Lillian Adler Gross

Lillian Adler Gross

JANUARY 28, 1925-FEBRUARY 23, 2025

She passed away peacefully at the Renaissance at the Palace on Sunday night, February 23, 2025, at the age of 100+.

At the age of 12, she moved from Baltimore to Miami with her parents, Adolf and Charlotte Adler, twin brother Sidney and sister Edith. She was graduated from Miami Senior High School and later attended the University of Miami.

At the YMHA in Miami, she met Bernard Gross, a dashing young soldier from New York, then stationed on Miami Beach. They were married in 1942, and were a loving couple until his death in 1982.

Llilian was known for her great beauty, engaging smile, keen intellect, and warm heart. She and Bernie were outstanding ballroom dancing partners throughout their life together. She excelled at fashion design and could look at a photograph of a dress in a magazine and re-create it from scratch, sewing it herself. For her older son‘s wedding, she created beautiful dresses for her daughter, mother, and herself. Not that many years thereafter, she made beautiful maternity clothes for her daughter-in-law as well. She was an excellent artist and many of her paintings adorn her walls and those of her children. Her artistry extended to culinary pursuits, including an exquisite tarte tatin.

Llilian was always interested in politics, dance, theater, cinema, and the arts in general, while finding time to spend many an hour with her consciousness raising group as well. At the family dinner table, she was a wonderful straight man for her husband and three children, all of whom had their own styles and senses of humor. Although she was a whiz at puzzles, she never let a crossword come between her and her husband.

She was virtually indestructible physically, surviving falls down staircases and encounters with other immovable objects without repercussions or concussions.

Her memory was outstanding for her early years (until the age of 95.). On a trip to Baltimore with her son and daughter-in-law, she led them to the Pimlico Race Track neighborhood and a house she had not lived in since age 5.

She was also a good influence on siblings, urging her younger brother to move on from his service job to enroll in the University of Miami’s first medical school class, in which he finished first, and was editor of the yearbook.

At age 19, she met her oldest son, Leslie, at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, which had been co-opted as an Army rest and rehab hospital, with a maternity ward. He claims he was born there because he wanted to be near his mother. Son Michael and daughter Nicki filled out the roster over the next 9 years,, at which point she retired from child-bearing at the ripe old age of 28.

She was adored by her grandsons, whom she took on worldwide tours, one at a time, during their youths.

Lillian is survived by her son Leslie (Fran), son, Michael, and daughter, Nicki; grandsons Jonathan,Jason, and Michael Jordan; and great grandchildren Jacob, Zachary, Jonah, Ethan, and Noa (the only female in the last couple of generations.)

We will all miss her dearly.

A graveside service for Lillian will be held Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM at Mount Nebo/Kendall Memorial Gardens, Miami, Miami, FL 33143.