Jessica S Yudelson

Jessica Yudelson passed away peacefully on March 11, 2022, in Carlsbad, CA, after a multiyear struggle with an incurable lung disease. She is survived by Jerry Yudelson, her loving husband of 36 years. Jessica was much respected for her support of animal rescue groups and for sharing her lifelong love affair with Scottish Terriers, including her beloved Bodhi, who passed away in March of 2021. Jessica had a lively personality that attracted many people and a great heart that led to lifelong friendships. She lived a rich spiritual life and was fully ready to leave when the “infinite summons” came.

Growing up in New York City, she majored in theater at Bard College (NY) and spent her junior year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. From the time she was in summer stock in the Poconos at 16, her dream was to become an actress. She studied with Bill Hickey in her teen years and, after college, with Lee Strasburg, founder of the Actor’s Studio in New York. In the 1960s, she worked as a fashion and TV model and acted in many commercials. She also starred in one-woman plays at the renowned Café La Mama in New York City.

Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, she divided her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she was a long-time member of Theater East. She lost a good part of her hearing while still in her 20s to a prescription-drug side-effect, which effectively curtailed her theater career, but she continued to act in movies and TV dramas.

She became a screenwriter and eventually taught acting and speaking voice to actors and non-actors alike, using yogic techniques to awaken the “inner actor” through meditation and improvisation. Jessica was happiest in this role and saw it as her life’s calling.

After marrying Jerry in her mid-40s, Jessica lived in Orange County and Portland, Oregon, until she retired from teaching, after which they moved to Tucson in 2006.

In Tucson, Jessica focused on her love of gardening and animals, while supporting her environmentalist husband in his work. For a dozen years, beginning in 2005, they traveled often to Europe (and twice to Australia) for business and pleasure. Jessica and Jerry relocated to Carlsbad in 2016 to be close to her beloved Pacific Ocean, hoping that the invigorating sea breezes would help her lung condition.

Jessica’s most significant and life-transforming event was meeting the Siddha Yoga meditation master, Baba Muktananda, in 1974 and beginning a lifelong practice of mediation and yoga. This meeting set her on a spiritual path that she embraced for nearly 50 years, one that transformed her into a beacon of love and selfless service to others. After Baba’s passing in 1982, Jessica accepted as her teacher Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Baba’s chosen successor, and immersed herself in Gurumayi’s teachings and guidance. She was a gifted teacher of Siddha Yoga meditation, both in the U.S. and in Israel.

She is survived by her brother Daniel (Lisa) Marcus, along with two nieces, Jordana Altman and Ilana Marcus. Jessica will be remembered for her outer and inner beauty, her kindness and service to so many people, her love of animals, and her lively intelligence, humor, and warmth.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND FLOWERS! Donations in remembrance can be offered to the San Diego Humane Society, Rancho Coastal Humane Society, or your local animal rescue group.