H eadlines
Golf Champion Louise ‘Bobbie’ Rose Dies at 104
OB ITUARY
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
LOUISE “BOBBIE” ROSE,
a Philadelphia Jewish Sports
Hall of Famer who played golf
competitively for 70 years, died
of a heart attack on Dec. 20
at her home in Meadowbrook.

She was 104.

Rose won 13 consecu-
tive club championships at
Ashbourne Country Club and
played in the Women’s Golf
Association of Philadelphia and
Pennsylvania State Women’s
Golf Association tourna-
ments. She won 11 Griscom
Cup championships with son
Michael Rose and four Mater
et Filia titles with daughter
Bonnie George. At 90, she
teamed with George to win the
Effie Derr Robey Cup, where
she shot better than her age five
times, and she won the 2007
WGAP Class B Super-Seniors
championship at 91. She was
inducted into the Philadelphia
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in
2014 at 98.

“Golf,” she told the Jewish
Exponent before her induc-
tion, “is the most frustrating,
irritating, imperfect, wonderful
game I’ve ever played.”
Rose loved all sports and
was an accomplished athlete
from a young age. She grew up
in Cheltenham and attended
Cheltenham High School, where
she was named a top athlete for
her prowess in swimming, tennis,
basketball and field hockey.

When she studied physical
education as an undergraduate
at Temple University, she played
badminton and qualified for a
national championship. She
PERSONAL CARE AT SIMPSON HOUSE
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…WITH OUR CARING STAFF
started bowling at Ashbourne
Country Club and averaged 180.

She began playing golf, which
would become her favorite
sport, when her husband Leon
Rose took it up in 1947. Her
two children also took to the
sport and went on to become
successful amateur golfers.

Michael Rose, who writes
for and publishes Great Golf
Magazine, said his mother
appreciated that golf was
a lifelong sport. Players can
constantly improve, rather
than hitting a wall in their
younger years and having their
performance decline over time.

“She was somebody who
said, ‘I’m going to get better. I
want to get better.’ In fact, one
of her little sayings was, ‘This is
going to be my year,’” he said.

The whole family was proud
of her accomplishments, and
she of theirs — especially when
her children got good enough
to beat her.

“She was our biggest fan
and we were her biggest fans. It
From left: Bobbie Rose, holds the Mater et Filia championship trophy with
daughter Bonnie George.
Courtesy of Bonnie George
She was our biggest fan and we were her biggest fans. It was a family
thing we all could do together, and we could all strive to make everybody
better.” MICHAEL ROSE
At Simpson House, our experienced and friendly staff provides the extra
help you need to live in health, safety and comfort. They do whatever it
takes to keep you connected in these challenging times—from protected
visitations to family communications to engagement with our exceptionally
diverse community—all while providing highly personalized services safely.

We invite you to take a look at our updated residences. Schedule a private
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was a family thing we all could
do together, and we could
all strive to make everybody
better,” Michael Rose said.

Bobbie Rose and her family
had strong ties to the Jewish
community. She attended Camp Council
in Phoenixville as a girl, and she
and her husband were members
of Reform Congregation
Keneseth Israel. Michael Rose
played for the Maccabi USA
men’s golf team in Israel’s inter-
national Maccabiah Games
during 1981 and 1985, and
George played for the women’s
team in 1989 and 1997.

Bobbie Rose was also an
accomplished artist. Michael
JEWISH EXPONENT
Rose said she worked in a
wide range of mediums, from
knitting to sculpting. At age
90, she decided she wanted to
learn to weld and signed up for
a class.

She displayed and sold her
work at art shows, and the
family hopes to hold a show
in her honor when it is safe to
do so.

George, who studied art
as an undergraduate, remem-
bers her mother’s dedication
to parenting, as well as her
passion for artwork. If she
needed help with a school
project or a volunteer for a
classroom activity, Rose was
always eager to step in.

“Her creative mind was
always going, especially with
projects that I had to do,
whether it was social studies or
science,” George said.

Rose remained close with
her children as they grew older.

In addition to playing golf,
they often took trips to New
York and Florida together.

“She was just always there
for me,” George said.

Rose was preceded in death
by her husband, who died in
1974. She is survived by her
children, five grandchildren and
seven great-grandchildren. l
spanzer@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Ballet Founder Barbara Weisberger Dies at 94
OB ITUARY
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
BARBARA WEISBERGER,
the founder of Pennsylvania
Ballet and the first American
student of internationally
renowned choreographer
George Balanchine, died at her
home in Kingston, Pennsylvania,
on Dec. 23. She was 94.

