Rhoda Lawenda died on January 14, 2026 at 96 years old.

She was born in New York City on September 4, 1929 to Anna and Harry Geller and grew up in the Bronx, where she graduated from Taft High School.

In 1949 at age 20, she married David Lawenda and they moved to River Edge, and then Oradell, NJ where they lived many years.  In fact, Rhoda was such a native New Yorker that she didn’t learn to drive until she moved to Oradell.

After David retired, they moved to Sarasota, Siesta Key, Florida, a place where they had friends and relatives and enjoyed the weather.  They were married for 56 years until Dave passed away at 92 in 2015.

They had two children, James and Jamie, and four grandchildren, Molly, Patrick, Daniel and Nicolas.  Later Rhoda had three great grandchildren, Juniper, Remy and Hazel.  Rhoda was a wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother, and mother-in-law to Kathy and Lorenzo.  Everyone loved her, and she loved all of them.

Rhoda was a terrific aunt to her various nieces and nephews, and a wonderful cousin to her cousins and their children.  Everyone was welcome at the Lawenda house.

She loved to entertain and gave many dinner parties, and always put out a great spread.  No one ever left hungry.  While Rhoda believed quality was important, she valued quantity as well.  Rhoda loved to shop.  She was prolific, transferring that skill into careers at both B. Altman’s and Nordstroms.

One interesting thing about Rhoda is that she had friends from every period of her life – from childhood, high school and Oradell, and later, Sarasota.  Everyone always knew her wherever she went.  She was an authentic person and never put on airs – what you got was Rhoda – the real thing.  She was one of a kind.

Rhoda is remembered by all as beautiful, funny, generous, kind and caring.  Always well put together with a great sense of style.