Page created by: Anne Weinsoft

Laurie Ellen Berman Weinsoft grew up in Seattle, Washington. She spent her youth as a screamingly-devoted Beatles fan and as an active member of the feminist and civil rights movements. She studied at Central Washington University, where she got her degree in Education. She briefly worked as a high school English and Theater teacher before marrying Bruce and moving to Portland, Oregon. There, she helped manage several small businesses while raising her children, Annie and Dan. She served as a leader in her synagogue Sisterhood and in the Girl Scouts. She was a talented artist with a particular love for the fiber arts. In her middle years, she discovered a passion for hand-spinning. Her work was featured in several books, festivals, and galleries. She became a beloved spinning teacher to hundreds of students throughout the Pacific Northwest, hosting courses at a local yarn shop, workshops at the Black Sheep Gathering and other fiber arts festivals, and classes taught privately in her home. With the help of her wonderful friends, she continued to teach despite her Parkinson's disease for almost a decade, until the very last year of her life. She passed on much of her talent, skill, and several spinning wheels to her 2 granddaughters, Eliza and Claire.