(Memorial for Weinger will be at Corazon on May 19, 10 a.m. to noon.)
Beverly Mona Weinger passed away peacefully at age 96 on April 16, 2019, in Nashville, TN. She had moved to her beloved wooden house on Canyon Trail in 1975 and spent the next 30 years gardening and walking through the State Park adjoining her property, collecting weeds, flowers, and other items for her artwork. In 2005, she was forced to move out of the Canyon due to major hip surgery and, much to her disappointment, she was never able to return.
Beverly was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and was the youngest and last surviving sibling of her family of four sisters and one brother. In 1941, she left high school to move to California “on a lark” with her older sister. She celebrated her eighteenth birthday on the train somewhere in the Midwest en route to the West Coast. As a young single woman in 1940s Los Angeles, she worked in several different jobs, including as an escrow officer.
She met and married her husband, Benjamin Weinger in 1952 and they settled in San Pedro, CA, where he established a dental practice and she became active in the Lions Club and the Temple Beth El synagogue. In the early 1970s, while raising her two sons, Beverly returned to school part-time and over the next 30 years earned her GED, an associate of arts degree, a bachelor’s degree, and, finally, a master’s degree in art from Cal State Northridge, after divorcing, and relocating to Topanga Canyon.
Beverly was known for her clay, marble and iron artwork and was fond of creating sculptures from “found” items. She was known throughout the Canyon and Valley as “the tiny little woman with the big personality who collected old metal objects on the side of the road and threw them into her pick-up truck.” She was very proud of her academic and artistic achievements, which culminated in her 1991 one-woman master’s show entitled, On the Road Again, which was comprised of numerous large, found-metal sculptures.
Beverly enjoyed storytelling and arranging dried native flowers and weeds. She adored her cats (Toby, Ethan, & Zoe) and bunny rabbit (Janey), whom she loved dressing in costumes and training to do tricks. She also liked checking things off her bucket list, like skydiving when she was 90 years old. At 91, she celebrated the milestone by getting a tattoo on her shoulder.
Beverly is survived by her two sons, Matthew Bret Weinger and Donald Evan Weinger, Matthew’s partner Lisa Kline Price and her only grandchild, Sydney Madison Weinger, as well as numerous nieces and nephews on both coasts.
A brief memorial for friends and family will be held on Sunday May 19, 2019, at 10 a.m. at a Topanga location to be arranged.To receive details when they are known, please e-mail beverlyWmemorial@gmail.com.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests charitable donations be made in her name to Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Los Angeles, CA, or to World Society for the Protection of Animals in Framingham, MA.n
Letter to the Editor, Topanga Messenger, January 24, 2013
Beverly was one sweet dynamic woman – I so enjoyed her when she came to the Sages events. And she danced whenever there was music. RIP dear Beverly with love, Gabrielle