At least 1,500 people paid their respects this afternoon to Leslie Fishbein, the popular and inspirational woman known throughout the metro area as the spokeswoman for Kacey Fine Furniture.
Fishbein’s memorial service was held at the Temple Emanuel in east Denver. She died Wednesday, two weeks after receiving a routine injection for chronic back pain. She suffered an adverse reaction and was briefly placed on life support before the family asked that she be removed. She never woke up.
Mayor John Hickenlooper, who rented one of Fishbein’s warehouses 20 years ago to start his first successful microbrewery and restaurant, jokingly referred to her as the “empress of fine furniture,” a woman who inspired people to live their lives with happiness and joy.
“Leslie was always encouraging people to live their dreams,” Hickenlooper said. “She was filled with humor. She loved life, she loved her family, her business, her friends, her community.
“So many people in the community said they knew her although they had never met her,” he said.
Fishbein, who had an infectious smile and happiness about her, was best known for her frequent television ads for the furniture company she ran with her husband, Sam Fishbein, and her parents, Jack and Shirley Barton, who started the company in the 1950s.
Her identity was closely linked to that of her company’s, so closely that a large furniture delivery van was parked outside the entrance of the temple.
Rabbi Stephen Foster spoke of Fishbein’s close family ties, emphasizing her partnership with her husband, to whom she was married for 32 years.
“I talked to Sam yesterday about his marriage,” Foster said. “He said, ‘We never argued. I always apologized.’
“She was upbeat, she had fun. She visited us in our kitchens and at night in our bedrooms,” Foster said, referring to her television ads. “Her legacy will be remembered and emulated.
“Her smile was genuine. She never knew a stranger because she always made friends with everyone. She encouraged others to live their dreams, which may be part of the reason why Mayor Hickenlooper is now the mayor,” he said to laughter from the crowd.
“She taught us how to live. She made us smile.”
Foster announced at the end of the one-hour service that Fishbein already had been buried, invoking an audible reaction from the crowd.
