Obituary of Gertrude Margolick

Gertrude Margolick, a longtime Putnam resident who enriched the civic and cultural life in the community for many years, died on July 10, 2026, in Sarasota, Florida. She was 102 years old.

     Mrs. Margolick, a native of New London, came to Putnam in 1949, following her marriage to Dr. Moses Margolick, for many years chief of the surgical staff at the Day Kimball Hospital.

     While raising their three sons, she was active on the Woman’s Board at Day Kimball. And for many years she wrote the lyrics for, and produced, annual “Cabarets” for the hospital, starring the doctors, nurses, orderlies, staffers, and anyone else who wanted a part. Her many musical collaborators included Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter. "I stole from the best of them," she said. They were gala affairs, and raised large sums for the Woman's Board.

     "I hope you've also felt as pleased with your absolutely wonderful Cabaret as you should," went a representative thank you note she received after one of them. "I stand in awe of your ability to create the show -- and being able to direct it and take care of the whole production as well is like magic. You're certainly to be congratulated as are the hospital and the surrounding countryside for having you among us."

     In addition, for more than thirty years Mrs. Margolick was the membership chairman of the Putnam-Danielson Community Concerts Association, which brought internationally noted musicians to the high school auditoriums in Putnam and Killingly. Among them were the bass-baritone William Warfield, the actor and singer John Raitt, and the pianist Don Shirley, later the subject of the Oscar-winning film “Green Book.”

     Make their membership pitches over the phone and never by mail (too easy to ignore) or in person (where people felt cornered), she'd instruct her army of volunteers, who combed northeastern Connecticut for subscribers. Speak to wives, not husbands: in that time and place, “culture” was their department. Tell people that, at $9 for three concerts, memberships cost little more than a movie. And when it came to picking performers, go easy on the sopranos, who seemed stuffy.

     Be prepared to listen to people’s problems, at least for a while, before making your move. And above all, sound positive. “I’d try to use words like ‘exciting’ or ‘thrilling,’” she once recalled. “If they saw how enthusiastic you were, they thought they were missing out on something.”

     After many concerts, she and Dr. Margolick would host receptions for the performers at their home, on Genevieve Street in Putnam. Mrs. Margolick also served for several years on the board of the Putnam Public Library.

     Mrs. Margolick, born Gertrude Shragowitz on March 11, 1924, was a graduate of the Williams Memorial Institute and the Joseph Lawrence School of Nursing, both in New London. She also did graduate work at New York University and the University of Connecticut.

     In the closing days of World War II, she served as a member of the Cadet Nurses Corps at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts. In peacetime, she was a visiting nurse in Hartford; years later, she still took special pride in having helped Black families who'd left the rural South for war work in Hartford acclimatize to life in the urban North. She also tended to the wounded servicemen back from overseas.

     Indulging her lifelong love of the theater, she had a brief run on stage, appearing in a Hartford Players production of the Arthur Miller play "All My Sons" that also starred Norman Lear, the television producer-to-be. For the same troupe, she appeared in Konstantin Simonov's comedy "The Whole World Over." "Gertrude Shragowitz plays the daughter with a great deal of zest," the reviewer for the Hartford Courant wrote. She brought that same quality to everything she did for the next seventy-eight years. 

     Mrs. Margolick is survived by three sons, Joseph (Dr. Linda Fried) of Baltimore, David (Amy Morris) of New York, and Daniel, of Stamford, Ct.; two grandsons, Jonathan (Katie Sudhoff) of Washington, D.C. and Alexander (Latoya) of Mt. Laurel, NJ; and two great-granddaughters, Genevieve and Louise.

     A graveside service for her will be held at eleven o'clock on Wednesday morning, July 15, 2026 at the Putnam Heights Cemetery, 167 Liberty Highway, Putnam, CT. Share a memory at Smithandwalkerfh.com