SOUTH PORTLAND – Kitty Miriam (Weiss) Penner, 90, of South Portland, died Nov. 24, 2023 at the Gosnell House in Scarborough, surrounded by her loving family.

Born Aug. 7, 1933, to Stella Zehngut Weiss and Leon Weiss in Vienna Austria, she and her sister Inge were among the 50 Jewish children rescued from Nazi peril in 1939 by Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus of Philadelphia (see U.S. Holocaust Museum http://www.ushmm.org and the book “50 Children” by Steven Pressman)

Her parents rejoined their daughters and settled in the Bronx, N.Y. where Kitty showed early promise as a ‘maker’, a painter/sculptor/fashion designer/seamstress/interior designer who created using any and all materials at hand.

A graduate of Manhattan’s Music and Art High School and Barnard College, she (in her own, self-deprecating words) “had opportunities to make a name for herself as an artist but, failed to follow through and took the safe and easy path with marriage in 1953 and motherhood in 1958 and 1962.” Her children and grandchildren are glad she chose the path she did.

Kitty settled in Maine in 1977 and continued her art practice, painting, drawing, writing, gardening, sewing, and creating up until just days before her death.

Though she lost her entire extended family in the Holocaust, and, more recently, lost her parents and her sister Inge, Kitty always called herself ‘the luckiest girl in the world’.

Surviving is her beloved partner of more than 25 years, Pat Holt; her sons Charles and Jonathan; her grandchildren Julia, Leah, Cooper and Ellis; her devoted niece, Tina; and daughters Anya and Tess; and her sister-in-law, Prudy Garbotz, and brother-in-law, Byrne Holt.

Her body was offered for donation to the medical school of UNE.

Per her request there will be no funeral.

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