Virginia Beach—Lorraine Phyllis Pesin passed away the evening of Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at Beth Sholom Village in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Lorraine was born in Washington, DC in 1929 to Maurice (Mo) and Mina Grudd. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1930 where Mo took a job as a lawyer for the Veterans Administration and also befriended many people in show business who came by their house for food and drink. Lorraine’s sister Marcia and mother Mina both predeceased her in the 1940s from cancer. Lorraine attended UCLA for one year and met Chester (Chet) Shapiro who had recently returned from World War II service. They were married from 1948 to 1964.
In 1967, Lorraine married Byron (Bob) Pesin and she eventually attended law school in Los Angeles. While she was not successful in passing the California Bar, for several years she worked in various administrative positions in legal practices. In the 1980s, Byron and Lorraine relocated their joint legal practice to the Palm Springs, California area. An avid reader, Lorraine continued her active participation in book clubs by having a leadership role in the local Hadassah-Brandeis Institute chapter. In addition, she was active in the Masonic Lodge and the Eastern Star. Bob and Lorraine took much pleasure in hosting their Los Angeles friends for marathon weekends of bridge.
After Bob died in 2012, Lorraine moved to a retirement home Durham, N.C. where she soon developed a new and extensive group of friends. Always the organizer, she and her friend Burt Sederholm organized a series of educational courses at the retirement home. A stroke in 2019 necessitated the move to Beth Sholom Village.
She is survived by her sons, Martin Sloane and his wife Karen Kopp of Germany, Richard Sloane and his wife Kimberly Smart of Durham, N.C., and Steven Sloane and his wife Lotte de Beer of Germany; eight grandchildren; three great grandchildren; and a host of other family and friends.
A graveside service will be held on Friday, October 29 at 10:30 am at Forest Lawn Cemetery with Rabbi Adam Ruditsky officiating. Express condolences to the family at www.altmeyerfh.com.