Obituaries: Loris Birnkrant

Loris Birnkrant, 92, of Longboat Key and Birmingham, Mich., died July 30.

Mrs. Birnkrant was born Sept. 17, 1918, in Little Rock, Ark. Her parents were Mable and Sam Grundfest.

Mrs. Birnkrant and her late husband, Ted, were in the vanguard of Michigan residents from the north suburbs of Detroit who discovered Longboat Key in the 1960s and made their winter homes here.

Mrs. Birnkrant was a well-known volunteer at the Sarasota Music Festival. She would serve the students breakfast, bright and early every morning; she would buy the three-week pass and missed little in terms of concerts or a master class.

Mrs. Birnkrant loved much about the community, including the Sarasota Opera, Ringling College of Art and Design and the Longboat Key Center for the Arts, a Division of Ringling College of Art and Design.

She loved walking the beach and exploring Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. She loved art and artists and anything beautiful. She was an intrepid traveler who let little stand in the way of something she wanted to experience and who acquired friends wherever she went. She cooked a mean meatloaf and prepared okra like the Southern girl she was. She practiced the hospitality for which the South is famous and did much more, all with intelligence, passion, generosity and grace.

Mrs. Birnkrant was preceeded in death by her husband, Theodore D. Birnkrant. She is survived by her sister, Janet Mayersohn, of Little Rock; daughters, Janet Levine and Sally Myers; son, Don; two grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

A service was held Aug. 1 in the Birnkrant Garden at Temple Emanu-El, in Oak Park, Mich. A memorial service will be held on Longboat Key toward the end of the year.

Memorial donations may be made to the charity of your choice or to the Birnkrant Great Grandchildren’s Fund for Michigan Outreach of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival (Attn: Kathy Kemp, program administrator) 55 Queen St., Box 520, Stratford, Ontario N5A 6V2 or Sarasota Music Festival, c/o Sarasota Orchestra, 709 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, Fla., 34236.