Surrounded by her family, Anne Elizabeth Perls (fondly known as Annebeth) of Pacific Palisades passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 13 at the age of 96.
Anne was born on July 2, 1922, in Bonn, Germany, the daughter of Dr. Otto Löwenstein and Marta (Grunewald). After living in Nyon, Switzerland, from 1933 to 1939, Anne and family immigrated to the United States. She received her master’s degree at Yale University in romance languages.
Anne was an accomplished opera singer, painter and sculptor. For a number of years, she sang leading opera roles as a coloratura soprano with Henry Holt of the West Bay Opera Company in Palo Alto, California, and later as a member of the Houston Grand Opera chorus.
In 1945 she married Dr. Thomas A. Perls, born in Berlin, Germany, whom she met while at Yale. Together they lived in Glen Echo Heights, Maryland; Sherman Oaks, California; Los Altos Hills, California; Houston, Texas; Littleton, Colorado; and after Tom died, from 1988 to present, in Pacific Palisades.
She is survived by their three children, Steven Perls (Lafayette, California), Marianne Perls (Agoura Hills, California) and Thomas Perls (Beverly, Massachusetts), seven grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, three nephews and her sister, Marieli Rowe of Madison, Wisconsin.
A celebration of her life is being planned for this summer.
