Leonard Weisman

Leonard Weisman (87), beloved father, grandfather, uncle, cousin, entrepreneur and friend passed away peacefully at his home in White Plains on March 4, 2021.

He was predeceased by his sisters, Elaine Lipton and Carol Zarett. He is survived by his children: Laurie (and her wife Roz Jacobs), Vicki (and her former husband Mark Arbogast), Jake, Samantha (and her husband Zach Lupei); his grandchildren, Charlotte and Natalie Arbogast, Stella and Wes Lupei; his nieces and nephews Steven, Joel, Dina, Jack and Deborah, his dear friend Ellen Kurtz and his former wives Pearl and Lynn.

Lenny was a Leo--a big cat and a big man with an even bigger personality. Like a cat, he had nine lives. I don’t think any of us knows all of them and some are R rated-but here is an overview of a life well-lived and a man well-loved.

1st Life - Brooklyn Boy

He was born in Brooklyn on August 4, 1933. Two sisters followed, Elaine and Carol. They were part of a close-knit extended family in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.

His grandparents, Dovid and Fanny Gittelman, married in Russia. Their first two daughters, Shirley and Bea were born there. The second two, Ann (Lenny’s mother) and Etta, were born in the U.S. The four sisters lived on the same block even when they grew up. Nine cousins:  Marvin and Stanley, Sondra and Elliot, Lenny, Elaine and Carol, Dolores and Barry, played together every Saturday. Even when Lenny’s family left Brooklyn for Rockaway Beach, the family still united every Shabbos and the kids played under the cherry tree in front of Dovid and Fanny’s house.

2nd Life - Rockaway Round 1

In Rockaway, he would take a bus and a trolley to get to Ebbet’s Field to see his beloved Dodgers play. At the end of 2020, with mild dementia, Lenny could still run down the entire roster, including the name of the organist.

He spoke of precious memories of fishing with his father in Jamaica Bay and rattling around in an old Weisman truck. Summers, he worked at the family business, H. Weisman & Son Lumber Company. It was founded by his grandfather, Harry  Weisman. Most family members worked there at one time or another. Most of us kids certainly did and his cousin Dolores became the doyenne of the salvage department--a petite delicate woman presiding over a big funky warehouse-like discount center. His uncle Jerry Blaine was a band leader.  During WWII, when there was little work for him, Jerry drove a truck for Weisman wearing very fancy, expensive shoes. That impressed young Lenny, who always had a taste for the finer things in life.

At Far Rockaway High, someone fixed Lenny up with a beautiful, vivacious sophomore named Pearl Shapiro. They courted and wed when she was 18 and he 21.

3rd Life - Young husband in the Army

Lenny served in ROTC and was sent to Fort Lee in Petersburg, Virginia. His young wife eventually joined him there. He has a few favorite stories from those days. He was a lieutenant and an inspector. Even higher ranking officers had to show him respect in the role of inspector and he got to drive a fancy car, which he loved.

As a young husband he had to cultivate diplomacy skills. One of his favorite stories was ofshoppingforfurniturefortheirfantasyhome.Shownaparticularlygaudy,hideouspiece,heay,“Who would buy something like that?”  Next thing they know, they’re at their newly rented apartment and the landlord proudly shows them their bedroom. They are confronted with the same hideous furniture. Pearl’s aesthetic sensibility was mortally wounded and she ran to the car in tears saying she couldn’t possibly live with that furniture. Lenny had to diplomatically explain to the landlords that they’d like something simpler, then go console his bride.

4th Life - Family man in Baldwin

By age 25, he had two small girls, Laurie and Vicki, who were born just 15 months apart.  Reprising their extended family childhood, he bought a house in Baldwin, Long Island near his Aunt Eddie, his sister Elaine  and their cousin Dolores. So another generation grew up with “mishpuchah” nearby--the Weismans shared holiday festivities with the Liptons, the Meyersons and the Karsons.

Lenny loved routines and was thoroughly reliable. He arrived home from work promptly at 6 pm, six days a week. Vicki and Laurie would sit waiting near the front door, so they could jump down and throw their arms around him. You never knew when he might have brought a surprise gift home (once he even showed up with Pete the parakeet - the real thing). Every Sunday was bagels and lox and he custom-crafted bagels for each kid--knowing the right amount of lox for one and just enough whitefish for the other. When the kids were sick, he never failed to bring home a gift from Rogoff’s to ease their suffering. When he was a boy with whooping cough, his father brought him a toy trolley car and he’d never forgotten it.

His sense of humor was sharp and quick and often silly.

When he was president of the Cousins Club, he dressed up as Fidel Castro, with his sister Elaine as Che Guevara. Another time he entered with his head on a tray, looking like he’d been beheaded. He and Pearl divorced in 1968.

5th Life - Rockaway, Round 2

There was an 8 year interlude of a second marriage that everyone, especially Lenny, preferred to forget. But there were lovely rituals that were part of that time. For years, Lenny had lunch at the same joints, Jack’s Tastee Shop and Westrich’s in Rockaway. At Jack’s, there were photos of all the customers on the wall and most people were regulars. One day Jack did something to raise Lenny’s ire, so Len grabbed a bottle of whipped cream and a major food fight involving the entire establishment ensued.

