Eve Rudin, 103, was a vocal social activist and savvy businesswoman
One of the first women of her generation to drive a car, she said she always wanted to teach children and was still living alone and driving at 96.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/HLMQSRJ6V5FKRII6VTPZKAYG7Q.jpg)
- Eve Rudin
- 103 years old
- Lived in Philadelphia
- She believed in equal opportunity and was a vocal political activist
How would you describe a most fulfilling life in Philadelphia? Eve Rudin’s may provide the answer.
A native of the Strawberry Mansion section, Mrs. Rudin was born in 1916 and spent her childhood exploring the secrets of the Wissahickon Creek and taking dips in the Schuylkill on hot summer days. As she grew, she planned “special” day trips to city museums, spent summers at the New Jersey Shore teaching her nieces and nephews to swim, and marveled at the Pennsylvania Ballet – as recently as last fall.
“She wanted to feel cultured,” said her daughter, Marion Rudin Frank. “And she was fiercely independent.”
Mrs. Rudin lost herself in opera, and played competitive bridge until she could no longer see the cards. She sewed beautiful matching mother/daughter dresses and went out of her way to be around people, especially enjoying her large family at her many birthday parties.
She said she always wanted to teach children, and was living alone and driving at age 96.
Mrs. Rudin, 103, died on Saturday, April 25, of the coronavirus at the Watermark retirement community.
Always a pioneer, Mrs. Rudin was the first in her family to be born in America, her mother coming from Russia. She was married to her late husband, Bernard Rudin, for 70 years, and they worked together to create the successful Arrow Fuel Oil Co., for which she not only kept the books but pumped heating oil into delivery trucks.
After moving to Florida about 50 years ago with her husband, who died in 2008, Mrs. Rudin returned to Philadelphia a few years ago to be close to her daughter, who wrote of her mother in a tribute:
“Born before women had the right to vote, she became a supporter of women’s rights and one of the first women of her generation to drive a car. She was a talented seamstress, and an early liberal political activist, working for Adlai Stevenson and against Joe McCarthy, and she adamantly believed in equal opportunity for all."
In addition to her daughter and son-in-law Vincenzo Sanguineti, Mrs. Rudin is survived by a granddaughter, two step-grandchildren, and many other family members.
Services are to be later.
— Gary Miles