Ms. Lucille Silverstein, 87, of Orlando, Florida, died Monday, March 27, 2023, at her Orlando home following an illness. Ms. Silverstein was born Sept. 3, 1935, in Brooklyn, New York, to the late Morris and Esther (Auerbach) Rosin and moved to the Orlando area in 1989. She is predeceased by her beloved husband, Paul Lester Silverstein. 

Ms. Silverstein is survived by her devoted children — daughter, Cathy Silverstein (Rawley) Cooper of New York, N.Y.; son, Steven Silverstein of New York, N.Y.; and granddaughter, Miranda Cooper of New York, N.Y. Lucy was born in Brooklyn. She graduated from Midwood High School in June 1953 with classmate Alan Konisberg (Woody Allen). She believes she was featured briefly in the school room scene in Allen’s film “Annie Hall.”

A master of crossword puzzles, Lucy would religiously complete the New York Sunday Times Crossword Puzzle with husband Paul. As a bridge player with Shelley and other friends, she progressed to tournament level and even played competitively in a tournament where Omar Sharif also competed!

Lucy loved music (her parents met around music, when her father studied piano with Lucy's  grandmother). Lucy particularly loved Broadway musicals – including playing the role of Bloody Mary in "South Pacific" during summer camp. She instilled her love of theater in both Steven and Cathy. Steven is a published composer of music theater and teaches theater in New York City.

Lucy read incessantly--The NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Time magazines, as well as the local papers in Westchester County and Orlando. She loved science fiction – and passed that love on to Cathy. Lucy taught both her children that it is so very important to keep learning. Indeed, she kept a file cabinet of the articles clipped out of newspapers and magazines so that we would always be
able research any topic. And those World Books! She took Cathy and Steven to the library and told them how to take notes.

She was always a beacon of what is now called social justice. She taught her children to stand up for what is right. She was an advocate in the state legislature in Albany for Steve and other kids who were not getting the educational support they needed. Cathy remembers her teaching her the song “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific (still so sadly relevant today). When the teachers went on strike when Cathy was in JHS 141, Ms. Silverstein invited them into her apartment to teach Cathy and fellow classmates about math by reading Flatland. And when the New York Times wrote an article calling the striking teachers “Communists,” she gently reminded us that you cannot believe everything you read – well before social media and misinformation promulgated.

She was not a great cook! All meat was beef or lamb well-done and all vegetables came from a can. She spent so much time watching her weight that she seemed not to enjoy food or have a good relationship with it. She loved watermelon with salt, making and eating matzo ball soup, rainbow cookies, lots of coffee, and Darjeeling tea. She will forever be a Brooklynite and true New Yorker – even though she lived more than a third of her life in Florida. That means an edge, a panache, a worldliness that can come from a New Yorker. 

Dear darling mom, dear wonderful Lucy, may you rest in peace and may your memory continue
to be a blessing.