Corinne B. Krakoff

1926 - 2021

(News Story)
Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer


Corinne B. Krakoff, a proponent of retirement communities and hospice care, who volunteered for community causes, died Dec. 17 at ProMedica Ebeid Hospice Residence, Sylvania. She was 95.

She'd had pneumonia, her son, David Krakoff, said.

She and her late husband, Kenneth Krakoff - a dentist in practice for nearly 70 years - lived on Orchard Trail Drive in West Toledo. After his death in 2017, she moved blocks away to West Park Place on Executive Parkway. She was a marketing and leasing consultant in the early years of that senior community, which opened in 1985.

"She was a real go-getter and had a big personality, and she really bought into the senior living concept," her son said.

In 1988, Mrs. Krakoff was appointed director of marketing for what was then Swan Creek Retirement Village. As a retiree herself, she touted the benefits of such settings.

"I have found that people who were living at home alone begin to thrive in a retirement community, where they are eating with friends," Mrs. Krakoff told The Blade in 2011, adding with a laugh, "And they don't have to do the dishes."

She served on the Toledo Hospital Auxiliary board and later was a supporter of hospice services within the ProMedica System and of what opened as Ebeid Hospice Residence, where she volunteered.

"She was proud of what they did at Ebeid," her son said.

She'd been an officer and trustee of the Toledo Women's Club and had a role as Mobile Meals of Toledo got underway.

"She felt an obligation to make sure that people who needed a little help had a place to get that," her son said.

Her husband had been recruited by the former Medical College of Ohio to direct a division of dentistry within the department of surgery. Mrs. Krakoff served on the board - and was public relations chairman - of the Satellites Auxiliary in support of MCO. She served as president of the Toledo Dental Auxiliary.

In another era, her son said, "she would have gone to business school and probably become the CEO of some company."

"She had a flair for marketing and public relations and sales," said her son, chief executive of Momentum Textiles & Wallcovering, a leading supplier for commercial interiors. "My mom was never afraid of a really big idea or a big challenge. Those kinds of things motivated her."

As a volunteer, she'd planned events for Project Hope and Bookmart. She worked as bridal registry manager for the Westgate location of LaSalle's department store and its successor, Macy's - and on her own became a consultant in wedding planning and etiquette.

"She was the one people turned to when people didn't know what fork to use," her son said. "My mother was the queen of thank-you notes."

Solemn she wasn't.

"She was an encyclopedia of jokes and funny stories," her son said. "She knew humor at the right time could make a difference. She was a character."

She was born March 10, 1926, in Minneapolis to Ida and Arnold "Abe" Goldman. She grew up in Columbus and was a graduate of East High School. She received a degree in dental hygiene from Ohio State University, where she met her husband, a dental graduate there. She served as his hygienist when he began his Toledo practice.

She and her husband married July 4, 1948. He died Aug. 2, 2017. Their son Steven died Oct. 16, 2017.

Surviving are her son, David Krakoff; seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Services were Tuesday, with arrangements by the Robert H. Wick/Wisniewski Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to ProMedica Ebeid Hospice Residence.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. He can be contacted at mzaborney@theblade.com.