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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Shock waves from Saturday's Arizona shooting are being still felt as far away as Towaco, New Jersey. Rutherford native Phyllis Schneck was one of six victims killed by 22-year-old suspected gunman Jared Loughner.
News of Saturday's tragedy found its way to Schneck's longtime Jersey neighbors in Towaco, about 20 miles north of Newark.
"We were saddened because of her husband dying not many years ago, and then this," George Sinner Jr., who lived four houses down from the Schnecks for more than 30 years, told The Trentonian. "One of our other neighbors who tipped us off to Phyllis' death said she's quite involved in things like this and can understand why she was at the meeting."
Her grieving son, Ernest, had planned on visiting her next Sunday for a week.Schneck, 79, was killed at the Safeway supermarket on Saturday, four miles from her Tucson home, where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was holding a "Congress on Your Corner" constituent gathering. Six were killed and 14 wounded, including Giffords.
NBC New York reports while one sister said Phyllis Schneck was a registered Republican, Ernest said, "She was a supporter of Gabrielle Giffords and she just wanted to go down and shake her hand."
According to NorthJersey.com, Schneck, whose husband, Ernest, died in 2007, was a "snowbird," who since 2000 had spent four months in Tucson and eight months at her home in the Green Pond section of Rockaway Township. In addition to Rutherford, she had previously lived in the Towaco section of Montville.
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A homemaker, she had been active in churches in Rutherford and Tucson. Schneck was a member of the Woman's Club in Rutherford, where she co-chaired the literature committee in the mid-1980s with Thomasina Oppici, as well as the Montville Township Women's Club.
Schneck was also the New Jersey chairwoman of the evening division of the Woman's Club, which has statewide chapters including chapters in Nutley and Clifton. The clubs once donated an ambulance to the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Brown Mills.
Daughter Betty Jean Offutt said her parents moved because they "didn't want to ever have to deal with the snow again."
"We just received a Christmas card from Phyllis, telling us she was just at Green Pond this summer," Sinner told the Trentonian. "She was somebody who would write just to say hello and chew the fat. She was just a nice neighbor to have."
Ernest said he will be flying to Tucson Tuesday.
In addition to her three children, Schneck is survived by seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
