Sally Spindel's Obituary
Sally Schanerman Spindel died at home in Surfside, Florida, on May 8, 2024, at the age of 81.
Sally was born on August 6, 1942, in Newark, New Jersey. She grew up in the Weequahic section of Newark and was a proud graduate of Weequahic High School. After receiving a BA in romance languages from Boston University, she returned to Weequahic as a French and Spanish teacher for two years.
But as a lifelong hater of cold weather, Sally was destined to leave the northeast. She married Lawrence Spindel in 1967, and they moved to South Florida with their infant daughter, Myra, who was born in 1968. Barbara was born in 1970. In 1971 Sally and Larry bought their house in Surfside, where Sally was happiest and where she lived for the rest of her life, rarely venturing out of the state during the winter months. She might have been the only person in the Miami area who slept with an electric blanket.
Sally’s siblings and their families also settled in South Florida, as did her mother, Sylvia Schanerman, who moved there after the death of Sally’s father, Nathan Schanerman. Over the decades, the extended family regularly enjoyed Sunday night dinners together.
Larry was a physician, and Sally often recalled that there was an expectation that a doctor’s wife would play tennis during the day and have dinner on the table when her husband arrived home from work. She wasn’t passionate about tennis or cooking, so she enrolled in law school at the University of Miami when her children were in elementary school.
Upon graduating and passing the bar in 1980, however, she found most firms reluctant to hire a 30-something mother of young children. After a stint at Legal Aid, she joined the office of attorney James Sabatino, who was looking for a partner. They worked together as Sabatino and Spindel for more than 20 years. In the 1990s, Sally served a term as president of the Miami Beach Bar Association. She developed a specialty in juvenile law, representing children or parents involved in cases of abuse and neglect, and juveniles charged with crimes.
After both of their marriages ended in divorce, Sally and Jimmy became life partners as well. They enjoyed summer trips to Italy and nice meals with a bottle of pinot grigio. Her beloved Jimmy died at 91 in 2019.
Sally’s interests included classical music and opera, books, newspapers, and the New York Times crossword puzzle (Thursday through Sunday). She doted on her grandchildren, spending hours playing with them and teaching them each to read. For decades she spent part of each summer with her family in Aspen, Colorado, drawn there by the Aspen Music Festival.
Above all else she loved her family: Myra Spindel, Bart Chepenik, and their daughters Molly, Leah, and Livvy; Barbara Spindel, Jonathan Blum, and their children Lucy and Nathan; and her sister, Frances Foster, and brother, Richard Schanerman, and their families. All will miss her capacious intellect, her sage advice, and her sharp wit. Chapel Service will be held at 10:00 a.m. Sunday, May 12, 2024, at Levitt-Weinstein Blasberg Rubin-Zilbert Memorial Chapel located 18840 W. Dixie Highway, North Miami Beach, FL 33180. Arrangements by Levitt Weinstein Blasberg Rubin Zilbert Memorial Chapel, (305) 932-2700
In lieu of flower the family request that donations be made in memory of Sally to
Florida Grand Opera https://fgo.org/ and New World Symphony https://www.nws.edu/
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