family was evident her entire life. From when she worked into the wee hours of the morning helping her son John and his wife Ellen to clean their first apartment in Manhasset, to serving as Robert’s most trusted campaign volunteer during his 1988 run for the State Assembly, her commitment was unmistakable. As Ellen aptly put: “her entire life, she came, she stayed and she worked.”
Annette is survived by her loving husband Mort; her two sons, Robert and John; her daughter-in-law, Ellen, who she considered the daughter she never had; her three grandsons Ben, Greg and Sam; and the hundreds of family, friends and neighbors who shared countless memories across her nearly nine decades of life. In lieu of flowers, the Zimmerman family requests that donations be made to Stephen C. Widom Cultural Center at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck.
