Mary Liebman (nee Levine) of Milwaukee died Nov. 25 of a heart attack. She was 91.
She was born and raised in Brooklyn. According to her daughter, Doris Liebman Appelbaum of Glendale, she grew up in a secular household and became observant after 1935, when she married Louis Liebman, who was Orthodox and active in his synagogue.
“She learned Hebrew 15 years into the marriage,” said her daughter. Moreover, the family spent some 10 years in the Catskills town of Long Eddy, N.Y., and once a week she would “travel 30 miles to buy kosher meat.”
In 1950, Louis purchased a liquor store on Long Island, and Mary worked with him there until 1971, when they retired. They moved to Hallandale, Fla., where Mary became active in the Parker Dorado Social Club and the Parker Dorado Condo Association.
She also became very active in Hadassah, rising to regional president overseeing nine Hadassah chapters. One of her Hadassah colleagues, former Broward Region president Dvora Friedman, recalled in an e-mail (furnished by Appelbaum) that Mary was “tireless, positive” and “whenever a chairperson dropped out and could not be replaced, Mary would take over her task together with a couple of helpers…. They do not make women like her any more.”
Her husband died in 1978. She began to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease in 1999, and her daughter moved her to Wisconsin in 2000. She spent two years in a Mequon assisted living facility, then the final years of her life in the Helen Bader Center.
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by son William (Barbara) Liebman of Wantagh, N.Y; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Services were held Nov. 28 at Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue. Burial was Nov. 30 in the Baron Hirsch Cemetery in Staten Island, N.Y.
Contributions to the Alzheimer’s Association, Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter, 6130 W. National Ave. Suite 200, Milwaukee, WI 53214-3254, would be appreciated by the family.
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