1991-2011

With Ida, 2002

Sam, Lori, Mildred, Ben, Samantha, Ida and Tracey, 2004

Mildred's Grandchildren:
Hillary, Samantha, Hollie, Benjamin and Sam

After Sam's death, Mildred sold the Ridgefield house and bought an apartment at 1050 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It looked over the treetops of Central Park and the reservoir at 86th Street. Mildred would enjoy watching the runners and dog walkers from her window.

She enjoyed renovating the apartment and filling it with the antiques, art and treasures that she and Sam had collected over the years. She continued to run the stock photography business, and also became involved with a group for widows, where she made friends.

Tracey presented her with twin grandchildren in 1993, Benjamin and Samantha. Around 1996, Lori remarried Jeffrey Karp, and baby Sam was born in 2001.

Mildred spent the years traveling and enjoying life in the city. She attended the theater, was a member of a book group, and spent time with Lori and her children. She went on many special trips around the world.

Mildred enjoyed excellent health during these years. She belonged to a gym and had a personal trainer who marveled at her strength. In December, 2010, she broke her knee in a fall and was reported to be ambulatory and  in good health.

Mildred's body was found on Sunday, January 9th in her apartment. The cause of her death was not disclosed and there was no obituary published. Mildred was interred at the Sanctuary of Abraham and Sarah at Cedar Park Cemetary in Paramus, New Jersey on January 13, 2011 next to Sam.

May she rest in peace.

1972-1991

Mowing the five acres in Ridgefield, late 1970's

Mildred and Sam in London, circa 1973

In 1972, Mildred, Sam and Tracey moved to London where Sam pursued his career as a photographer and Tracey studied at Queen's College for her A-levels. Both Mildred and Tracey worked as volunteers at nearby St. George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner. Mildred was given a high level of responsibility running the cardiac clinic, and enjoyed recognition for her efficiency. Lori was at Barnard College, having left the Royal Ballet School.

Sam suffered over these years from cornonary artery disease. He had a few infarctions, and bypass surgery.

In 1974, the family relocated yet again to Ridgefield CT, where they purchased a home that was a converted barn that had formerly been part of the Scripps Howard estate. Sam built a photography studio on the foundation of a former pig stye, and the couple spent many happy years renovating and improving the house and property. By now, Sam's stock photography business that he had started in the family basement in 1964 was a mature business competing with many others who had entered the field. Tracey went off to Providence to attend Brown in September 1974, and Mildred's father Philip passed away that October.

Lori married Dr. Fredrick Matlin in the early 1980's and in 1982, gave birth to a daughter, Hillary Meredith Matlin, Mildred's first grandchild. Hollie Lauren Matlin followed in 1985. Tracey married David Scheer in 1984 at the family home in Ridgefield, CT.

In 1990, Mildred's brother David died suddenly. A year later, while vacationing in Europe to celebrate their 40th anniversary, Sam's heart failed, and after forty days in a semi-comatose state, died in Brussels, Belgium.

1948-1971

Mildred, date unknown

Mildred, date unknown

Mildred and Ida at a Dude Ranch

Sam Zarember

Cuddling with Tracey, circa 1959

On a Pennsylvania vacation, early 60's

Mildred and Ida were hardworking secretary/bookkeepers. They lived at home with their father and watched as their brother went off to fight in the Philippines during WWII.

The sisters enjoyed going to Coney Island, and took at least one trip to a dude ranch. where one of the horses decided to go for a swim with one of the girls on his back.

After the war, Mildred met Sam Zarember, a young artist who had served in the infantry during WWII and was from a large family on the lower east side of Manhattan. They were married on May 23, 1951.

They lived briefly in Virginia Beach and moved back to New York City where daughter Lori Frances Zarember was born on August 11, 1954. Soon they relocated to Hicksville, New York. A second daughter, Tracey followed on March 26, 1956. The family moved to a UN community in Flushing, NY called Parkway Village around 1959, and later to a home in Jamaica Estates, NY in 1962.

Sam started up a graphic design business in the late 50's called Pasteups Unlimited. Mildred worked by his side to build up the business, which eventually expanded to include catalogue publishing. Murray Falick was their business partner.

Sam became increasingly interested in photography and began to take classes. He was mentored by Henry Wolf, and eventually left the graphics arts business to become a free-lance photographer. By the late 1960's Sam was in high demand as an advertising and editorial photographer. He won the NY and LA Art Director's gold medals, and many other awards for his work.  He also started a stock photography business to lease existing photographs for commercial use. Mildred helped him in all these endeavors.

The family relocated to the Carnegie House on West 57th Street in Manhattan in 1967. In 1968, Sam had an MI and began a battle with heart disease that would last for 23 years. 


The family enjoyed life in Manhattan and their neighborhood, which included not only Carnegie Hall, where the girls took ballet lessons, but also Steinway Hall, The Ritz Thrift Shop, the Museum of Modern Art, the Russian Tea Room, and the last working Automat. They ventured to the West side to the newly constructed Lincoln Center to take in ballets, concerts and operas.

1928-1948

Philip and Lena Siegel, date unknown

Ida, Philip, Lena and David, circa 1924

Mildred's High School Graduation Portrait

Mildred Siegel was born on January 20, 1928. She was the third child of Philip Siegel and Lena Berman, Russian immigrants from Latvia. Her sister, Ida, was born in 1920, and her brother David was born in 1923.

On the 1920 census, Lena and Philip Siegel were listed as residents of 97 Clinton Street in Manhattan, and had a son named Harold, then two years old. Neither Ida nor Mildred said they knew of him. It is assumed that he died as a small child.

By the 1930 census, the family was living at 1566 Hoe Avenue in the Bronx, in a walkup. Philip was a tailor in a coat factory. Mildred claimed that David used her as a tackle dummy for football practice, and that Ida and David tried to drown her in the bathtub when she was little. She had carrot red hair and was apparently a feisty child.

After graduating from high school, Mildred attended secretarial school and took jobs doing secretarial work. Her mother became ill and Mildred helped take care of the family. Her mother died on 14th of December, 1948 after a battle with cancer.

Mildred Zarember, beloved wife of the late Sam Zarember, died around January 9, 2011 in New York City. She is survived by a sister, Ida Siegel, two daughters, Lori Zarember Matlin Karp of New York, NY and Tracey Scheer, of Branford, CT, and by five grandchildren, Hillary Matlin, Hollie Matlin, Sam Karp, Benjamin Scheer and Samantha Scheer.