Rhoda Romberger Rios is remembered by family as an attractive lady. Her middle name of Elmira was likely given in memory of her father's eldest sister Elmira, a onetime dressmaker and school teacher who died young from consumption. Salem/Peace United Church in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania recorded Rhoda's birth as August 21, 1901, and her christening as November 3, 1901.
A tragic, random story that probably says more about the man involved than about her: before Rhoda was associated with the Guatemalan man with whom she'd spend her life, she had had a relationship with a Chinese gentleman whom she met while she worked as a dance instructor. When she apparently ended the relationship, he tried to take his own life in her house.
A good photographer in her own right, Rhoda later teamed up with her (probably common law) husband Elfego Rios from Guatemala in the business. It's known that they lived in New York City (confirmed by the 1930 census, where their ages are wrong, but there's little chance there was another couple with their names who did photography at the time in NYC). Supposedly while there Diego Rivera hung out at their home. They also are known to have had a nice home in the Greenwich area of Connecticut and later in NJ. A memory of Rhoda from someone who once briefly lived with her and Elfego: Her bent over, peering through a jeweler's loupe, carefully re-touching negatives, a cigarette in her lips with a nice long ash.
Their CT home is confirmed through Elfego's WWII draft registration, showing they lived at 703 Pemberwick Road, Glenville, Fairfield, CT. That draft card also shows the address of his employment, which is at 509 Madison Avenue, midtown center in NYC. The building still stands, a 15 story high rise, and is likely where the couple did their most notable work, taking portraits of some famous people and society folk.
Family suggests that when they moved to New Jersey, the point was to be able to photograph soldiers, and that they did GI portraits by the thousands. They were lifetime members of the Monmouth Park Race Track Club House. When WWII ended, the flow of soldiers halted, so that is when Elfego went into the taxi business, likely taking high rollers to and from Monmouth Park. It's not known when he started working at Park's Drug Store, but in the end Mr. Park was unwell, and Elfego ran the store. Elfego was known by many people through his jobs, and also as an usher at St Dorothea. Rhoda was more of a homebody who enjoyed playing canasta and pinochle with neighbors.
New Jersey is where they lived when each of them died. It's hard to imagine that Rhoda's end came about as detailed below:
OCEANPORT -- Police yesterday identified the body of a woman, found yesterday morning in Oceanport Creek, as Mrs. Rhoda Rios, 60, of 174 Riverside Ave.
Her body was found about 7:30 a.m. by the crew of a Pennsylvania Railroad train crossing the Black Draw Bridge east of Riverside Ave. Police and the First Aid Squad were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The body was in shallow water about 100 feet from the Rios residence, police said. Assistant County Physician Harry L. Harwood, who assisted in taking the body from the water, declared that death by drowning had occurred seven to 10 hours previously.
Police have listed the death as accidental. Dr. Harwood declined to suggest any other possibility. He said Mrs. Rios was found dressed in a nightgown and her body was unmarked aside from a minor bruise on the lip.
The matter is being investigated by Patrolmen Lester Mackey and William Morrison. Dr. Harwood said a complete autopsy would not be performed, but a blood alcohol test is being made.
Mrs. Rios was the wife of Elfego Rios, an employee of Parks Drug Store here and operator of a taxi service.
She was born in Harrisburg, Pa., daughter of the late George D. and Emma L. Romberger (sic- mother's name was Anna Laura). She had lived here 21 years.
Also surviving is a sister, Miss Lila (sic, her name was Leila) Romberger of Philadelphia. The Robert A. Braun Home for Funerals, Eatontown, is in charge of arrangements.
Red Bank Register, Wed., Aug. 8, 1962
Rhoda passed almost 28 years to the day after her sister Anna Laura. Her death was officially named as an accidental drowning. Living family deeply wonder if her death was not by choice. She may have had an ongoing health condition, as remembered by a nephew who lived with her at one time. Three cases of breast cancer have turned up in the family line of her father Gorge Romberger, and all of them manifested when the ladies were in their early 60's, as Rhoda was.
Sincere thanks to contributor Ruth Ryan for her kind transfer of this memorial to me, so we could tell Rhoda's story together. Rhoda had more or less disappeared from the family radar and I am glad to know where she rests. As I type this, tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Rhoda's passing.
