Frances Anne Weiss, a resident of Deerfield Beach and previously Coconut Creek, Florida, died Thursday September 10, 2020 at the age of 79. Fran was born June 17, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan, later to become a longtime Manhattanite. The first child of Sheldon and Rosalie Weiss (Edelstein), Fran was preceded in death by her parents and brother Arthur “David” Weiss, and is survived by her youngest brother Morris “Benjamin” Weiss, elder son Benjamin (Ben) Velez, younger son Abraham (Abe) Velez, daughter-in-law Sarah Branham Velez, and granddaughter Frida Velez.
Fran enjoyed visual arts throughout her life, painting and sketching on and off from her teen years through her seventies, studying art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-founding a business called The Color Advantage, working in sales as a makeup artist at Barneys New York, arranging flowers, and rhapsodizing over portraiture and European modern painters. Hosting a dinner table filled with friends and family was her joy. Her Jewish life and the preservation of ancestral history were pillars, as was, later in life, her love of dogs, particularly her Rottweilers Rachel and Punim. Mother, Yiddish enthusiast, WQXR fan, mordant wit, Scrabble whiz, Florida skeptic, francophone, teacher of cooking, baker of challah and pies. Her memory lives on among the mourners of Zion. To plant trees in Fran’s memory, please visit either NYC Parks at https://on.nyc.gov/3m62goB or the Arbor Day Foundation at https://shop.arborday.org/trees-in-memory.
