MILDRED PERLOW

PERLOW Mildred Perlow "Millie" Mildred "Millie" Perlow, 99, of Colorado Springs, Colo., passed away on September 13, 2021. Millie was a true force of nature. She was a lifelong violist and longtime violinist, and was relentless in her pursuit of good music and good government. She lived outside of Washington, DC.for just under 15 years before moving to Colorado Springs in 2017. While in Maryland, Millie ran for her condo board at the age of 93, distressed at the rampant use of pesdicides on the property. She won the electon, until she was told in rather quesionable circumstances that she had lost, and then promptly and successfully sued them, not for any personal compensation but for clear rules for open and fair elections. Possessed of a wry sense of humor, one of her most prized possessions was the letter firing her in 1946 from the New York Philharmonic, not for any issues with her playing, but because the men were coming home from the war and wanted their jobs back. It was signed, after all, by a young Leonard "Lenny" Bernstein. Up until a few days before she died she played a mean game of Scrabble, although her failing eyesight made that a painfully slow and daunting propositon. As Millie began to fade, her fervent wish was to live long enough to see the previous occupant of the White House out of office and competence restored; as a teenager she had traveled to Germany in 1937 to visit relatives whom no one would ever see again, and those xenophobic memes were all too familiar. Mildred Stern was born in 1922 in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother died in childbirth; her father and stepmother were active in the Zionist movement in the 30s and 40s. She studied music at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1943, and played viola throughout the East and in New York, where she met and ultimately married Austin Perlow, a career newspaperman. They were married for 51 years until his death in 1996. A longtime resident of Long Island, N.Y., she paused playing professionally to raise a family, but later put together a series of professional quartets and ultimately played regularly in several Long Island orchestras. But her passion was the string quartet literature, and she played in several quartets over a span of five decades, including L'Amore di Musica, which she directed for 17 years. Fully vaccinated for Covid, Millie died peacefully in her bed of old age. She is survived by a son, Ken Perlow, a daughter, Ellen Perlow, and her sister, Jan Unger. A memorial service is being planned. The family requests that gifts in her memory be sent to her favorite non-profits, the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood.Fully vaccinated for Covid, Millie died peacefully in her bed of old age. She is survived by a son, Ken Perlow, a daughter, Ellen Perlow, and her sister, Jan Unger. A memorial service is being planned. The family requests that gifts in her memory be sent to her favorite non-profits, the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood.