Laura Sue Gross Weiss

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Laura Sue Gross Weiss passed away at her home in Los Angeles, CA on the evening of Friday, April 26. She was 74 years old.

Laura was born to Harold I. Gross and Janet (Bernstein) Gross on November 8, 1949 in Beverly Hills, CA and spent her childhood with her late brother, Gary Stephen Gross. Gary and Laura Sue, known by close family and many early friends as "Susie," were thick as thieves and often played many pranks together, including one time hoisting chickens into the house without their parents' knowledge. Like many families, the Gross family taught the importance of etiquette and kindness, but the most favorable attribute Janet and Harold taught their children was to always have a sense of humor. That trait buoyed Laura throughout the many trials and tribulations of her life, including the death of her brother Gary in a car accident when she was only 14 years old and her ordeal in and out of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer over the last 11 years.

Laura attended the University of Arizona for her undergraduate degree in psychology, where she was a proud member of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority and tennis team. Laura then earned her master's degree in public health at UCLA. She worked in public health, sex education, and health education for her entire career at major organizations such as Planned Parenthood, USC, and LA Care. In her spare time, she volunteered in her local communities at organizations such as Jewish Family Services, Venice Family Clinic, One Voice, and the Venice Art Walk. She was also an active member in her children's school PTA and as an AYSO soccer referee. Laura was passionate about giving back and brought her family to volunteer every Thanksgiving at the Santa Monica Civic Center to distribute food and clothing to unhoused people.

Laura was committed to taking care of her health and worked out every day, either playing tennis or using the elliptical at the gym, where she could often be seen reading articles about the latest health or fashion trends. Though she mainly ate healthy salads and stuck to a vegetarian-pescatarian diet, her food vices were Rusty's hawaiian kettle potato chips, buckets of movie theater popcorn with butter, and especially chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. She would often seek out the best bakeries and order dozens of cookies to squirrel away in her freezer to eat later.

Laura was an intellectual and aesthete with many passions, including tennis, books, cooking, fashion, traveling, art, theater, film, live concerts, and dining out. She remained an active member of the tennis scene, including on the women's tennis committee at Hillcrest Country Club, where she participated in many tournaments, acquiring several trophies and accolades throughout the years. This is where she met many of her great tennis partners who would also become great friends.

Laura was an avid reader and devoted member of several book clubs, including the Los Angeles Public Library book club, the Beverly Hills library book club, and the Hillcrest Country Club book club, as well as other private book clubs at dinner tables with her friends. She always read and knew about the latest fiction and non-fiction releases and loved attending lectures and readings with authors, especially Writers Bloc events.

Laura was a fashionista who loved to shop and derived great pleasure from putting together an eccentric yet perfectly matching ensemble. She knew all the best brands and all their best sales. She always seemed to know the latest up-and-coming labels through shopping in boutiques or by reading articles in Vogue, W Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and many other fashion magazines. Laura had a particular fondness for anything floral patterned and all things purple.

Laura always loved to travel and she made traveling a priority after her initial cancer diagnosis in 2013. While some parents gifted their children watches or money for their graduation present, Laura told each of her children to pick two cities as travel destinations following their graduation. Laura believed that traveling was an education, an excellent way to get to know people, and to experience the world's most beautiful places, delicious cuisines, and, of course, the best places to shop! She often traveled with her children, friends, and UCLA Alumni Group to places such as the Galapagos Islands, Spain, India, Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey, Tanzania, Myanmar, Japan, and so many more. Her next trip was going to be to Bhutan and Nepal.

Laura loved attending and taking her children to museums and theater, as well as visiting notable landmark buildings. She had the incredible ability of pointing to a building or art piece and knowing exactly who created it. She particularly loved the work of Frida Kahlo, Frank Gehry, Annie Leibovitz, Takashi Murakami, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, David Hockney, and many others. She satiated her appetite for art by spending many hours at museums like LACMA, The Getty, The Met, The Hammer, The Broad, and The Art Institute of Chicago. Perhaps the only place Laura loved to visit more than the museum was the museum gift shop.

Laura was the beloved mother of her two daughters Erika Nicole Weiss Moczulewski and Julia Gari Weiss, mother-in-law to Frank Alan Moczulewski, Jr. and Benjamin David Suazo, proud grandma/GG to Maxwell Joshua Moczulewski (4) and Zoe Sophia Moczulewski (2), grandma to kitties Ellison and Didion, daughter to Janet Gross, longtime friend to "Aunties" Ellen Trujillo and Carolyn Kelton, and close friend and tennis partner to many, many more. Laura is off to heaven to join her brother Gary and her father Harold, who will undoubtedly be the jokesters at every party causing a lot of good trouble. She is forever loved, deeply missed, and will always be with us as we carry her lessons and memories along everywhere we go.

A small, private celebration of life ceremony will be held for Laura. In lieu of flowers, the family has established two legacy funds with organizations whose missions were meaningful to her:

1. Sharsheret, a nonprofit that improves the lives of Jewish women and families living with or at increased genetic risk for breast cancer or ovarian cancer through personalized support and saves lives through educational outreach.

Donations can be made here: https://sharsheret.org/lauragrossweiss/

2. The USTA Foundation, a nonprofit that uses the sport of tennis as a vehicle to help under-resourced youth become more engaged in school and learning with the goal of succeeding in tennis and in life.

Donations can be made here: https://ustaf.tfaforms.net/f/USTAFDonation