For Letty Weisbart, life was one adventure after another.
Weisbart, who was 84 when she died Aug. 6, co-owned a jewelry store, owned a children’s art center, painted portraits, sculpted and danced.
She still found time to keep up with the stars. An astronomy major in college, she was a regular visitor on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration website and was “addicted to The Science Channel on TV,” said her daughter, Shelley Stockwell of Denver.
She was a “risk taker,” said her son, Greg Weisbart of Denver.
“I’m the kind who plans and figures out why something won’t work. She’d do it first and plan later,” he said, laughing.
As a child, she helped her father, Rube Pellish, open a store in Laramie in the 1920s. They sold jewelry and men’s clothing, and the store also served as the local pawn shop.
Later, they and a relative, Bob Radetsky, owned a wholesale jewelry store in downtown Denver.
Over the years, Letty would open several art-supply stores in the metro area and a children’s art center, which employed 25 teachers at several locations. The stores, which featured classes in music and the visual arts, were named for her daughter: Shelley’s Art and Office Supplies, co-managed by mother and daughter.
Letty Weisbart painted portraits and sold several paintings.
Weisbart studied parapsychology and dragged her sister to yoga when it was a novel thing to try, said the sister, Kay Radetsky of Denver. “She loved to experience things,” Radetsky said.
Also, Weisbart helped found an investors club that lasted more than 30 years.
She sponsored several children overseas, including one whose entire education she paid for. She usually didn’t tell friends or family about her charity, including the lottery tickets she gave annually to every employee at her local Safeway store.
She liked to quote a memorable phrase by Dolly Levi, the title character of the musical “Hello, Dolly!”: “Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around.”
“The little I know and have accomplished in my life, I owe to my ignorance of not knowing what or how to do them,” Letty Weisbart told family members. “I just forged ahead and was never afraid to try what I wanted to learn.”
Letty Jane Pellish was born Nov. 8, 1920, in Denver. She graduated from East High School and attended the University of Denver.
She left after two years and joined the American Ballet Theatre in New York. She continued to dance by teaching tap and ballet.
On May 14, 1941, she married Irvin Weisbart, who owned Sigman Feed Co. He died in 1986.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or at 303-820-1223.
