Browse Interviews

Anne de Coningh of Chagrin Falls has been a member of Village Garden Club since 2003. In this interview, she recalls moving from Cleveland to Shaker Heights in the late 1950s, her time as a schoolteacher, skiing and sailing, garden club activities including during the Covid-19 pandemic, the club’s Cherry Tree Grove, club members’ role in stopping the construction of freeways through the Shaker Lakes, her opinions about the Horseshoe Lake dam controversy, and her current leadership of the Chagrin…

Barbara Shockey, a member of Village Garden Club since 1992, moved from South Bend, Indiana, to Cleveland Heights in the late 1950s. She discusses her careers in teaching and real estate, offices held in the garden club, and her work to research the club’s history in preparation for its 85th anniversary in 2015. Shockey provides a summary of this history from its founding, including extensive commentary on the Shaker Lakes freeway fight in the 1960s, as well as on the Horseshoe Lake dam…

Dozie Herbruck is a longtime member and newly elected president of the Village Garden Club. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, she moved to Cleveland Heights in 1967. She discusses the garden club’s Cherry Tree Grove, how the club coped with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and ways in which the club has evolved in recent years, including welcoming the first male member in its 90-year history. She also offers her thoughts on the current debates over the future of Horseshoe Lake.

Kathleen Tripp grew up in Connecticut and moved to the Cleveland area in the 1970s. She and her husband lived in a farmhouse on Case Western Reserve University’s Squire Valleevue Farm in Moreland Hills and then spent time living in the Netherlands and traveling in Europe before moving to Cleveland Heights in 2002. In the following year she joined the Village Garden Club. She describes club activities including during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, the club’s admission of its first male…

Pat Agatisa is a newer member of the Village Garden Club in Shaker Heights. She discusses growing up in New York City, living in Pittsburgh, and moving to Shaker Heights in the early 2000s to a house on Green Lake. She discusses her leading role in overseeing the upkeep of the garden club’s Cherry Tree Grove at Horseshoe Lake. Agatisa describes how the club accepted its first male member, reflects on how the club dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic, and shares gardening tips.

Sally Cantor is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and a member of the Village Garden Club in Shaker Heights. She discusses growing up in Georgia, her research and career in social work, time spent living in Wilmington, Delaware, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, before turning to her experience in the garden club. She shares stories about her night-blooming cereus parties, the garden club's Cherry Tree Grove, how the club continued to meet virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Horseshoe Lake…

Erika Reale of Beachwood has been a member of the Village Garden Club since the early 1970s. She describes spending a semester of college in Hawaii around 1960, volunteering through the garden club at the VA Hospital, her tenure as the club’s president in the late 1980s, and how the club’s activities have evolved.

Helen Schreiber has been a member of the Village Garden Club since about 1970. She discusses immigrating to the U.S. from Germany in the 1940s with her Ukrainian parents, living in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood through high school, and returning after college to live in Shaker Heights. Schreiber describes her experience teaching flower arranging classes and her service in several positions in the garden club.

Lorna Mierke of Shaker Heights has been a member of the Village Garden Club since 1964. She recounts memories of growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, where she lived through college. Mierke describes her mother-in-law Prudence Mierke’s role in fighting the Clark and Lee Freeways that were planned to slice through the Shaker Lakes in the 1960s, as well as her opinions about the Horseshoe Lake dam controversy. She discusses the origin of the garden club’s Cherry Tree Grove, her experience with…

Bobbie Farrell is a longtime resident of Cleveland Heights and member of the Village Garden Club. She discusses her involvement in the Western Reserve Herb Society, including in conjunction with the Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Horseshoe Lake dam controversy, the importance of planting native species of trees and plants for sustainability, her time as president of the garden club, the club’s Cherry Tree Grove, older members’ involvement in stopping freeways planned in the Shaker Lakes.