6th Life - NYC, Brooklyn, Scarsdale and Monterey

In 1979, he and Lynn Gladstone fell in love. They met at a Club Med, where she first surmised that his beautiful daughter Vicki who dropped him at the airport was a young girlfriend. She definitely could have been. He certainly had dated women younger than his daughters over the years. Lenny and Lynn had their first child, Jake in 1983 and for the first time in 50 years, Lenny had another y chromosome in his household. As dearly as he loved women, he was delighted to have another guy in his orbit. Baby sister Samantha came in 1986 and a new generation of family life was underway. Laurie and Vicki were fully grown.

First they lived in Lynn’s apartment on West 72nd Street. John and Yoko were neighbors, living down the block in the Dakota. One night Lenny was out foraging for takeout and found himself in line behind Yoko Ono. He ordered the same thing Yoko did, so the family could eat the same thing as they did. There were regular celebrity sightings like Eleanor Roosevelt crossing Broadway, Katharine Hepburn sweeping in front of her home. Bruce Willis was an unknown trainer at the Paris Health Club and Lenny and Lynn befriended him, attended his comedy gigs and donated to his struggling theater company. A postcard that Willis sent after he moved to LA is a cherished and often spoken of treasure.

As Jake and Sam grew, the family needed more space and moved back to Brooklyn-- in a gorgeous brownstone on First Street near Prospect Park. There were regular excursions to the Coney Island Aquarium with the kids and a Sunday pilgrimage to Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side to procure the bagels and lox for the Sunday brunch.

Then, the inevitable move to the safer streets of suburbia--a home in Scarsdale. He remained the breakfast guy--making French toast on weekdays and heading to the Hartsdale Cheesery for the requisite bagels! He always threw himself into parenting with all his heart and soul. He was the 60 year old dad cheering on his kids at soccer games and organizing an elaborate casino night fundraiser for Jake and Sam’s elementary school, Greenacres Elementary School in Scarsdale.

A big part of those years was the house in Monterey, barbecues, poker games and Sunday ball games with his beloved Berkshire friends, where Lenny pitched almost every game. The always essential breakfast treats came from the General Store and the Roadside Inn. They spent happy summers with regular father-daughter August 4th birthday celebrations at the Old Inn in New Marlboro. He and Vicki shared an August 4th birthday.The Liptons often flew in for family reunions and hilarious games of Dictionary.

There was also the institution of February vacations in St. Barths and an unforgettable trip to China. He reminisced about standing on the Great Wall over and over again in his last year.

7th Life - Putting on the Ritz

After the marriage to Lynn ended, he was very sad. He moved into a luxurious apartment at the Ritz Carlton Residences in White Plains where every staff member fell in love with a curmudgeonly, charming, gregarious jokester. His black book had to come out of mothballs and he worked hard and succeeded at building another life. There were new friends, flings and adventures. He developed relationships with the staff members at BLT where the steaks, shrimp cocktails, truffled potatoes and other delicacies left their mark on his physique. He often remarked that he spent enough at BLT to fund a small country.

8th Life - The age of Ellen

Ellen Kurtz became a late-in-life soul mate. She brought a zest for life and a new deep love into his life. Her kids became important to him and he to them. She organized a massive 80th birthday celebration that he enjoyed reliving this past year. They embarked on bucket list travel adventures--a safari to Africa, a trip to Israel and  another to Argentina. She helped him ease gracefully into the various indignities of an aging body and reminded him always to celebrate his good fortune and appreciate what a lucky man he was. They shared a wicked sense of humor and she cared for him with utmost grace, dignity and expertise when he needed it most.

9th Life - The age of acceptance and appreciation

Lenny was a larger than life character with an insatiable lust for life. His smile could light up a room and could be coaxed to shine on his last days of life. His worldview might be summed up with some of his favorite aphorisms

“Life is the only game in town, so enjoy it.”

“It’s not how many times you fall down, it’s how many times you get up.”

“Be your own boss”

“Too much is not enough”

“Be good to those you love. Make them happy. What else is there to do in life?”

As his physical self weakened, his emotional self flowered and matured. Anger at petty things was replaced with acceptance and appreciation of what a great life he had. He laughed easily and joked constantly. If you asked if he was comfortable, he inevitably replied, “I make a living.” A couple of weeks ago, when he asked about the news and heard that the Rover had landed on Mars, he quipped, “poor dog.” He loved quoting Mel Brooks and Abbott and Costello and watching comedies and musicals. Why would anyone watch anything else, he’d ask incredulously.  His mantra, indeed one of the last things he uttered, was that he was a very lucky man.

Donations in his memory can be made to:

The Memory Project Productions, Inc. whose mission is to promote social justice through art and remembrance. Website:  https://memoryprojectproductions.org

Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home, 426 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA. 01230.  To send remembrances to his family please go to www.finnertyandstevens.com