SEARSMONT — Selma Shure (known as Sally) of Searsmont, Maine, died of natural causes on December 13th in Belfast, Maine. She was 99 years old.

Born November 12, 1923, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to Charles and Esther Patt, she spent her early years in New Jersey where she graduated from New Jersey College for Women (now Douglass College). During the 1940s she attended the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Southern California and then worked as a social welfare caseworker for the USO, Travelers Aid, and the Middlesex County Welfare Board. 

Sally married Melvin Shure in 1948 and remained active as the State Chair of the New Jersey League of Women Voters, PTA President, board member of the New Brunswick Community Welfare Council, and a Girl Scout troop leader. While raising her three children she attended Rutgers University and earned her Master's Degree in Social Work. Sally was then employed by the Newark, New Jersey school system as a school social worker in the inner city for 25 years. 

She retired in 1995 and moved to her long-time summer residence in Searsmont, Maine where she continued her community service with the Belfast Garden Club, Searsmont Historical Society, Searsmont Town Library, and the Searsmont Women’s Action Group. She was a member of the Adas Yoshuron Synagogue in Rockland, Maine, and volunteered as a Pastoral Visitor at Penobscot Bay Medical Center. 

In addition to her parents and husband Melvin, Sally was predeceased by her brother, Milton Patt, and her identical twin sister, Dorothy Perlgut.

She is survived by her three children, Kenneth of Camden, Maine, Anne of Montville, Maine, and Howard of Annapolis, Maryland, her nephews Richard and Steven Patt, Donald Perlgut and niece Lynn Kra-Oz, grandchildren Jeremy Fry and Olivia Shure and great-grandson Lochlan Fair. 

Interment will be at Oak Grove Cemetery in Searsmont at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Sally’s name to the Belfast Garden Club, PO Box 502, Belfast, ME 04915, Searsmont Historical Society, PO Box 104, Searsmont, ME 04973, or the Adas Yoshuron Synagogue, 50 Willow St., Rockland, ME 04841. 

A remembrance of Sally’s life will be held in the summer of 2023.

Memories and condolences may be shared with the family at www.ripostafh.com.