Marian Louise (Zlotkin) Greenberg, 82, passed away on January 11, from COVID-19, at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.
A free spirit and a lifelong beauty, Marian was born in Omaha, Neb. on October 28, 1938, to Chuck and Lena (Rosenbloom) Zlotkin. She grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Fairfax High School, where she had been a popular member of the Tantras club and met the “love of her life,” the late Tony Greenberg. After marrying Tony, and while pregnant, she studied art history at UCLA, attending classes with her late mother-in-law Edith B. Greenberg.
With her belief in self-help, the supernatural, and all things spiritual, she wrote books and articles, led new-age workshops, taught yoga, and turned people on to organic food and holistic medicine.
She also had business sense which, combined with an eye for real estate and design, enabled her to successfully renovate and flip homes. In her journey, she crisscrossed the country — from Sedona to Santa Fe, Hanalei Bay to Old Greenwich, and Santa Monica Canyon to Marina del Rey. Wherever she travelled, her beloved mid-century furniture would follow; she could not bear to part with the iconic pieces.
Despite significant health challenges over the last decade, she remained a warm, loving, grateful, and compassionate person, with a zest for life and a devotion to TV reruns of “Law & Order.”
Marian spent her last year with her son Marco Greenberg and his family in Great Barrington, Mass., enjoying the four seasons in the Berkshires, making new friends, and exploring the town she considered quaint and serene with one of her wonderful caretakers.
She is survived by her sister Evelyn Zlotkin Weinstock; her son Marco of NYC and Great Barrington, Mass. and his wife Stacey Nelkin; and daughter Lara Jo Kaplan of Brentwood, Calif. She was an adoring grandmother to Antonia, Noah, and Stella Greenberg and to Arianna, Bianca, and Charlie Kaplan (all of whom affectionately called her “Shasha”).
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Berkshire Medical Center’s COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Socially distant memorial services (available via Zoom) will be held at Ahavath Shalom cemetery in Great Barrington on January 13 at 2 p.m. EST, with services led by Rabbi Levi Volovik of Chabad of Berkshire County. To find the Zoom service information or to send remembrances to her family, please visit Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home.
