Former Kansas Citian Barbara H. Ledgin passed away Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, with daughter Stephanie at her side. Born Betty Tomsky in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 28, 1929, she was the fifth child of Morris and Dora Tomsky, poverty-stricken immigrants from the Ukraine. Given up for adoption to Dr. Max and Jeanne Levine at birth, she was renamed Harriet Barbara, later preferring Barbara or "Bobby."
{mprestriction ids="1"}Raised in Woodhaven, N.Y., Barbara moved to Wayne, N.J., with her parents in 1950. She married Norman Ledgin (of Stanley, Kan.) in 1951 and together they had three children before divorcing in 1967.
Barbara’s parents instilled in her an ardent Zionist spirit she maintained throughout her life. A second-generation life member of Hadassah, she held virtually every possible post, including president, in several chapters and groups, most notably in Kansas City, as well as in Pompton Lakes, N.J., and Queens, N.Y., where she spent nearly four decades of her final years. As bulletin editor for various chapters, Barbara was often praised for her innovative newsletters by Hadassah national presidents.
Barbara was a member of Kehilath Israel Synagogue, where her children attended Talmud Torah. Devoted to Judaism, she served as head of the Chevra Kadisha for women for five years at Kansas City’s B.I.A.V.
Among Barbara’s talents and pursuits was music, noted in her Franklin K. Lane High School (NYC) yearbook as her "aim in life." She studied piano and viola and made All City High School Orchestra, then attended New York College of Music. Barbara possessed a distinctive, opera-like whistling ability, as practiced as her piano execution.
Brought up in a natural lifestyle ahead of its time by her forward thinking "poppa," Barbara was a decorated Girl Scout and also attended several Jewish and Zionist camps, serving as counselor during her late teen years. She was an avid swimmer, could swing a mean baseball bat, and could hit her mark handily in skeet shoots. She also brought home championship bowling trophies in Kansas City area leagues. In high school, she developed her instinctive photography skills, capturing people and places through the lens with a flair, a hobby she enjoyed throughout life.
At age 50 Barbara returned to college to study sociology, tackling with tenacity such daunting subjects as statistics. She graduated with high marks from Queens College and went on to teach as a paraprofessional in the New York City school system.
In the mid-1980s after the passing of her beloved parents, she set out to find her biological family. This entailed hundreds of hours of handwritten queries and research. Barbara eventually met many birth family members, including a sister, the only surviving sibling by that time. The extensive genealogy records she left behind have identified 500 relatives.
Barbara traveled extensively throughout Europe and Israel, in later years spending several months annually in Torremolinos, Spain. She diligently studied Spanish, Hebrew and French, among other languages, to facilitate her travels.
Dozens of thank you notes and letters of commendation found among her personal papers attest to her extraordinary voluntarism with Hadassah and other causes, and to her frequent helping hand given to friends, relatives and even strangers. Her most treasured moments in life were the precious times spent with her grandchildren.
Kansas City connections played a role during Barbara’s final days which she lived out in a New Jersey care facility. There she met Rabbi David Glicksman who served at B.I.A.V. during the 1980s; together they recalled mutual friends and colleagues. It was he who recited "Vidui" for Barbara. Passing away three hours prior to her mother’s yahrzeit, she was buried next to her parents on Jeanne Levine’s yahrzeit. Former Kansas Citian Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg officiated at her graveside service Oct. 22 at King Solomon Cemetery, Clifton, N.J. By chance, another former Kansas City rabbi, David Bockman, was conducting a service just feet away from Barbara’s. Currently his pulpit is Congregation Beth Shalom, formerly the Pompton Lakes Jewish Center where Barbara and Norman were married.
Barbara is survived by her children Stephanie Ledgin-Toskos (Theodoros) of Pittstown, N.J.; David of Long Beach, N.Y.; and Allison Grace Malacaria (Serge) of Australia, as well as by her beloved grandchildren Zachary and Calla. She was especially close to her Duhan cousins Nancy, Susan and Adam, and her best friend since kindergarten Janeth Mueller.
Memorial donations may be made to Hadassah or to University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (http://www.kualzheimer.org). To contact Barbara’s family, email .{/mprestriction}