Myrna Rochelle Mason

MASON: Myrna Rochelle Mason, age 88, of Pittsburgh and Aventura, Florida, passed away on June 28, 2023. Loving wife of 67 years to Mark E. Mason. Beloved mother of Andrea (late Charles) Wilkes, Grant (Amy Jaffe) Mason, Jane (Mark) Grasso and Betsy Meyers. Devoted Grammy to Jessica (Adam) Gross, Amanda (Jason) Childress, Nicholas (Peggy) Wilkes, Collette (Ryan) Boehmer, Daniel (Anna) Wilkes, Mitchell Mason, Molly Meyers, Natalie (Jacob Parker) Jaffe, Emmelia Jaffe, Will Grasso, Mason Meyers. Also proud Great-Grammy to Cameron and A.J. Gross, Dakota Meyers, Bella Johnson, Maeve and Wyatt Boehmer and Kendall Childress. Also survived by her sister Star (Leonard) Miller and sister-in-law Anne (late Edward) Lewis, and so many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Myrna was the daughter of the late Eugene and Hilda Lebowitz, formerly of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, and Aventura, Florida. Myrna was born and raised in Ellwood City and graduated from Ellwood City Lincoln High School. She graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She met her husband Mark (from Boston) while she was attending Harvard summer school. After graduation they married and moved to Berea, Ohio, then to New Castle, Pennsylvania, and then to Pittsburgh, where she was a teacher for a few years before having her children. Over the course of her life, she was the Pittsburgh chapter president of ORT (a Jewish rehabilitation through training program), the president of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Guild and chairwoman/fashion show coordinator of the Women’s Division of Israel Bonds. She established and helped run Portfolio Magazine, dedicated to the creative arts and personalities of Pittsburgh in the 1980s. She was also a partner in Oxford Development Company. Myrna loved socializing with her dear, beloved friends. Myrna loved dancing as she and Mark were always the couple to watch on the dance floor (from big band to disco). She loved playing the piano while she and Mark would sing to old show tunes and classics. She loved ice skating. Myrna was an avid photographer and annually dispersed her photos in a calendar that she compiled for many years that contained all the birthdays of her extended family and friends. Myrna loved traveling with Mark. They explored every state in the lower 48, Mexico, and most countries in South and Latin America (with multiple trips into the Amazon jungle). They traveled to many countries throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and Northern Africa, and even traveled to remote villages in Papua, New Guinea and Borneo, and returned yearly to Santa Fe, Nantucket, and the Cayman Islands. Foremost, Myrna’s love and devotion was to her family. She was the center of her husband’s and children’s world, and the dearest matriarch of her large extended family of cousins. She kept in touch with nearly everyone. She will always be loved and missed forever. Services at Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, (at Morewood) on Sunday, July 2, 2023, at 3 p.m. Visitation 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. at Temple. Interment Homewood Cemetery. Contributions may be made in her memory to the Tisch MS Research Center of New York (tischms.org) or charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PJC