Not many individuals dwell to the age of 102. And only a few who do can have packed these years with as a lot life as did Annie Solomon.
Annie, who handed away Friday, Sept. 25, in Sarasota, was many issues throughout that lengthy lifetime. Foremost to these in our arts neighborhood and much past, she was half of the Syd and Annie Solomon duo that performed such an enormous position in establishing and rising town’s repute as an artists’ and writers’ colony. Syd and Annie met in 1940, married in 1941, and moved proper after World Conflict II to the little city of Sarasota. They arrived right here on New 12 months’s Eve, 1945, and by Jan. 1, 1946, the identical day the Ringling museum reopened after years of cash woes, they’d come to the choice to make this their residence.
In addition to being a spouse and unbelievably essential contributor to Syd’s inventive profession, Annie was a mom (to daughter Michele and son Mike), a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She was an icon of favor—distinctive in her clothes and accent selections, at all times herself a pleasure to look at. However for numerous a whole lot who attended one of many Solomons’ events, whether or not right here or at their residence within the Hamptons, Annie was the consummate hostess—somebody who naturally introduced collectively attention-grabbing individuals who went on to kind long-lasting connections.
An invitation to a Solomon get together was a thrill, and the occasion itself eagerly anticipated. Company who would possibly present up included writers, like Budd Schulberg, John D. MacDonald, Pleasure Williams or MacKinlay Kantor; music figures like Jerry Wexler, Eric von Schmidt and Jerry Leiber; fellow visible artists like David Budd, Willem DeKooning and Philip Guston; circus stars like Corcaita “Corky” Cristiani, and numerous extra. You knew you can rely on extra than simply cocktails and stimulating dialog at considered one of Annie’s events, although; there would even be nice meals, ready by Annie with a aptitude nobody may match. And past simply events, at their residence up North, there have been softball video games pitting artists versus writers, performs given intimate productions, annual Fourth of July picnics and different artistic methods to have time.
Even after Syd’s dying, a gathering at Annie’s place at downtown’s Bay Plaza was nonetheless the place to be. Her present for being genuinely involved in individuals usually meant a night at Annie’s mingled younger and outdated, friends of all backgrounds and careers. At her 100th birthday, although, the get together listing was restricted (apart from son Mike) to all girls buddies, every of whom donned a T-shirt with the face of Supreme Court docket Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after which gathered by the pool for a bunch {photograph}—which Annie then had despatched to Ginsburg with a letter of admiration and help.
So unhappy to lose each Justice Ginsburg and Annie inside every week of one another. However in relation to lives well-lived, you couldn’t ask for higher examples to comply with.