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Lillian Jacobs, Lived on Block for Century, Dies

Lillian Jacobs, who was recently featured in a New York Times article for living on the same block for 100 years, has died.

Jacobs, who moved to East 84th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side when she was 2, died Sunday on the same street at age 102. Her story was reported last month in a Times story titled “100 Years of Staying Put.”

Jacobs arrived on East 84th in 1911 or 1912 with her parents, who owned a candy store in the building. She has lived in five homes on the block, all within 1,200 feet of one another.

For many years Jacobs worked at Ramaz, a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school in the area. Though her title was assistant to the principal, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, the current principal and founder’s son, told The New York Times that it does not begin to describe her work at the school.

“She was the registrar, the admissions officer, the fund-raiser, the director of food services, the nurse, the school psychologist, the parent liaison – I’m not gilding the lily here,” said Lookstein.

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