- Legacy Giving Stories
Lillian Graf
Annual distributions from the Lillian and Al Graf Memorial Endowment Fund help sustain the goals and mission of JFCS’ Dream House, which offers safe housing, counseling, and practical and emotional support for women and children who have escaped domestic abuse.
The Lillian Graf Memorial Endowment Fund was created by Carolyn and Arlan Kertz in loving memory of Carolyn’s mother, Lillian, and renamed the Lillian and Al Graf Memorial Endowment Fund in 2007 to include her father, Al.
Born in San Francisco in 1914, Lillian Graf spent her entire life in the Bay Area. When her father died when she was only seven, her mother, a seamstress, was left to raise Lillian and her sister by herself. To help support the family, Lillian graduated from high school early and joined the work force at the height of the Great Depression.
After 25 years of working in the boys’ department of O’Connor & Moffat, which eventually became Macy’s, Lillian retired, but continued to lead an extremely active lifestyle with Alexander, her husband of 65 years, and their two children, two grandsons, and two great-grandsons. She enjoyed Giants baseball games, golf, travel, hiking, and swimming. Lillian also liked to run. At 75, she joined one of her grandsons in a race in which both took first place in their respective age divisions! In fact, Lillian and Alexander had been out dancing only days before her unexpected death in December 2001.
When Alexander died in August 2007, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Carl Nolte memorialized him as a “flamboyant S.F. bail bondsman who was active in Republican politics” and “always had friends.” The fund’s name was modified to include him and to celebrate the love that he and his wife had shared since meeting at a dance in 1937.
Shared from the Heart
“Because of her own childhood, Lillian understood how hard it is for a woman alone to raise a family. She would have been so pleased to know that the named continuity fund created in her memory is helping the Dream House women who have had a hard time financially and physically to have better lives.”—Carolyn Kertz, about her mother
If you would like to start a Named Endowment Fund at JFCS, please contact [email protected] or 415-449-3858.