Lois Libien

LIBIEN – Lois Mandel died on July 25, 2023, at the age of 87. Lois was born in Chicago in September 1935 to Morris and Molly Mandel, of blessed memory. Lois went to art school in Chicago and Cape Cod, and was a 1960 graduate of the University of Chicago. After college, she worked as a reporter for the Chicago American. She moved to New York in 1966 to write for the New York Herald Tribune, and met and married her beloved Mike Libien the same year. As a journalist and reporter, she covered women’s issues—dieting and fashion, but also “What Happens When a Single Woman Tries to Adopt a Baby” in 1965 for the Chicago American and “The Computer Girls” in 1967 for Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan article, in which Lois wrote about “a whole new kind of work for women: programming,” has resurfaced online in recent years and has been referenced in academic journals and by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Lois worked as a freelance writer for Ladies’ Home Journal, Travel + Leisure, and a variety of other newspapers and magazines while raising her children, Jenny and Matt, in Manhattan and then Glen Rock, New Jersey. She used her investigative journalism training to learn new things about mundane subjects, and turned her knowledge into two books written with Margaret Strong, Super Economy (and Super Speed) House Cleaning and Paint It Yourself, published by William Morrow, which led to a column, “How,” in New York’s Daily News and syndicated nationally. Craving a more delicious project, she moved on to writing about chocolate and was a co-creator of “The Sweet Life Chocolate Engagement Calendar” in 1982 and 1983, which was picked up by Cadbury for distribution. After a decade of “how-to” writing, Lois turned to something spicier and funnier, authoring two novels, Personals and Reunion Affairs, with coauthor Susan Thaler, under the pseudonym Susan Lois. After her children graduated from high school, Lois earned her master of social work degree at Columbia University in 1992 and then graduated from the National Institute for the Psychotherapies Training Institute in 1997. She had a psychoanalytic practice in Manhattan and was a social worker for Jewish Family Services of Northern New Jersey. A breast cancer survivor, she volunteered her social work expertise with breast cancer organizations. In 2004, Lois survived a complicated six-month hospitalization which left her unable to walk, work, or write. Her husband oversaw her rehabilitation and brought art therapy into her routine. During her remarkable recovery, Lois rediscovered her passion for art and became a prolific painter of portraits and still-lifes. Lois and Mike resumed doing many of her favorite things: traveling, seeing shows and movies, cooking gourmet meals, getting ice cream at Van Dyk’s, visiting art museums, doing crossword puzzles in ink, and spending time with family and friends. Lois loved the beach—the first place she wanted to visit after her recovery was Fire Island, where she once had a summer home, and she often spoke about visiting Lake Michigan as a child. As a journalist, author, social worker, psychoanalyst, wife, mother, and artist, Lois worked at making the world a better, saner, and more beautiful place. She was a giving person, and her generosity continues after death with the donation of her brain to the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University. Lois is predeceased by her husband of fifty-five years, Mike, and survived by her children and their spouses, Jenny Libien and Richard Goodwin, Matthew Libien and Evy Sturman Libien; five grandchildren, Ethan, Molly, Jason, Nate, and Jack; her sister and brother-in-law Judy and Anchel Cohen; her sister-in-law and brother-in-law Esther and Harold Steinholz; nieces, nephews, and cousins; and Marie and her other caretakers who were like family.

Jewish Family and Children's Service of Northern NJ

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The Actors’ Temple, PO Box 2620, New York, NY 10108

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