Hudson County NJ Archives News.....Everybody Loved "Bingo" Sadie Who Never Tired of Singing December 14, 1959
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mary Anne Rowand CerniceNJ@aol.com November 29, 2005, 7:58 pm

Jersey Journal December 14, 1959
Sarah Howe, Church Worker, Was The Life Of Every Party
by Edward J Sullivan

   Her real name was Sarah Colan Howe.  But she went for bingo in a big way, so 
at the "Peoples Palace" later the cyo Center at Our Lady of Czestochowa School, 
she was "Bingo Sadie", a daughter said.  During the intermissions she would 
play the piano.  Ragtime was her specialty.  Or name any of the old songs, she 
could play them even though she never too a lesson.

   The life of every party, she had a chance to go n stage when she was a girl, 
her mother said she was too young.  But she never gave up entertaining.  During 
the Depression era, for instance, it toook more thatn a song & a smile to make 
people smile.  Sadie did it with tons of coal, clothing & food for the table 
for the poor.

   At 8:13 PM Thursday night at St Francis Hospital, the heart with the ragtime 
beat played itself out.  Burial of the little 100 lb frame with the big heart 
is to take place today.

   During the lean thirties she and her retired policeman husband were raising 
seven children of their own, but she often took food off her own table to give 
to the poor that found their way to her door.

   "If you give to the poor or the Church, God will remember you", she always 
said.

   She helped build Our Lady of Victories Church by baking cakes & knitting 
cothing to be sold for the buliding fund.  During the summers at Ideal Beach, 
she worked at bingo games and baked more cakes to help St Cathrine's get 
started there.

   On Saturday nights at the beach you would find her in the middle of a 
singing crowd.  Her version of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" was the one they 
clamored for.

   During the was she hung 3 stars in her window.  Sons Tommy & James were 
inthe Army.  Daughter Sally was one of the first Army nurses to land in North 
Africa  anzio.  Mary & Eileen worked at defense plants. margaret and Jane wre 
at home.

   Though most of hr family was called to war, her seven rooms on Clerk Street 
were never empty.  Tommy, overseas, gave his buddies his mother's address, so 
her home became a stop over for Air Corpsmen between over seas flights.

   And on Sundays, she had so many boys in the Army or Navy for dinner there 
would be no room for us girls, recalled Mrs Eileen Cermak. "The one thing the 
boys loved most was to hear Mom sing & play".  Until her death, Mrs Howe 
continused to receive letters from these "boys" of hers.  They always 
began "Dear Mom....."

   Sarah Colgan was born 64 years ago in St Bridget's Parish, the daughter of 
James Colgan, who owned the Grand Street Marble Yards.  Many of the monuments 
in Holy Name Cemetery are his work, the marble and engraving in St Bridget's 
were a labor of love.

   Mrs Howe lived most of her life in the Garfield section but a year ago moved 
to 146 Manhattan Ave.  Since the death of hr only brothr, Kierin, 27 months 
ago, her health had been steadily failing.


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