Hope Elaine Kaplan

Affectionately known by her family and friends as "Hopie", she was born in San Antonio on July 9, 1929, graduated from Jefferson High School and attended the University of Texas.

She courageously lived with cancer for the past eleven years.

Preceded in death by her parents, Esther and Israel Silber and her sister, Eleanor Kolitz, she is survived by her husband of 55 years, Gerald S. Kaplan; her daughters, Martha Kaplan Freedman and Lori Kaplan; her son-in-law, Donald Freedman; her beloved grandchildren, "the lights of her life", Henry, Emily, Sam and Ilana Freedman and Max Aviles-Kaplan. She is also survived by her brother, Gerald Silber and sisters-in-law, Gloria Silber, Sophie Ann Williamson, Molly Ann Kaplan and Jo Ruth Kaplan; many nieces and nephews; and special friends, Pedro Aviles and Rose Cantu.

Everyone that knew Hope considered her to be "one of a kind and the sweetest person in the world" with her most beautiful smile, her graciousness and her zest for life. She is also known as a terrific poker player and enjoyed playing the game with her friends.

She was well known in the San Antonio arts community for over 30 years as the owner of the Odyssey Galleries where she sponsored many fine artists.

She loved to travel and spent her 75th birthday with her daughters in a hot air balloon flying over the Napa Valley.