Roslyn Levine

Roslyn (Roz) Levine was mom, aunt, sister, grandma and friend to many. Born in Mount Vernon, NY in 1948, she was teenager caught up in full Beatlemania, including waiting hours outside their hotel for a glimpse of her beloved Ringo, and the wild 60s in general. Roz married budding med school student Jeffrey (Jeff) Gliedman in 1968 and daughter Valerie Lyn (Valerie G. Frank) was born in Baltimore in 1970.  The family moved to Utah in 1973 in a convoy including a U-Haul and Roz’s prized white Mustang despite losing each other for hours on the interstate in the pre-cell phone era. Although Roz and Jeff divorced in the 80s, they grew into good terms and connected on occasions like Thanksgiving and visits with Valerie, and Jeff and his wife Laura made it possible for Roz to be in the home she loved with her immediate family for her last weeks. 

Roz was the third of four sisters (Barbara, Gloria, Sharon) and loved and was beloved by her nieces and nephews. Mom loved with all her heart and thought only of others, and her irrepressibly silly sense of humor made her a hit especially with the younger set. She sought to protect and nurture her close ones. She was a stalwart fighter of injustice, including when it came to her own health, which included 30 years’ worth of long, hard, unfairly pitched battle.

Roz was over the moon to become a grandma to Valerie and husband Victor Frank’s daughter, Trudy Rose (Wren) in 2007. Roz properly spoiled her granddaughter with love and affection, and moved in with the Franks in 2011. The bond between her and Trudy is her richest legacy and a living, beautiful creation to this day. Roz helped raise Trudy from age 4 to 16 while Victor and Valerie worked. They made lemonade and cookies, played school with stuffed animals, made elaborate paper airplanes, and hand-fed the squirrels and chipmunks that visited them on the patio.

Roz is survived by her daughter, son in law, granddaughter, sisters, nieces and nephews (Jody, Keith, Jay, Mark, Lauren, Jessie, and Pam), and a host of extended family members and others whom she so readily befriended and charmed over a full lifetime.  This includes the Greenwood Lake gang of children who spent 1950s summers lakeside running wild while their moms awaited the weekend arrival of their working husbands.

With love and aching in our hearts, we will miss mom, grandma, and aunt Roz forever. An incredibly giving, stubborn and resilient woman, she did not see those qualities in herself that we who love her always did, and which now fill the spaces where she once was. 

Roz and her family were exceptionally well cared for and supported at home during Roz’s too brief last three weeks by the caring staff of Montgomery and Prince George’s Hospice. Donations may be made in Roz’s name to support their compassionate and skillful work here: https://montgomeryhospice.org/donate-now/