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JANET KAHN WALLFISCH, a reporter for the Times-Picayune for 25 years and whose early writing dealt largely with the Jewish community, died on Sunday, April 27. She was 95.<\/p>\n
Wallfisch’s career began in the mid-1960s, when the newspaper office was still located on Lafayette Street. She was considered the Jewish society editor for many years and wrote from her home.<\/p>\n
Later, when the newspaper set up shop in its new facility on Howard Avenue, she was advised to report to the office on a continuing basis. She wrote about ladies clubs regularly before she became known as a prominent features writer for the paper. Her work frequently appeared in the Vivant section before the name was changed to the Living section. Wallfisch conducted many feature stories in which she would conduct interviews with the leading celebrities of the day.<\/p>\n
A native of New Orleans, she was a graduate of Eleanor McMain High School. The story of her life as a retired reporter was featured in a National Public Radio StoryCorps interview broadcast nearly four years ago. In it Wallfisch noted her career and gave insight into her personal life, accounting for how she happened to meet her husband of 50 years, Nathan “Nat” Wallfisch during World War II. The Army Air Corps private was an accountant on leave from Monroe, visiting a friend who lived next to Wallfisch’s Uptown home. According to the broadcast, the two began a courtship and he traveled from Monroe each weekend to date. The two were married in Baltimore prior to his final deployment in the South Pacific for two years.<\/p>\n
When he returned, her husband and she moved to New York, where they lived for several years while he was an accountant for the state. She became very acquainted with the city’s theaters during the day and frequented a number of Broadway performances, becoming a devotee of the theatre. The couple vowed to return to New Orleans and eventually they did, raising their family here. Wallfisch began her writing career when her children were grown.<\/p>\n
A longtime member of Temple Sinai, Wallfisch was a president of the Sisterhood, a vice-president and member of the board of the Jewish Community Center and volunteered at Touro Infirmary. She was an active theatre supporter and served on the boards of both Gallery Circle Theatre and Le Petit Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Vieux Carr\u00e9.<\/p>\n
She was predeceased by her husband in 1999, but is survived by two sons, Dr. Harry Wallfisch of Galveston, TX. and Mark Charles Wallfisch;\u00a0 a brother, Charles Newman Kahn, Jr. of Kennebunk, ME.; two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn conducted the private graveside service in Hebrew Rest Cemetery #3 (Pelopidas at Frenchmen Streets) on Monday, April 28 at 3:00 p.m. “She was a gracious, super intelligent , and well, super-everything person who never missed the true and best of the worthy life,” Cohn wrote of her.<\/p>\n
A memorial ceremony of her life will be celebrated at Temple Sinai on a date and at a time still to be determined.<\/p>\n
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations are suggested to Temple Sinai, 6237 St. Charles Avenue. Tharp-Sontheimer-Tharp Funeral Home was in charge of arrangments.<\/p>\n