Lois Greene Stone
Lois Greene Stone has spent a lifetime observing, preserving, and shaping memory into words. A freelance writer, teacher, designer, wife, mother, and chronicler of family and American Jewish life, she has been published widely in newspapers, journals, anthologies, and periodicals.
Born in New York City in 1934, Lois grew up in the world that later became part of her written record: mid-century America, Jewish family life, education, creativity, and the ordinary details that become history when someone has the insight to save them. She attended the University of Connecticut, graduating in 1955, and later continued her studies at Columbia University Teachers College.
In 1956, Lois married Gerald Stone, who graduated from Vanderbilt University Medical School in 1957. The couple moved to Rochester, New York, where her husband established his medical practice and they made their home in Pittsford.
Lois also brought her love of learning into the classroom, teaching at both the high school and college levels, including as a part-time faculty member at St. John Fisher College. Yet writing remained a central part of her life. Through essays, articles, poetry, and personal reflections, she recorded not only her own experiences but the texture of the times in which she lived.
Her devotion to preserving history has reached beyond the printed page. An extensive collection of Greene-Stone family papers is housed at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City. Lois has also contributed items to twelve different divisions of the Smithsonian Institution.
Among the most distinctive honors of her life, a photograph of Lois was selected by the Smithsonian to represent American teenagers of the 1950s in its Teen Rooms exhibit. Taken in her college dormitory room in 1954, the photograph shows Lois wearing a skirt and blouse she designed and made herself. Her high school costume-design sketches were displayed as well. The exhibit remained at the Smithsonian for two years and then traveled across America for another two years.
In her own words, Lois has noted with pride that she was “the only girl in America selected by the Smithsonian to represent all American teens from the 1950s in its ‘Girlhood’ exhibit.” It is a fitting tribute to a woman whose life’s work has been to notice, create, remember, and preserve.
Born in New York City in 1934, Lois grew up in the world that later became part of her written record: mid-century America, Jewish family life, education, creativity, and the ordinary details that become history when someone has the insight to save them. She attended the University of Connecticut, graduating in 1955, and later continued her studies at Columbia University Teachers College.
In 1956, Lois married Gerald Stone, who graduated from Vanderbilt University Medical School in 1957. The couple moved to Rochester, New York, where her husband established his medical practice and they made their home in Pittsford.
Lois also brought her love of learning into the classroom, teaching at both the high school and college levels, including as a part-time faculty member at St. John Fisher College. Yet writing remained a central part of her life. Through essays, articles, poetry, and personal reflections, she recorded not only her own experiences but the texture of the times in which she lived.
Her devotion to preserving history has reached beyond the printed page. An extensive collection of Greene-Stone family papers is housed at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City. Lois has also contributed items to twelve different divisions of the Smithsonian Institution.
Among the most distinctive honors of her life, a photograph of Lois was selected by the Smithsonian to represent American teenagers of the 1950s in its Teen Rooms exhibit. Taken in her college dormitory room in 1954, the photograph shows Lois wearing a skirt and blouse she designed and made herself. Her high school costume-design sketches were displayed as well. The exhibit remained at the Smithsonian for two years and then traveled across America for another two years.
In her own words, Lois has noted with pride that she was “the only girl in America selected by the Smithsonian to represent all American teens from the 1950s in its ‘Girlhood’ exhibit.” It is a fitting tribute to a woman whose life’s work has been to notice, create, remember, and preserve.
Bells and Blades: An American Jewish Teenage Girl Comes of Age in the Shadow of War
– Healthy, Free, The World Before Me – Susan Miller is bright, dramatic, sharp-tongued – and more vulnerable than she lets anyone see. Growing up in a Jewish family in New York during World War II, she navigates air-raid drills, ration books, polio scares, schoolyard prejudice, first crushes, family rivalries, and the unsettling changes of adolescence.
Through Susan’s experiences, author Lois Greene Stone vividly evokes a home filled with music, books, family rituals, and parents whose steady love gives their daughter both security and room to dream. Beyond home, Susan learns that being different can make a young person a target.
Her non-Jewish best friend, her sisters, and the adults around her all shape her understanding of loyalty, fear, beauty, faith, and belonging.
As she enters high school, Susan discovers that growing up is not simply a matter of freedom, popularity, or romance. It means learning when to speak, when to resist, whom to trust, and how to carry love and loss into the future.
Rich in period detail and emotional honesty, Lois Greene Stone captures the world of a Jewish American teenage girl coming of age in the shadow of war – and finding her own voice along the way.
– Healthy, Free, The World Before Me – Susan Miller is bright, dramatic, sharp-tongued – and more vulnerable than she lets anyone see. Growing up in a Jewish family in New York during World War II, she navigates air-raid drills, ration books, polio scares, schoolyard prejudice, first crushes, family rivalries, and the unsettling changes of adolescence.
Through Susan’s experiences, author Lois Greene Stone vividly evokes a home filled with music, books, family rituals, and parents whose steady love gives their daughter both security and room to dream. Beyond home, Susan learns that being different can make a young person a target.
Her non-Jewish best friend, her sisters, and the adults around her all shape her understanding of loyalty, fear, beauty, faith, and belonging.
As she enters high school, Susan discovers that growing up is not simply a matter of freedom, popularity, or romance. It means learning when to speak, when to resist, whom to trust, and how to carry love and loss into the future.
Rich in period detail and emotional honesty, Lois Greene Stone captures the world of a Jewish American teenage girl coming of age in the shadow of war – and finding her own voice along the way.