Lena Gass did not live long enough to see her daughters Anna and Patty marry. She suffered from heart problems, which she tried to hide from her family. Adele Gass was with her when Lena succumbed to her final illness:
 

“One day she [Lena] was walking on Washington Avenue, and she came up to my house and said, I went shopping, and I got a lot of pain, and the doctor told me it was the heart. 

And I said, Ma, I’m going to tell the girls.

 She said, If you tell them, I’ll never come up here again. 

And right after that she took that fatal heart attack. She didn’t go to the hospital, she was at home and she never came out of it.” 

Lena Gass passed away on September 29, 1946. She was 59 years old.

After Lena’s death, and despite his own failing health, Samuel Gass continued to manage real estate and other investments with the help of his son, Max. Harrison Gass remembers visiting his uncle Samuel after he was widowed:
 

“Shleime was living alone in his big house in Chelsea, the kids had all drifted away. I went to visit one day. I didn’t know him that well, but he was an uncle. I saw this old guy sitting there all alone.
 

What do you do all day? I asked.

Nothing, he replied.

I know what you need.

What, wise guy, what do I need?

You need a television, I said.

I don’t want it.

It’s crazy not to want it. Television is wonderful. They even have pro­grams in Yiddish and you’ll like it.

I don’t want it, he insisted.

I’m going to buy you one and bring it to you.

I won’t have it. I’ll throw it out.
 

“I didn’t know whether Shleime meant it or not. But a television cost $150 dollars or so, and I was making a lot of money—$35 a week—and I had saved a bit. I thought I’ll do it and that will be my key to G-d, cause Sam was a very religious guy. I don’t say the prayers, not that I don’t believe them. So I said to Shleime,
 

I’m gonna buy you a television. One day I’ll drive up with the car and I’ll deliver a television.

Don’t bring it in my house, he said.

“But I figured he didn’t mean it because obviously a television would be good for him. He never went out, he just sat there on the black sofa with a yarmulke on his head and gloves on his hands, smoking his cigarettes. So I called him a couple weeks later.
 

I got a surprise for you, I said.

A television? he replied. Don’t bring it. You bring it, I’ll throw you and the set out of the house.
 

“So I didn’t.”

Harrison Gass, was not the only member of the extended Gass family to look in on Samuel Gass in his decline. Lillian Naimark, the wife of Samuel’s nephew, Norman Naimark, remembered that Louis Gass, cared for his cousin Samuel during his last years. Louis would go to 27 County Road and bring food for Samuel and look after him as he struggled with the lung cancer that led to his death on May 3, 1954. Samuel Gass was buried in Chevra Thilim Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.

Samuel Gass left no will, so his son, Max, and son-in-law, Joseph Alter, petitioned the court to become the administrators of his estate.^[1]

Collecting on a New York Life insurance policy turned out to be difficult too. There was a dispute about Samuel Gass’s true age, and the value of the policy was linked to the year of birth.^[2] Apparently, on the original application for insurance, Samuel Gass had put down his birth year as 1882. However, his certificate of naturalization showed his birth year as 1883, and his passport gave it as 1884. The insurance company compromised on the year 1883 and the money was paid out over a 25-year period.^[3]

Paul Gass recounted the complications that revolved around the disposition of the house at 27 County Road:

“After Sam died, the siblings couldn’t agree on what to do about the house at 27 County Road.”

Sam had evidently made it clear to the family that he wished Max and Adele to move into the house when he died, but they did not want the house. Adele, explained why:

“Sam had kept his children financially dependent. He wanted everyone to live at home after they married. Max and I stayed at 27 County Road for only a few months after we returned from our honeymoon. My father-in-law tried to put obstacles in my way about leaving. At that time Max worked for Sam at Lion Shoe but he didn’t collect his salary. Sam took it and gave Max an allowance. But we moved anyway. One day after Max and I had gone, Sam said that if I moved back in he would give me the deed to the house and $30,000. In those days that was a lot of money. And I said to him if he gave me thirty million dollars I wouldn’t move into the house.

“Now when Sam passed away he had no will, because he always had a fear of wills. And when we were at the lawyer’s office, the lawyer said that my father-in- law had wanted me to have the house. And that’s one thing on which all my sisters-in-law agreed, that yes, their father had wanted me to have the house. So I turned around and I said, ‘He couldn’t get me in when he was alive. He’s certainly not going to get me in when he’s dead.’ I didn’t even want to take a spoon. There were a lot of antiques there, too. We sold the place with the furniture, which was all gorgeous inlaid wood, Oriental rugs, beautiful love seats. I wouldn’t take a thing.”

     
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