Lucille Boretz

Lucille Boretz was 105 when she passed away from natural causes, the oldest resident of her assisted living home on the Upper West Side. Born in 1920 she grew up on the beach in the Rockaways, and never lost her love for the ocean. She exercised every day—right up until just a few days before her death—and was an avid reader. Earlier in her life, she ran a business selling first-edition rare books.

Lucille idolized her parents Herman and Goldie Garson, and remained close with her best friend and sister, Arline, throughout her life. A story so central to who she was that even strangers knew while she was a student at Brooklyn College, she once fell down a flight of stairs, only to be scooped up—literally—by a young man named Alvin Boretz. The rest was history.

Lucille and Alvin married and remained inseparable for 68 years. Alvin went on to become a prolific writer for radio, television, stage,

and screen, with a career that spanned five decades and earned him many coveted awards. Behind the scenes, Lucille was an essential—if uncredited—part of his creative life. She served as his sounding board, listening to ideas, shaping storylines, and offering insights that found their way into scripts that ultimately reached stages and screens across the country.

She was so loved by her community that even the janitors and kitchen staff lined up to say their goodbyes. Her circle of loving caregivers who she called her friends, Charmaine Crump, Janet Owusu and Laila Naqi who became family, were by her side until the very end.

A stranger to no one, Lucille befriended everyone—from her neighbors, to the cabana boys at the Long Island beach club, to the man who sold clothing on her Upper West Side corner. Her love for the world was as loud as her voice, which could so often—and so selflessly—be heard asking someone about their day.

Often dressed in pearls and wearing her signature red lipstick, she never turned a blind eye to those less fortunate. As a younger woman, she would often volunteer at a local nursing home near her Long Island, New York, home. She loved spending time on their boat with her family, as Alvin was the captain and she was the first mate.

The devoted mother of two daughters—and the matriarch, the North Star of the family—she also endured the unimaginable loss of her two young sons, who passed away at ages three and five.

She is survived by daughters, Jennifer B. Kahnweiler (Bill) and Carrie Boretz Keating (Edward Keating); her granddaughters, Lindsey Goldberg (Adam), Jessie Kahnweiler (Rufus Paisley), Caitlin Keating, and Emily Keating; her great-granddaughters, Millie and Ava Goldberg and Solly Paisley.

Donations in her memory may be directed to the Metropolitan Jewish Health System of New York (https://www.mjhsfoundation.org/donate/), which provides high quality hospice care in New York, and to the Kyle Pease Foundation (https://kylepeasefoundation.org/aboutkpf), which helps improve the lives of people with disabilities through sports and beyond.

The family will hold a private service and deeply appreciates the love and support from friends and extended family.