Selma Fishman Cader, matriarch of a prominent Petaluma ranching family, dies at 91

Born in Petaluma to Polish immigrants in 1924, Cader graduated from Petaluma High School and went to Munson Business College in San Francisco at a time when many women did not pursue higher education.|

Selma Fishman Cader, the matriarch of a prominent Petaluma chicken-farming family that later sold 60 acres of land for a large east Petaluma housing development, died on Friday. She was 91 and had suffered from a kidney ailment for several years, her daughter, Janice Cader-Thompson said.

Born in Petaluma to Polish immigrants in 1924, Cader graduated from Petaluma High School and went to Munson Business College in San Francisco at a time when many women did not pursue higher education.

“She chose her own path,” said Cader-Thompson, a former Petaluma city councilwoman. “She was pretty progressive, actually.”

Moving back to Petaluma after college, she got a job at an auto parts company, and reconnected with Art Cader, a decorated World War II Army Air Corps pilot she knew from high school.

“Dad heard that Selma Fishman was back in town,” Cader-Thompson said. “He thought they’d make a good match so they started dating.”

The couple eloped to Carmel and married in 1949, raised four children, ran a successful egg business and flew all over the country in retirement. But it was their secret wedding that caused a minor scandal in the family.

“Auntie Ann almost fell out of the car when they told her they had been married for three months,” Cader-Thompson said of Cader’s sister Ann.

Once she was married, Cader focused on raising two sons and two daughters while doing the bookkeeping for Cader Farms, the east Petaluma chicken ranch the family purchased in the 1950s. She was an active member of the Petaluma Jewish community joining the Jewish women’s organizations of Hadassah and the Cinderella Group at the B’nai Israel Jewish Center. Becoming politically active, she was the treasurer for Jane Hamilton’s failed Sonoma County supervisor campaign and was the head of her local election precinct.

“Voting was important to her,” Cader-Thompson said. “It’s sad. She would have liked to vote for the first woman president.”

A bedrock housewife, Cader was supportive of her husband, including hosting parties for the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, of which he served as president.

“She was a strong woman for her time,” Cader-Thompson said. “She was the woman behind the man.”

In 1993, the family sold the ranch on Sonoma Mountain Parkway, which was developed into a subdivision that still bears the Cader Farms name. The couple continued to live in their house on the site until Art Cader passed away two years ago, and then Selma Cader lived there alone.

The couple enjoyed an adventurous retirement. Art Cader bought a Mooney aircraft, which he kept at Petaluma Municipal Airport, and the two flew all over the country with Selma as the copilot. While flying over the Grand Canyon, the alternator went out and they had to make an emergency landing. The heater gave out on one trip while high above the Sierras, freezing the cockpit and clouding the windshield, and Selma had to navigate them down by looking through a small, defogged hole.

One thrilling day, she was invited to climb to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, where someone snapped a photo of her smiling with windswept hair.

Later in life, she helped raise her grandchildren.

“She loved her grandchildren,” Cader-Thompson said. “She watched this community grow. She has really deep roots here.”

Selma Cader is survived by her children Bruce Cader of Santa Rosa, Linda Cader of Berkeley, Gary Cader of Petaluma and Cader-Thompson of Petaluma; eight grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

Services were held at Parent-Sorensen Mortuary in Petaluma on Monday. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Hospice of Petaluma or B’nai Israel Jewish Center.

- Matt Brown

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