Thelma Sheff Lipsitz

Thelma Sheff Lipsitz September 18, 1916 – March 26, 2006 Thelma Sheff Lipsitz passed away on March 26, 2006. Private family interment will be at Rodef Sholom Cemetery in Waco, Texas. A memorial service is pending; date and time will be announced in the near future. Thelma Sheff Lipsitz was born in San Antonio, Texas on September 18, 1916, only child of Bertha Sadowsky Sheff and Max Sheff, pioneer San Antonio merchants. She married Melvin A. Lipsitz on March 3, 1935. From that time to the present she has made her home in Waco, Texas. For many years she was active in the family business, M. Lipsitz & Co., Waco, Texas, one of the oldest businesses in Waco in continuous operation since 1895. In 1954 she was appointed the first woman member to the board of the Institute of Scrap Iron & Steel ISIS, holding many committee positions. In ISIS, she was the first woman to hold national committee positions on the National Public Relations Committee and Co-Chairperson ISIS Convention committee. Mrs. Lipsitz successfully lobbied Texas legislators on political matters affecting the metal recycling industry in Texas on behalf of the Gulf Coast Chapter of ISIS. For many years she served as a volunteer at Hillcrest Hospital, Waco, Texas, She was a founding member of Planned Parenthood in Waco, Texas, a member of Temple Rodef Sholom in Waco, and a past president of the Temple Sisterhood. She held memberships in the Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women. She was preceded in death by her husband of 34 years, Melvin A. Lipsitz, and is survived by her daughter, Lynne Lipsitz of Houston and son, Melvin A. Lipsitz, Jr., and wife Marcie Kirkpatrick Lipsitz, of Waco, Texas and Dallas, Texas. Thelma is survived by four grandchildren, Melvin A. Lipsitz, III and wife Martha of Houston, Texas, Alex A. Lipsitz of Los Angeles, California, and Kirk P. Lipsitz and Robert L. Lipsitz of Waco, Texas, and Dallas, Texas. She leaves a special friend and business partner of 49 years, Tommy Salome and family; her close circle of loyal friends and the employees of M. Lipsitz & Co. The family thanks her care givers, doctors, and especially Ms. Janie Gonzales for providing exemplary care to Thelma for many years. For those so desiring, memorials may be made, in Thelma’s memory, to The Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc., 42-40 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY, 11361-2820.