Obituary cont'd

In 1984, she finally earned her GED diploma and attended college. After finishing her career as a dancer, Charlotte focused on her first love, painting, and produced a huge body of beautiful work, which she exhibited in a number of NY/NJ area galleries. Her paintings, most notably influenced by Picasso and Matisse, display a bright and brilliant color palate, and a free-spirited childlike sense of imagination, reflecting her ever-present joie de vivre. She continued to paint actively well into her mid-nineties, even as she began to experience significant physical limitations. Throughout her final days, Charlotte remained optimistic and upbeat, expressing an intense desire to return home from the hospital to be with her loving family, to paint, and to enjoy life. Charlotte died, age, 96 on February 13, 2024 and is survived by her daughter, Lori, her son-in-law, Howard, her sister, Marilyn, her nephews, Greg and Shai, her niece, Rachel, and many cousins.

Mother, wife, sister, dancer, painter – Charlotte Schwartz Joachimowicz was born in the Bronx to Romanian immigrants, Louis and Mary Moses Schwartz on August 5th, 1927. Her father was a master cabinetmaker and painter. Her mother died when she was five, and, as was commonplace at the time, Charlotte and her sisters and brother were then sent to live in several foster homes. Despite these challenges, she was accepted to the prestigious Music and Art High School, where she studied painting. But, she was forced to drop out of high school, taking on menial jobs in order to pay for dance lessons.  She then studied dance at the American Ballet School as well as with Martha Graham, George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham, and danced at the 2nd Avenue Yiddish Theatre, performing with Menasha Skulnik and Molly Picon. Charlotte became a dancer with the Rodgers and Hammerstein Company, where she performed under the stage name of Charlotte Leslie with Mary Martin in the touring production of Annie Get Your Gun, after which she joined the Chandra Kaly Dance Company, performing internationally at such venues as Café de Paris (London) and Tropicana (Havana). While working with the Kaly company, she gave Dick Van Dyke his very first dance lesson, and socialized with poets Allen Ginsberg and Nicholas Lindsay (son of poet Vachel Lindsay) as well as pianist/entertainer Liberace and folk singer-songwriter, Woody Guthrie. Charlotte met her soon-to-be husband, Berlin-born Holocaust survivor and tailor, Siegfried (“Siggy”) on a blind date, and the two quickly fell in love. Married in 1955, they enjoyed ten years of exciting NYC nightlife together until they welcomed their daughter, Lori. Eventually, in 1971, Siggy and Charlotte left Washington Heights for the tranquility of Park Ridge, NJ, where they raised their daughter, along with a number of dachshunds, rabbits and guinea pigs.  (cont'd)

Charlotte looking beautiful, as always, as a model.

One of Charlotte's beautiful, colorful and imaginative paintings

Charlotte was the ultimate expert on making Jewish chicken soup.

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OBITUARY

Charlotte Joachimowicz

August 5, 1927 – February 13, 2024

Gutterman and Musicant Jewish Funeral Directors

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