Berthe Neham Small, passed away on January 22, 2015, surrounded by her family in the comfort of her home in Leesburg, Virginia, where she had lived for more than eight years She was 94 years old.

Bert, as she liked to be called, was born in Miami Beach, Florida in 1920, to Sarah Saravisky and Jacob Neham, both originally from Russia. She graduated from the University of Miami in 1940, majoring in English. She immediately began teaching in the Miami Beach public school system, a profession which she stuck to, and delighted in, throughout her entire life.

In 1943 she married Charles Small (née Smolikoff), and together they led the organizing of CIO trade unions across the South of the United States, including organizing the first integrated trade union in the South (TWU) -- activities which were neither popular nor safe during the McCarthy era. In 1954, both Bert and Charles were called before a Dade County grand jury as part of the McCarthy witch-hunts, and they each stood on the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify. As a result, they both served time in jail as political prisoners, rather than informing on their comrades.

In late 1954, Bert and Charles moved to Mexico City with their two young sons, Abbott (born in 1945) and Dennis (born in 1950). They lived in Mexico -- where their third son, Eric, was born in 1958 -- until Charles's death in 1978. During those years, Bert took up modern dance (she had always been very athletic), earned a Masters Degree in Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and then taught at the UNAM as well.

In 1978, Bert moved to New York City, where she taught literature and English as a Second Language at La Guardia Community College, and in the mid-1980s expanded her "family" to include that of her partner, Mickey Lebowitz. She formally retired from teaching in 2001 at the age of 81. She then moved to San Francisco, where son Eric resides, and lived there from 2002-2006, continuing to do volunteer tutoring at local high schools. In 2006 she moved to Leesburg, Virginia, where she resided with son Dennis and daughter-in-law Gretchen -- and also tutored at the local library for a number of years -- until her demise.

Throughout her life, Bert was passionately committed to the fight for peace, economic development and justice for all, and for classical culture -- most especially music, which was always central to her life. Nothing better summarizes how she lived than the following quote which her husband Charles always kept on his desk, and which Bert kept on hers after his death:

"Man's dearest possession is his life, and since it is given him but once, he must
live so as to feel no regrets for years without purpose; so live as not to be with shame
of a cowardly and trivial past."

Bert was pre-deceased by her husband Charles (1978) and her son Abbott (2008), and is survived by sons Dennis and Eric, and Eric's daughters Rebecca and Sarah. A memorial celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. at the Colonial Funeral Home, 201 Edwards Ferry Road, NE, Leesburg, VA 20176.