A tragic, random story that probably says more about the man involved than about her: before Rhoda was associated with the Guatemalan man with whom she'd spend her life, she had had a relationship with a Chinese gentleman whom she met while she worked as a dance instructor. When she apparently ended the relationship, he tried to take his own life in her house.
A good photographer in her own right, Rhoda later teamed up with her (probably common law) husband Elfego Rios from Guatemala in the business. It's known that they lived in New York City (confirmed by the 1930 census, where their ages are wrong, but there's little chance there was another couple with their names who did photography at the time in NYC). Supposedly while there Diego Rivera hung out at their home. They also are known to have had a nice home in the Greenwich area of Connecticut and later in NJ. A memory of Rhoda from someone who once briefly lived with her and Elfego: Her bent over, peering through a jeweler's loupe, carefully re-touching negatives, a cigarette in her lips with a nice long ash.
Their CT home is confirmed through Elfego's WWII draft registration, showing they lived at 703 Pemberwick Road, Glenville, Fairfield, CT. That draft card also shows the address of his employment, which is at 509 Madison Avenue, midtown center in NYC. The building still stands, a 15 story high rise, and is likely where the couple did their most notable work, taking portraits of some famous people and society folk.
Family suggests that when they moved to New Jersey, the point was to be able to photograph soldiers, and that they did GI portraits by the thousands. They were lifetime members of the Monmouth Park Race Track Club House. When WWII ended, the flow of soldiers halted, so that is when Elfego went into the taxi business, likely taking high rollers to and from Monmouth Park. It's not known when he started working at Park's Drug Store, but in the end Mr. Park was unwell, and Elfego ran the store. Elfego was known by many people through his jobs, and also as an usher at St Dorothea. Rhoda was more of a homebody who enjoyed playing canasta and pinochle with neighbors.
New Jersey is where they lived when each of them died. It's hard to imagine that Rhoda's end came about as detailed below:
OCEANPORT -- Police yesterday identified the body of a woman, found yesterday morning in Oceanport Creek, as Mrs. Rhoda Rios, 60, of 174 Riverside Ave.
Her body was found about 7:30 a.m. by the crew of a Pennsylvania Railroad train crossing the Black Draw Bridge east of Riverside Ave. Police and the First Aid Squad were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The body was in shallow water about 100 feet from the Rios residence, police said. Assistant County Physician Harry L. Harwood, who assisted in taking the body from the water, declared that death by drowning had occurred seven to 10 hours previously.
Police have listed the death as accidental. Dr. Harwood declined to suggest any other possibility. He said Mrs. Rios was found dressed in a nightgown and her body was unmarked aside from a minor bruise on the lip.
The matter is being investigated by Patrolmen Lester Mackey and William Morrison. Dr. Harwood said a complete autopsy would not be performed, but a blood alcohol test is being made.
Mrs. Rios was the wife of Elfego Rios, an employee of Parks Drug Store here and operator of a taxi service.
She was born in Harrisburg, Pa., daughter of the late George D. and Emma L. Romberger (sic- mother's name was Anna Laura). She had lived here 21 years.
Also surviving is a sister, Miss Lila (sic, her name was Leila) Romberger of Philadelphia. The Robert A. Braun Home for Funerals, Eatontown, is in charge of arrangements.
Red Bank Register, Wed., Aug. 8, 1962
Rhoda passed almost 28 years to the day after her sister Anna Laura. Her death was officially named as an accidental drowning. Living family deeply wonder if her death was not by choice. She may have had an ongoing health condition, as remembered by a nephew who lived with her at one time. Three cases of breast cancer have turned up in the family line of her father Gorge Romberger, and all of them manifested when the ladies were in their early 60's, as Rhoda was.
Sincere thanks to contributor Ruth Ryan for her kind transfer of this memorial to me, so we could tell Rhoda's story together. Rhoda had more or less disappeared from the family radar and I am glad to know where she rests. As I type this, tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Rhoda's passing.
Rhoda Romberger Rios is remembered by family as an attractive lady. Her middle name of Elmira was likely given in memory of her father's eldest sister Elmira, a onetime dressmaker and school teacher who died young from consumption. Salem/Peace United Church in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania recorded Rhoda's birth as August 21, 1901, and her christening as November 3, 1901.
