Florence “Faye” Weiss
Faye Weiss (née Cohen) was born on June 4, 1926, in Bronx, New York and passed away after a very brief illness on August 25, 2025, in Encinitas, California, with family by her side.
Faye came to California with her parents, after graduating from high school at 16 years old. During WWII, she spent the summer before college as a “Rosie the Riveter,” of which she was most proud. This makes her family laugh, as the image of Faye doing anything more than “sweeping the room with a glance” is hysterical! Faye graduated from community college at the age of 18 with an associate’s degree.
Over the years Faye held several office jobs, her first being with a lighting company where she met, and received a signed photograph of her idol, Frank Sinatra. When she retired to Carlsbad in 1987, she found volunteering to be extremely rewarding. On Tuesdays she volunteered at Carlsbad Public Library in the used bookshop and on Thursdays she was at Scripps Encinitas Memorial Hospital at the Information Desk. She volunteered well into her 80’s, until she was no longer able to drive.
To say Faye hated cooking would be an understatement. To her the oven was storage space. You learned to never turn on the oven without checking first after a case of oatmeal and a roll of aluminum foil caught fire. It took months to get the oven and racks cleaned of foam from the fire extinguisher.
Faye disliked most physical activities – she called physical therapy rooms “torture chambers” – but she was active in other ways. She had a brilliant mind, loved puzzles of all sorts, was inquisitive, and a voracious reader. She also had a love/hate relationship with technology: she loved her tablet, when she remembered to charge it; her smartphone, when she remembered to charge it or hit the wrong buttons and couldn’t find her apps; and over the course of 15 years wore out 4 or 5 handheld Nintendo units (we lost count), playing Animal Crossing for hours each day. Buying her new cables for her devices became a regular ritual, and her texts were hilarious. There were times we had to call her to find out what her texts meant. It was even funnier when she started dictating texts on her phone, not caring about spelling, grammar, or punctuation.
In 2021, Faye moved into Seacrest Village, a community of independent living, assisted living, long- and short-term skilled nursing and memory care. She loved it there. Her care team and the administrative staff became family. There were things, however, that drove her crazy and she would write “love letters” to her care team. Faye was a night owl – staying up until 2:00 – 3:00 a.m., and sleeping in, usually until lunch time. After writing several of these “love letters” about sleeping in, signs were posted outside her door, above her bed and on her wall that she was not to be awakened until 11:30 a.m. When registry (visiting) nurses came in and woke her up early, her typical response would be, “Get away from me! I’m sleeping!” That was the clean version. She also wrote letters asking why, in a Kosher kitchen, she was unable to have “fake bacon,” even though it is Kosher and several residents wanted it. She never won that battle, but her care staff say they miss those “love letters.”
Faye’s care team learned early on that she would rather eat chocolate more than anything. Along with the stash supplied by her family, her care staff would keep her well-stocked, too.
For over 50 years, Faye was the family’s Queenie and Queen Mum. She never met anyone she didn’t like, and unless you crossed her you were taken into the family fold. There were quite a few holidays that included people who would have normally been alone.
Faye loved dogs. Any dog. Gypsy, Shadow, and Sophie were her favorites. Then along came LuLu, CoCo and Maisie. Then Ruthie. Dogs were brought in to visit the residents of Seacrest and if you were on the phone with her, she would hang up on you! If you were visiting her and the dogs came in, all conversation would cease until they were gone. She had a special affinity for Finn.
She was extremely witty. She also had no verbal filter and would sometimes say what everyone thought but were afraid to say. One year Faye decided to have business cards and tee-shirts made up for the entire family with the tagline, “Make Someone Smile Today.” That’s who she was.
Faye was predeceased by her brothers, Jules Cyril and William Cyril, and by her best friend of over 70 years, Helen Bowitz. She is survived by her daughter, Carole Weiss-Ursetti, son-in-law, Jerry Ursetti, granddaughter, Shawna Cohen, granddaughter, Katie Hearn, Katie’s partner Justin Tapp, grandson Danny Ursetti, Danny’s partner, Laura Barati, granddogs, Maisie Ursetti and Ruthie “Lolo” Barati, grandcats, Franny and Zooey Cohen, nephew Harvey Tow, nieces Sherry and Faun Tow, and dear friend, AJ Bates.
A Jollification of Spirit will be held soon, with more information to be posted here.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Seacrest Village Resident Assistance Fund in Faye’s honor. http://weblink.donorperfect.com/tribute_card
Additionally, donations may also be sent to:
Seacrest Foundation
Attention: Elana Schiff
Seacrest Village Resident Assistance Fund
211 Saxony Road
Encinitas, CA 92024