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Elizabeth Ann Sandt “Bo” Gernsback

Elizabeth Ann Sandt “Bo” Gernsback, 93, formerly of 534 Taylor Street, Brookville, and recently of the McKinley Health Center, died October 30, 2014.

She was born in Brookville on May 30, 1921, the fourth and youngest daughter of Walter and Gertrude Buzard Sandt. She was preceded in death by her sisters, Mary Margaret Sandt, Katherine Sandt Taylor, and Gertrude Jane Sandt.

A 1939 graduate of Brookville High School, she completed a post-graduate year of study at the Greer School in Tyrone. She first attended Goucher College in Baltimore before transferring to the Parsons School of Design, New York, from which she graduated with a degree in interior design.

During World War Two, she married M. Harvey Gernsback, a New York magazine publisher. The couple had two children, Mark Gernsback and Wendy Gernsback Davidson, both of whom survive. For years she made her home in New Jersey, where she as an active civic leader, serving as President of the North Plainfield P. T. A. and of the North Plainfield Board of Education. She also chaired the board that oversaw the local administration of the Graduate Equivalency Examination (GED).

In 1968, at the time of her divorce, she returned home to Brookville, where she lived for the rest of her life. Always a voracious reader and strong advocate for literacy, she became active in civic matters in her home town. For years she read to children at the Rebecca Arthurs Memorial Library and eventually served on the Library Board, for several years as its president.

In addition to her love of reading, she was a talented painter and an avid bridge player. With her sister, Katherine Taylor, she organized bridge luncheon fundraisers for the library and for Historic Brookville, Inc., and always-successful and popular bazaars for the Brookville Hospital. She was a member of the Brookville Presbyterian Church.

She is survived by her two children, Mark Gernsback and his wife, Denise, of Climax, Michigan and Wendy Davidson and her husband, Joe, of Carlsbad, California. She is also survived by five grandchildren, Geoffrey Gernsback, Laurie Neeb, Christopher Davidson, Zoe Valette, and Joanna Gernsback, along with three great-grandchildren, Cody Neeb, Tana Neeb and Hayden Dibble-Valette.

In lieu of flowers, and among Bo’s wishes was that any memorials be made to the Rebecca M. Arthurs Library, 223 Valley St. Brookville, Pa. 15825.

There will be a family and friends memorial service in the Spring.

Arrangements are under the direction of McKinney Funeral Home, 345 Main St. Brookville, PA 15825

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