Diary of Reba Gasn

Rebecca Gasn, who went by “Reba” was born September 3, 1899, to Russian Jewish immigrants Jacob Gasn and Annie Eisner Gasn, in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Her older siblings were Louis (1888-1917), Samuel (1890-1942), and Sadie or Sayde Blidner (1894-1958); and her younger sisters were Rachel “Rae” Blum (1900-1943) and Miriam “Mona” Weiden (1901-1982). She graduated from Neptune High School in 1918, then attended New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton in 1919. There she was active in Theta Phi which was “a society, which stands for the enjoyment of the Great Out of Doors,” according to the May 1920 issue of The Signal student newspaper, as well as the Camera Club, Glee Club, and Young Men's - Young Women's Hebrew Association. Her younger sister Miriam, who later went by “Mona,” also attended the Normal School during Reba’s second year. She served as a student teacher at Trenton Junction (later Fisk) School in Ewing, then graduated in 1920. Shortly thereafter, she taught the “special class” (Special Education) at the Normal School for about a year. Afterward, she taught “special class” in Atlantic City, and at Monmouth Public Schools, including Belmar, for several decades. She outlived all of her siblings and died on January 25, 1989, in Neptune, New Jersey.