A tragic, random story that probably says more about the man involved than about her: before Rhoda was associated with the Guatemalan man with whom she'd spend her life, she had had a relationship with a Chinese gentleman whom she met while she worked as a dance instructor. When she apparently ended the relationship, he tried to take his own life in her house.
A good photographer in her own right, Rhoda later teamed up with her (probably common law) husband Elfego Rios from Guatemala in the business. It's known that they lived in New York City (confirmed by the 1930 census, where their ages are wrong, but there's little chance there was another couple with their names who did photography at the time in NYC). Supposedly while there Diego Rivera hung out at their home. They also are known to have had a nice home in the Greenwich area of Connecticut and later in NJ. A memory of Rhoda from someone who once briefly lived with her and Elfego: Her bent over, peering through a jeweler's loupe, carefully re-touching negatives, a cigarette in her lips with a nice long ash.
Their CT home is confirmed through Elfego's WWII draft registration, showing they lived at 703 Pemberwick Road, Glenville, Fairfield, CT. That draft card also shows the address of his employment, which is at 509 Madison Avenue, midtown center in NYC. The building still stands, a 15 story high rise, and is likely where the couple did their most notable work, taking portraits of some famous people and society folk.
Family suggests that when they moved to New Jersey, the point was to be able to photograph soldiers, and that they did GI portraits by the thousands. They were lifetime members of the Monmouth Park Race Track Club House. When WWII ended, the flow of soldiers halted, so that is when Elfego went into the taxi business, likely taking high rollers to and from Monmouth Park. It's not known when he started working at Park's Drug Store, but in the end Mr. Park was unwell, and Elfego ran the store. Elfego was known by many people through his jobs, and also as an usher at St Dorothea. Rhoda was more of a homebody who enjoyed playing canasta and pinochle with neighbors.
New Jersey is where they lived when each of them died. It's hard to imagine that Rhoda's end came about as detailed below:
OCEANPORT -- Police yesterday identified the body of a woman, found yesterday morning in Oceanport Creek, as Mrs. Rhoda Rios, 60, of 174 Riverside Ave.
Her body was found about 7:30 a.m. by the crew of a Pennsylvania Railroad train crossing the Black Draw Bridge east of Riverside Ave. Police and the First Aid Squad were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The body was in shallow water about 100 feet from the Rios residence, police said. Assistant County Physician Harry L. Harwood, who assisted in taking the body from the water, declared that death by drowning had occurred seven to 10 hours previously.
Police have listed the death as accidental. Dr. Harwood declined to suggest any other possibility. He said Mrs. Rios was found dressed in a nightgown and her body was unmarked aside from a minor bruise on the lip.
The matter is being investigated by Patrolmen Lester Mackey and William Morrison. Dr. Harwood said a complete autopsy would not be performed, but a blood alcohol test is being made.
Mrs. Rios was the wife of Elfego Rios, an employee of Parks Drug Store here and operator of a taxi service.
She was born in Harrisburg, Pa., daughter of the late George D. and Emma L. Romberger (sic- mother's name was Anna Laura). She had lived here 21 years.
Also surviving is a sister, Miss Lila (sic, her name was Leila) Romberger of Philadelphia. The Robert A. Braun Home for Funerals, Eatontown, is in charge of arrangements.
Red Bank Register, Wed., Aug. 8, 1962
Rhoda passed almost 28 years to the day after her sister Anna Laura. Her death was officially named as an accidental drowning. Living family deeply wonder if her death was not by choice. She may have had an ongoing health condition, as remembered by a nephew who lived with her at one time. Three cases of breast cancer have turned up in the family line of her father Gorge Romberger, and all of them manifested when the ladies were in their early 60's, as Rhoda was.
Sincere thanks to contributor Ruth Ryan for her kind transfer of this memorial to me, so we could tell Rhoda's story together. Rhoda had more or less disappeared from the family radar and I am glad to know where she rests. As I type this, tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Rhoda's passing.
A tragic, random story that probably says more about the man involved than about her: before Rhoda was associated with the Guatemalan man with whom she'd spend her life, she had had a relationship with a Chinese gentleman whom she met while she worked as a dance instructor. When she apparently ended the relationship, he tried to take his own life in her house.
