Thanks to Anne ‘Jigger’ Roth, Jackie Coley found fulfilling newspaper career (Your Letters)

To the Editor:
The recent passing of Anne “Jigger” Brohmann Roth left me flooded with memories of this remarkable woman, and I had to share a little story which your readers may be unaware of. I will be calling her Jigger throughout the story because that is the only name I’ve ever known!
First, Jigger was a woman way ahead of her time. By the early 1980s, she had already written numerous stories and obituaries for the Herald-Journal. In the mid-1990s, after a health issue, she decided to up and relocate to China. Yes, China! Very few women would ever consider making such an undaunted journey, but Jigger was not your typical woman.
Ten years earlier, Jigger had reached out to my mother, Jackie Coley, a then 50-something, empty-nester and recently widowed, to take over her society column. Mom was not doing the amount of writing she had previously done as a volunteer for my Fayetteville-Manlius High School musicals and a community theater group called Shattuck-Nye Productions, so she had the time.
Mom called me and my sister and brother right away, having her doubts, but we all responded, “Go for it!” Her added encouragement from Jigger, not to mention Jigger’s independent, forward-thinking attitude were also an inspiration for Mom to say yes.
Fast forward to Sept. 16, 1986, when my mom began writing for The Syracuse Newspapers. Jackie Coley gave Jigger’s society column a bit of a reboot, shifting to Central New York charities holding fundraisers. The column, called The Social Notebook, became Mom’s written mission to help as many not-for-profit organizations as possible through educating readers about what they stood for.
Jackie was always grateful for Jigger’s phone call, and for 22 years, my siblings and I would listen to her rave about her new career and lease on life through The Social Notebook. For that, we are truly grateful for Jigger and her special friendship with Jackie.
May God Bless Jigger and her wonderful life.
Caroline Stanistreet
Camillus
Related: Today’s obituary: Anne Brohmann Roth, 91, was a Syracuse journalist who later worked in China