White Plains remembered and grieved the loss of Sonny Katz this morning at the revered City Marshal’s funeral at the Hebrew Institute that drew over three hundred persons paying their final respects. Judges, lawyers, former city officials, and many who knew him gathered to absorb and contemplate just how much they – and White Plains had lost with Mr. Katz’s passing.
City Hall flew its flag at half-mast today in respect for Sonny Katz, its City Marshal forever.
His family of four children, his grandchildren shared remembrances and sense of loss – which you could feel -- recounting personal memories, his gentle mentoring, his support of their endeavors, and humor, and how much they loved him. The sense of loss was so eloquent.
The Rabbi officiating the service compared Mr. Katz to Mordecai, the hero of the Old Testament Book of Esther as “popular with the multitude of his brethren, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.”
Good Times: The beloved Mr. Katz, far right, helped so many people in his life in White Plains, is shown on the eve of his 86th birthday one year ago in one of his last public appearances, presentation of the first WESTCO Sonny Katz Scholarships to Helen Hess and Kirsten Smayda. A big band singer and entertainer in the 30s, and an actor himself, he reminisced about his own days on the stage and encouraged the audience “to get the autographs of these young ladies today (Helen Hess and Kirsten Smayda) because they’re going to go far.”
Mr. Katz had a way of making all around him feel good. It was the way he was -- always with just the right words -- a natural raconteur.
Mr. Katz is shown at the podium with his daughter, Susan Katz, who reminisced this morning that she used to introduce herself when she was a child as, "I'm the daughter of the City Marshal." In recent years, she said, her father touchingly returned the favor, in a very special way introducing himself as "I'm the father of Susan Katz of Westco Productions."
The Rabbi described Mr. Katz as standing for the good like Mordecai, (who, the scriptures recount, took in Esther and raised her as his own daughter).
Whether it was Mr. Katz easing the pain of persons being evicted from their apartment;seeing that those at the ends of hope got a few extra weeks to pay their rents, and the services they needed or Mr. Katz doing that little something extra that turned life’s most stressful moments into a positive outcome in the long run, Mr. Katz did not just do his duty. He went beyond the call of duty to see that in doing his duty, he did not do harm.
The good that Sonny Katz had done all through his life was celebrated in tears and admiration, and warmth. Silent tears and sniffs were prevalent through the ceremony which lasted over an hour.
What came through was Mr. Katz’s ablity to make everyone feel they mattered. He genuinely cared about them, and his willingness to take a personal interest far beyond your typical bureaucrat or official.
In the business of law and court decisions, often impersonal and brusque, where procedures are served on persons because it is ordered and it is the law, Mr. Katz was the exception.
He put a human constructive touch into the harshness of law. In his hundreds of eviction proceedings over 37 years as City Marshal, Mr. Katz carried out his duties with compassion, creativity, poise and common sense. Going into countless situations involving all walks of life, Mr. Katz handled personalities at the end of their ropes with a tact and constructive approach that never resulted in violence, but positive outcomes.
Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio, next to last to speak, delivered a glowing and uplifting portrait of Mr. Katz, who spent many Sundays with the Mayor over the years over bagels. The Mayor’s description of Mr. Katz’s genuine liking for people, his sense of wisdom, and sound advice – echoed previously by his daughter Susan Katz, his granddaughter Melanie, his grandson, an uncle – what the Mayor recalled as Mr. Katz’s appreciation for life lifted the melancholy and sent all out into the sunshine with Sonny Katz in their hearts and minds.
Perhaps no public servant ever touched and helped more persons more effectively, more warmly, and without guile than Sonny Katz.
The "Mordecai of White Plains" is an appropriate epitaph:
"popular with the multitude of his brethren, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.”
