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  Gloria Donen Sosin
Gloria Donen Sosin was born in New York March 21, 1922. She grew up in Rye, N.Y., the daughter of Isaac and Eda Donen, who settled there in the 1920s, after emigrating to New York from Ukraine. In Rye her family lived at 272 Purchase Street. Gloria's father ran a stationery store in Rye before opening Donen's Music Shop, which was a fixture for decades.
 Gloria's class was the first to move into the new high school on Parsons Street. She graduated from Rye High School, Class of 1939, where she was voted "Most Industrious". She lived a long life true to that early recognition.
She earned a bachelor's degree in English at the University of Michigan, where she wrote for The Michigan Daily, sang in choral groups, and belonged to Alpha Epsilon Phi.
A World War II veteran, she enlisted October 16, 1944 and served as a sergeant in the Women's Army Corps. Originally established as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1942, it transitioned to the Women's Army Corps in 1943, granting members full military status and benefits.
 Gloria Donen Serves In WAC
Miss Gloria Donen, daughter of 'Mr. and Mrs Isaae Donen, 272 Purchase Street, Rye, has left for Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., from which point, after she has undergone basic training, she will leave for a Women's Army Corps Medical Unit. The information was made public today by WAC Recruiting Headquarters, 101 Westchester Avenue, Port Chester. Miss Donen-now Pvt. Donengraduated in 1939 from Rye High and in 1942 from the University of Michigan. She served at United Hospital that Summer, with one of the first nurses' aides classes to be established in Rye. For the past year she has been employed as a secretary at the Army Specialized Training Program installation at City College, New York. Upon completion of her basic training she expects to work in an Army hospital, specializing as a psychiatric assistant.
Port Chester
The Daily Item
1944
Dec
08
Page 11
 The Women's Army Corps (WAC) Medical Unit, operating during World War II and beyond, provided crucial healthcare support by supplying personnel for hospitals and medical departments to free up men for combat roles. WACs worked in various capacities, including medical and surgical assistants, laboratory technicians, and nurses' aides.
WACs were heavily utilized within the Army Service Forces (ASF) for technical, administrative, and clinical roles, including caring for patients, operating medical equipment, and managing hospital records.
General Douglas MacArthur called the WACs "my best soldiers", adding that they worked harder, complained less and were better disciplined than men. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said that "their contributions in efficiency, skill, spirit and determination are immeasurable". Those 150,000 women who did serve released the equivalent of 7 divisions of men for combat.
Gloria served at Mason General Hospital, a US Army psychiatric hospital in Brentwood, Long Island, specializing as a psychiatric assistant.
 After her discharge, while studying for her master's degree in Russian Language and Literature at Columbia University, she met the love of her life, Gene Sosin, in a Dostoevsky class. Their romance led to marriage in June 1950. Soon after, Gloria and Gene moved to Munich, Germany, to interview displaced Russian refugees as part of the Harvard Project.
Upon their return to Westchester in 1951, their son Donald was born; daughter Deborah arrived in 1954. The couple raised their children in Rye and became active members of Community Synagogue, which Gloria's parents had helped to found. Gloria earned a second master's degree from Hunter College, then taught high school Russian in Greenwich and Scarsdale. She was also fluent in Yiddish, German, and French. She kept active in Jewish and civic organizations, including Hadassah and the League of Women Voters.
From 1966 to 1970, the Sosins once again lived in Munich, where Gene was an executive at Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe. The family traveled throughout Europe and Israel before returning to Westchester, settling in White Plains.
The Sosins were chamber music devotees who attended concerts at SUNY Purchase and other Westchester venues and enjoyed cultural events in and around New York. For many years, they helped Soviet emigres adapt to life in the United States and were on the board of NYANA (New York Association for New Americans).
 Gloria was a voracious reader of contemporary fiction and nonfiction on loan from the White Plains Public Library. Among her other hobbies were playing bridge, knitting, needlepoint, and baking (her mother's apple pie recipe was a favorite family dish). She played the piano and studied voice and especially loved German Lieder and Yiddish and Russian songs.
She wrote many essays, articles, and poems and self-published two memoirs, "A New Life Is Coming Soon", a chronicle of her father's journey from Ukraine to America, and "Red Letter Year", about her and Gene's time in Munich in 1950-51. Her work appeared in The Michigan Daily, The Forward, The Rye Record, and other Westchester newspapers.
After Gene's passing at age 93 in 2015, Gloria remained in her home in White Plains, blessed with the loving companionship of home caregivers Joan Isree and, later, Amalia Saroian, as well as Agavni Mkoyan and Lulu Saroian.
Gloria Donen Sosin died peacefully at Ferncliff Nursing Home in Rhinebeck, N.Y., on June 21, 2021, at the age of 99.
She was survived by her daughter Deborah of Boston, her son Donald and his wife Joanna Seaton of Lakeville, Conn., and their children, Nicholas and Mollie Sosin; her niece, Nancy Hirschhorn of Washington, D.C.; and her nephew, Robert Hirschhorn, of New York City. Her dear sister, Joyce Donen Hirschhorn, of Killingworth, Conn., passed away in 2017.
A graveside service was held June 24 at Sharon Gardens, 273 Lakeview Avenue, Valhalla.
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