Kathryn Jerilynn Leibowitz (“Jeri”)

January 5, 1942 – May 15, 2026

After a lifetime devoted to charting the positions of the stars and planets as part of her astrological studies, Kathryn Jerilynn Leibowitz — known to everyone as “Jeri” — decided it was finally time to join them.

Jeri passed peacefully at home on May 15, 2026, held in the loving arms of her husband of 62 years, Brian Leibowitz. She was 84 years old.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jeri grew up in West Aliquippa, a close-knit steel town on the outskirts of the city. She was a natural student who earned top grades and was accepted to the prestigious Carnegie Tech — today’s Carnegie Mellon University. She was also strikingly beautiful, and during her Pittsburgh years was signed briefly by a local modeling agency — a fact that surprised no one who knew her. Jeri carried herself with an elegance that never left her.

It was at Carnegie Tech that she met Brian Leibowitz, a tall, handsome young salesman from the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh who had found his footing in the working world after a brief stint at Duquesne University. Four years of dating led to marriage.

Soon after their wedding, Brian was drafted into the Army and assigned to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Their first child, Darya Lynn, was born during those years. After relocating to Miami, Florida in the mid-1960s, they welcomed two more: Glenn Allen and Jeffrey Andrew.

 

The family put down roots in Lauderdale Lakes, where they would remain for the next two and a half decades.

 

Jeri was a woman of remarkable practical talents. She was a gifted typist and stenographer who had mastered shorthand — a discipline requiring precision, focus, and a kind of quiet mastery that suited her well. She put those skills to work as executive assistant to a private detective in South Florida, a role that hinted at her sharpness and discretion. She also earned her real estate license, adding another credential to a life that never stopped acquiring them.

She was equally at Brian’s side through every chapter of his public life — his thriving career as a real estate broker, his successful campaign for city councilman, and his countless fishing expeditions, whether trolling freshwater canals for largemouth bass or heading out to the Gulf Stream in pursuit of mahi-mahi. Jeri was no mere passenger on those trips. She was a gifted angler in her own right, landing an 80-pound tarpon, a 22-pound barracuda, and a long list of other impressive catches that earned the admiration of everyone on board.

 

Jeri was an avid reader with an impressive personal library spanning fiction and nonfiction, and a woman of deep and restless curiosity. That curiosity took her around the world — she was an enthusiastic traveler who visited Mexico, Greece, England, France, mainland China including Shanghai and Beijing, and Taipei, Taiwan, among many other destinations.

 

It also drove her lifelong passion for astrology. Long before the subject entered the mainstream, Jeri was studying it with the seriousness of a scholar — tracking planetary positions, interpreting birth charts, and advising friends and family with a depth of knowledge that consistently surprised people. She was among the first to embrace the personal computer as a tool for the craft, using it to calculate astrological charts with a precision that had previously been out of reach. For Jeri, astrology was never entertainment. It was a lens for understanding people, and a discipline she never stopped refining.

 

Her quest for deeper understanding eventually led her to the Rosicrucians — formally known as the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, or AMORC — a centuries-old order rooted in philosophy, metaphysics, and the pursuit of inner wisdom. She rose through the ranks to become Master of her local chapter, leading her fellow members, typing monthly newsletters, and delivering sermons. In later years she brought that same fervor to New Age spiritual studies, always seeking, always learning.

She brought that same warmth to every person she encountered. Jeri had a smile that made people feel seen, and a way of treating everyone — regardless of background, status, or circumstance — with genuine kindness. Everyone who knew her loved her. The memory most people carry is of how she made them feel: welcomed, valued, and cared for.

 

Jeri was a gifted pianist with an eclectic repertoire, moving easily between the classical compositions of Beethoven and Chopin and the lively ragtime pieces of Scott Joplin. She loved Spanish — the language, the music, the culture — and wove all three into daily life. And she was a spectacular cook, equally at home preparing traditional Slovak recipes such as halupki (ground meat and rice wrapped in cabbage) passed down from her own mother, and a fragrant pot of arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) she had learned from her Cuban friends in South Florida.

 

Her three children carry her gifts forward in ways she would recognize. Darya Lynn, who inherited her mother’s love of the arts, channeled years of rigorous ballet training into a professional dance career, performing aboard the Norway — one of the great cruise ships of its era — before landing a coveted role as a featured performer in the celebrated Siegfried & Roy Show in Las Vegas. Her husband Tony Ricotta became a beloved part of the family, bringing warmth and Italian American flair that enriched every gathering. When Tony earned his Doctor of Business Administration later in life, he fulfilled Jeri’s long-held aspiration to have a doctor in the family.

 

Glenn Allen inherited his mother’s love of learning and never stopped pursuing it — earning degrees from Cornell, Yale, and Wharton before building a nearly 30-year career in Asia at global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. His wife Peiwen Wang, a graduate of the Juilliard School and Yale School of Music, brought her own gift for music into the family as an accomplished concert cellist and pianist — a talent Jeri, herself a lover of music, deeply appreciated.

 

Jeffrey Andrew, who inherited her instinct for caring for others, built his career in healthcare — and for the past six years, he embodied that gift most fully, stepping forward as her devoted caregiver and tending to her with quiet dedication and love. He also spent nearly three decades as a partner with his parents in their family hurricane shutter business, helping protect thousands of South Florida homes. And like his father, he found his own passion on the open water, becoming an accomplished sport fisherman in his own right.

 

Jeri raised all three to be open-minded and respectful of all people, regardless of background or belief — one of the most enduring gifts she gave them.

 

To her grandchildren — Keanu, Pasha, and Jack — Jeri gave something no one else could: hours and hours of patient, loving attention, expressed in part through the intricate amigurumi stuffed animals she knitted for each of them by hand.

 

She will be missed profoundly. But her legacy lives in the children she raised, the grandchildren she adored, the seekers she guided, and the many lives she quietly and lastingly shaped.

 

A celebration of life ceremony will be held for family and friends.