Gusto could have been Loretta Weiss’ middle name.
The artist and designer, who died Friday at age 85, started standing on her head (for yoga) at 60 and learned scuba diving at 80.
“‘Party’ was a verb to my mother,” said Joanne Katz of Denver. “She was not an ascetic.”
Weiss loved to paint, eat and try new things, and got a kick out of life, said her family.
She began painting clowns in recent years, and near the end of her life she surprised her family by putting on a clown’s nose before they came into her hospice room.
“Send in the Clowns” was sung at her funeral Mass this week, and red clown noses were provided for those who wanted to wear one during the service. Her paintings of clowns and a papier-mâché clown she made were on display.
“I’ve never done a funeral in a clown’s nose,” joked the priest, the Rev. Marty Hunckler.
Carol Koutnik, of Rockport, Texas, described her mother as “flamboyant.”
Weiss taught art to victims of strokes and heart attacks, and taught yoga to children with lung problems at National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
She and her friend, Anne Miriello, now a costumer for the San Diego Opera, once traveled to major cities, selling to fashionable stores “one-of-a- kind” dresses Miriello designed. Weiss loved to wear brightly colored silk jackets, Koutnik said.
Weiss had a great outlook on life, and no one in the family could remember her saying something negative about anyone.
“God’s probably saying, ‘Now we’ve got somebody up here who’s going to keep us laughing,”‘ the Rev. Yvonne McCoy of New Beginnings Community Church said at the Mass.
Koutnik inherited the art gene from her mom. A few times, they both would paint the outside of historic buildings, setting up their easels so passers-by could watch.
For several years, Weiss was vice president of Three Tomatoes catering company, where Katz is a partner.
Loretta Gertrude Lubert was born in Chicago on Nov. 16, 1919. She attended Chicago Art Institute.
She met Robert W. Weiss, also of Chicago, and they married in 1935.
He was an electrical engineer, and they lived in several states where his work took them, finally settling in Denver in 1964. They had been married 54 years when he died.
In addition to her two daughters, she is survived by four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; her partner, George Jack Mead; and his five children.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-820-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
