Tania Shansky

Tania Shansky (neé Pavloff) of Milford, Connecticut, died peacefully in her sleep on July 13, 2025 at 97 years old. She was the beloved wife for 73 years to the late Samuel Shansky. She was born December 7, 1927 in Villerupt, France to Alexander Pavloff and Sophie Yaremenko Pavloff.

She survived World War II and the Nazi occupation of her town in France. Despite the danger, her family was active in helping the clandestine fight against the Nazis. Scared, hungry, she and her sister sometimes went to the forest to forage for food under the instruction of her mother. Shortly after D-Day, she met Sam Shansky, a U.S. soldier from New York who had been with General Patton in the liberating army. Shortly after the war, they were married in her hometown of Audun-le-Tiche in 1946.

She and Sam arrived in New York and soon moved to New Haven in 1947, then West Haven, and finally settling in Milford in 1963.

Tania was a gregarious and civic-minded person. She served as a Den Leader for the Cub Scouts in the 1950s, and was active in organizations such as the African Violet Society and the New Haven chapter of Alliance Française. She served as president of the Connecticut chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European languages in the 1970s.

Tania was educated in France, and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Bridgeport and Fairfield University, respectively. Tania taught French language, literature, and culture to several generations of Connecticut students at the elementary level at the Foote School of New Haven, and secondary levels at a Magnet school in Bridgeport, and at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, CT. At Amity, she was a Master Teacher and active in the American Association of Teachers. As such, she had the added responsibility to prepare university students in their fourth year of studies to get certified to teach. More than a 'mere' teacher, she was a true force of nature, an unquenchable source of energy and inspiration, able to reach students of every aptitude and temperament. With her training and encouragement, some of them went on to win national competitions in French. Over the course of her long career, she touched the lives of many hundreds of students.

A naturally-gifted linguist, she knew six languages, and spoke three of them with complete fluency. In the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, she was a frequent guest at New Haven house-parties, where she would appear in cocktail dresses she sometimes made herself. Those who knew her will recall the lively stories she would tell, sprinkling them with poems, songs, and stories from many cultures. She loved music, entertaining informal audiences with her singing ability, she studied piano, and she could draw well in pen and ink.

Tania led a busy but private life in retirement. She spent hours in her organic kitchen garden, growing and preserving uncommon fruits such as white, red and black currants, gooseberries, and quince, along with apples, and cherries. She knew the art and science of good cooking. She was an accomplished fiber artist, gifted in knitting, crochet, embroidery, quilting, and making hooked rugs.

She was preceded in death by her sister Nina McNamara of Ridgewood, New Jersey, her husband Samuel Shansky, and her daughter-in-law Ann Philip.

She is survived by her son, Charles Shansky of Onsala, Sweden, her daughter, Sandra (Sandy) Shansky Whittington (Rankin) of Lenoir, North Carolina, her granddaughters Molly Whittington (Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg) of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Danielle Whittington (partner William Stowe) of Hamden, Connecticut, her grandson, Michael Shansky of Billdal, Sweden, and two great-grandchildren Theodore and Oscar Blumberg of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, additionally, her nephews and nieces Brien McNamara, Bruce McNamara, Michele Butcher, Charles (Chuck) Young, Marilyn Young, and Martin Young, her cousins Véronique Compain, Jean Robichon, Catherine Chvabo and other family in France, and her dear friend John Kirby of Miami, Florida.

A memorial service is planned for some time in 2026.

In lieu of flowers or trees, donations can be made to the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, Connecticut because "they were here first."