Anita Doreen Dee Pioneered the idea of teaching deaf babies sign language Anita Doreen Dee, born Dec. 4, 1925, died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018, at age 92. Anita was a loving, elegant, passionate and compassionate wife, mother, Nana, sister, aunt and friend. Her life was guided by her loving and generous spirit. Anita grew up in Leeds, England, above her mother Millie's notions shop. Her father Wolfe was a tailor. Anita attended Homerton College, Cambridge University, where she met her future husband, Edward, and graduated in 1946. She was a woman scholarship student at a time when it was nearly impossible to get into Cambridge as either of those things. Anita and Edward immigrated with a newborn son to Elizabeth, N.J., in 1949, where they have lived happily ever since. Eddie started the Smarties Candy business while Anita focused on raising their three sons. Anita instilled in her children the importance of contribution, and shared her love of the outdoors, reading, horseback riding, figure skating and travel. When her boys were in college Anita returned to University and earned a Master's degree in speech therapy. She pioneered the idea of teaching hearing-impaired babies American Sign Language (ASL) to enable them to communicate with their parents before they could talk. Her breakthrough Doctoral research at Albert Einstein College (1982-1983) overturned theories then in use and led to a paradigm shift in early childhood education of hearing-impaired children. "A deaf child has the right not to be a stranger in her own home." This impassioned comment to one of the families she was counseling became the slogan for their group, "Parents for Deaf Awareness." Families with deaf children could now communicate with each other as soon or sooner than families with hearing children, greatly easing much emotional pain, heartache and frustration. Anita became involved in a federal program during the Carter administration to help educate deaf and hearing-impaired children. She worked with parents and their children to teach them to communicate with each other. The Reagan administration cancelled the program, but she continued in private practice with her families for as long as she was able, mostly pro bono. Anita demonstrated in her own life the advice that she gave to her children, to be loving, understanding, strong, kind, courageous and sympathetic. As Anita wrote to her sons: "Just by loving someone, we make ourselves close to them for always." One way she will be remembered is through the poetry that she loved, including Wordsworth's daffodils poem, E. E. Cummings "i carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)" and her paraphrasing of A.A. Milne - 'halfway down the stairs is the stair where Nana sits; there isn't any other stair quite like it, bumpity bumpity bump.' There also won't be any other Nana quite like Anita. Anita was predeceased by her brother, Cyril Wolfe. She is survived by her loving husband of 71 years, Edward; her sister. Miriam Bone of Kingston, Ontario, Canada; her sons. Jonathan (Margaret Stone) of Scottsdale, Ariz., Michael (Marilyn) of Bernardsville, N.J., and Joel (Alison Cox) of Santa Barbara, Calif. Nana shared her heart, poetry, joie de vivre, fashion sense and laughter with five grandchildren, Brian, Jessica, Sarah, Elizabeth and Natasha, and was the delighted great-grandmother of Madeleine and Theodore Sawyer and Heidi and Alina Miller. Anita was also aunt, cousin, in-law, counselor and friend to many special people she deeply loved and appreciated.