Antoinette “Toni” Richards, passed away peacefully on November 9th at the Hospice of the Sacred Heart in Dunmore. Born in Strasbourg, France to Rosalie Schiffmacher and Jean Baptiste Saum, Antoinette came to America at age 19 on the arm of GI veteran Lawrence F. Richards in 1946. Her escape from Nazi occupied France was Hollywood films that inspired her dream of the sunny California coast, but, as often happens in life where dreams will be half way around the world before reality gets its boots on, instead of sunny California with its azure sky home was to be Northeastern Pennsylvania’s not so sunny coal country. Even as Scranton became home, France was always there in Antoinette’s style and culinary flair. As fate would have it, Antoinette went to her eternal rest on November 13th from the same Railroad Avenue where she made her home in 1946, evoking the words of T.S. Eliot: “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”. Surviving are her daughter, Michele Saadi of Scranton, and two grandsons, Mark Saadi and Dr. Paul Saadi, both of Dallas, TX. Donations can be sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. A private graveside service was held in Cathedral Cemetery. Arrangements were under the direction and care of the Edward J. Chomko Funeral Home & Cremation Services, West Scranton.