A good photographer in her own right, Rhoda later teamed up with her (probably common law) husband Elfego Rios from Guatemala in the business. It's known that they lived in New York City (confirmed by the 1930 census, where their ages are wrong, but there's little chance there was another couple with their names who did photography at the time in NYC). Supposedly while there Diego Rivera hung out at their home. They also are known to have had a nice home in the Greenwich area of Connecticut and later in NJ. A memory of Rhoda from someone who once briefly lived with her and Elfego: Her bent over, peering through a jeweler's loupe, carefully re-touching negatives, a cigarette in her lips with a nice long ash.
Their CT home is confirmed through Elfego's WWII draft registration, showing they lived at 703 Pemberwick Road, Glenville, Fairfield, CT. That draft card also shows the address of his employment, which is at 509 Madison Avenue, midtown center in NYC. The building still stands, a 15 story high rise, and is likely where the couple did their most notable work, taking portraits of some famous people and society folk.
Family suggests that when they moved to New Jersey, the point was to be able to photograph soldiers, and that they did GI portraits by the thousands. They were lifetime members of the Monmouth Park Race Track Club House. When WWII ended, the flow of soldiers halted, so that is when Elfego went into the taxi business, likely taking high rollers to and from Monmouth Park. It's not known when he started working at Park's Drug Store, but in the end Mr. Park was unwell, and Elfego ran the store. Elfego was known by many people through his jobs, and also as an usher at St Dorothea. Rhoda was more of a homebody who enjoyed playing canasta and pinochle with neighbors.
New Jersey is where they lived when each of them died. It's hard to imagine that Rhoda's end came about as detailed below:
OCEANPORT -- Police yesterday identified the body of a woman, found yesterday morning in Oceanport Creek, as Mrs. Rhoda Rios, 60, of 174 Riverside Ave.
Her body was found about 7:30 a.m. by the crew of a Pennsylvania Railroad train crossing the Black Draw Bridge east of Riverside Ave. Police and the First Aid Squad were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The body was in shallow water about 100 feet from the Rios residence, police said. Assistant County Physician Harry L. Harwood, who assisted in taking the body from the water, declared that death by drowning had occurred seven to 10 hours previously.
Police have listed the death as accidental. Dr. Harwood declined to suggest any other possibility. He said Mrs. Rios was found dressed in a nightgown and her body was unmarked aside from a minor bruise on the lip.
The matter is being investigated by Patrolmen Lester Mackey and William Morrison. Dr. Harwood said a complete autopsy would not be performed, but a blood alcohol test is being made.
Mrs. Rios was the wife of Elfego Rios, an employee of Parks Drug Store here and operator of a taxi service.
She was born in Harrisburg, Pa., daughter of the late George D. and Emma L. Romberger (sic- mother's name was Anna Laura). She had lived here 21 years.
Also surviving is a sister, Miss Lila (sic, her name was Leila) Romberger of Philadelphia. The Robert A. Braun Home for Funerals, Eatontown, is in charge of arrangements.
Red Bank Register, Wed., Aug. 8, 1962
Rhoda passed almost 28 years to the day after her sister Anna Laura. Her death was officially named as an accidental drowning. Living family deeply wonder if her death was not by choice. She may have had an ongoing health condition, as remembered by a nephew who lived with her at one time. Three cases of breast cancer have turned up in the family line of her father Gorge Romberger, and all of them manifested when the ladies were in their early 60's, as Rhoda was.
Sincere thanks to contributor Ruth Ryan for her kind transfer of this memorial to me, so we could tell Rhoda's story together. Rhoda had more or less disappeared from the family radar and I am glad to know where she rests. As I type this, tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Rhoda's passing.
Family Members
Siblings
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Florence M Romberger
1882–1887
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Daniel B Romberger
1884–1960
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Leila Viola Romberger
1886–1966
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Willard Merrill Romberger
1889–1961
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Naomi Ruth Romberger Hamsher
1890–1930
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Mary Fern Romberger Albee
1891–1960
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Franklin Gilbert "Frank" Romberger
1893–1974
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Donald Cameron Romberger
1895–1958
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Anna Laura "Laura" Romberger
1898–1934
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Frieda Kiehl Romberger
1903–1948
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