Weisberger fou nded
Pennsylvania Ballet in 1963. Since
then, the company has become a
cultural institution, embedded in
the artistic life of Philadelphia
and nationally respected. With
a Ford Foundation grant and
a desire to transmit what she
learned from Balanchine to
American students, Weisberger
led the organization until her
resignation in 1982.

Following her time with the
company, Weisberger spent
decades nurturing dancers and
choreographers, founding the
Carlisle Project, a mentorship
program for choreographers
in Carlisle, and serving as an
artistic advisor at Peabody
Dance, the dance program of
the celebrated Peabody Institute.

Weisberger was repeatedly
honored by the commonwealth
for her efforts, and received
many honorary doctorates.

“Mrs. Weisberger was a true
visionary, a natural leader and a
perpetually creative artist,” read
a statement from Pennsylvania
Ballet, posted to its website.

“A pioneer of every important
movement in American ballet,
Mrs. Weisberger was a remark-
able force and we are forever
grateful for the indelible impact
she made on our art form.”
Weisberger was born
in Brooklyn, New York, to
Herman and Sally Linshes
in 1926, and began her ballet
training at 5. She was accepted
into Balanchine’s program at
the School of American Ballet,
as his first American student,
when she was 8. In 1940, the
family moved to Wilmington,
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM She really taught me the importance of, among many things, creating
a company that really, truly had a spirit about it.”
ROY KAISER
When Weisberger hired Roy for the company in 1973, saw
fiend, and skilled at Sudoku
Kaiser as a dancer in 1979, early on that Weisberger was
and poker.

In 1961, her path crossed Kaiser wasn’t sure he had the model of a visionary, effec-
with Balanchine again, as she the skill to be what he was tive leader in the arts.

was among a select group of expected to be. But over the
“We have practically a
ballet teachers invited to a ballet course of a long association 60-year-old ballet company in
summit in New York. According with Pennsylvania Ballet, first a major city,” Koenemen said.

to The Philadelphia Inquirer, as a dancer, and then as artistic “That’s quite an astounding
Weisberger told Balanchine director, Kaiser learned invalu- accomplishment.”
that Philadelphia was ripe for able lessons from Weisberger.

Weisberger was predeceased
Barbara Weisberger, founder of
a serious company; Balanchine
“She really taught me the by her husband, Ernest, and is
Pennsylvania Ballet, died at 94.

Courtesy of the Weisberger family told her that she should be the importance of, among many survived by her children, Wendy
one to bring it there. She’d things, creating a company and Steve, three grandchildren,
spend the next 20-plus years that really, truly had a spirit and four great-grandchildren. l
and Weisberger continued commuting between Wilkes- about it,” Kaiser said.

Martha Koenemen, hired jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
her studies, commuting to Barre and Philadelphia, doing
by Weisberger to be a pianist 215-832-0740
Philadelphia for training with just that.

the Littlefield sisters, giants
of American ballet. With her
Name: Silver Lining Home Health Care*
early graduation from high
Width: 5.5 in
school and the start of World
Depth: 5.5 in
War II, her career as a dancer
Color: Black plus one
was interrupted.

Comment: JE
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But with her marriage to
Ernest Weisberger in 1949 and
subsequent move to Wilkes-
Barre, where the Wilkes-Barre
Ballet Theatre was soon estab-
Flexible schedule
lished, her life in dance was far
Care for anyone
from over.

recovering from
She was “Miss Barbara” to
surgery or illness
her many ballet students in the
’50s and ’60s and, according to
Short- or long-term
her daughter, Wendy Kranson,
Hourly, daily, or
even until her death.

live-in schedule
“She was never Mrs.

Weisberger,” said her son,
Steve Weisberger. “It was
always ‘Miss Barbara’ to the
ballet people, just like George
PA State Licensed
Balanchine was Mr. B.”
Caregivers are bonded and insured
Both Steven Weisberger and
Kranson emphasized that their
mother, for all of her successes
and busy schedule, was a
normal, loving mother at home,
even if work frequently took
215-885-7701 her away. They kept kosher, and
www.slhomecare.com attended synagogue with some
regularity; Weisberger was a
New York Times crossword
Helping to care for the
people you love!
JEWISH EXPONENT
JANUARY 7, 2021
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